Independent Dubai advisory · Antigua & Barbuda CBI since 2013
Family inclusion
A single $230,000 contribution to the National Development Fund secures citizenship for a main applicant and up to three qualifying dependents. Beyond that, the programme has one of the widest dependent definitions anywhere: spouse, children to 30, unmarried siblings of any age, and parents or grandparents from 55.
That breadth is the real reason multi-generational families choose Antigua. You bring three generations under one coordinated application rather than filing separately for each branch — and the pricing rewards you for it instead of charging per head.
Who qualifies
Most citizenship programmes stop at a spouse and minor children. Antigua reaches considerably further, which lets you protect parents in retirement and adult children still in education under the same grant.
| Family member | Eligibility | What it means in practice |
|---|---|---|
| Spouse | Included as a dependent | Legally married partner of the main applicant. |
| Children | Up to age 30 | Covers adult children in study or genuine financial dependence, not only minors. |
| Siblings | Unmarried, any age | Brothers and sisters of the applicant or spouse who remain unmarried and dependent. |
| Parents & grandparents | Aged 55 and over | Older parents and grandparents of the applicant or of the spouse. |
| Household of 4 | One $230,000 contribution | Main applicant plus up to three dependents; $15,000 per person beyond that. |
Dependent definitions, age cut-offs and the supporting evidence each requires are confirmed in your written eligibility check before filing.
What it costs as the household grows
The contribution is the same $230,000 whether you apply alone or as a household of 4, so larger families extract far more value from a single donation.
$230,000
NDF, household of up to 4
non-refundable contribution
$15,000
Each additional dependent
added to the contribution
$260,000
UWIF, six or more
processing for six included
from $300,000
Real estate route
5 years minimum hold
The NDF donation is almost always the simplest and cheapest path. A couple with two children, or a couple with two grandparents, stays within one $230,000 contribution, with a fifth person adding $15,000.
The University of the West Indies Fund at $260,000 starts to win. It is designed for exactly this case, includes processing for up to six applicants, and carries a one-year UWI tuition benefit for one family member.
The real estate route from $300,000, with a 5 years holding period, lets the same household qualify while owning approved property. It costs more up front and returns capital later — see the honest comparison.
Due diligence
Antigua's wide family definition comes with a clear condition: each applicant and dependent aged 16 and over goes through independent background screening, and each attends the mandatory verification interview introduced in December 2023 at roughly ~$1,500 per person.
Plan for that as a real part of the family timeline rather than a formality. It is also what keeps the passport credible at borders and with banks — a programme that admitted whole households without individual scrutiny would not hold its value for long.
In practice it means a clean, documented source-of-funds story from the main applicant, valid identity and civil documents for every dependent, and candid disclosure across the household. The most common stumble in a family file is not the main applicant at all — it is a dependent whose documents are incomplete or whose history was assumed to be irrelevant.
We prepare all family members together for exactly that reason, so no single person stalls the file. The full sequence and realistic timing is on the process page.
Adding family later
Your household does not have to be final on the day you apply.
Marry after you become a citizen and you can apply to add your partner as a dependent through a separate, lighter application. Your own citizenship is unaffected; the addition is subject to the dependent fee and the due-diligence rules in force at that time.
A newborn or newly adopted child can be added so the whole household shares one nationality. This is the most common post-approval application we handle, and the most straightforward — an infant carries no screening burden of their own.
Your citizenship, once lawfully granted, is not reopened by a later dependent application. The new applicant is assessed on their own merits under the rules in force then, which is why we advise including anyone you are reasonably certain about at the outset rather than deferring.
Dependent-addition fees and processing times are set by the programme and change over time; we confirm the current position when you ask rather than publishing a figure that may have moved.
Family questions
Free consultation
Tell us who you would like to include — including the people you are unsure about — and we will model the most economical combination across all four routes, and say plainly where we think a dependent is unlikely to qualify.
No obligation
Tell us about your household and we will send a written, itemised estimate for the route that actually fits — including the fees most sites leave out.