What happened to Samoa Citizenship by Investment?

Samoa first launched its citizenship by investment program through the Citizenship Investment Act 2015, amending further amending the scheme through Citizenship Regulations 2016.

The Samoan citizenship program was added as fifth option for acquiring citizenship besides birth, descent, marriage and permanent residency.  The program was officially launched in 2017,  still remains open, but remains unpopular so far.

Infact, it is second citizenship by investment that already exists the pacific, besides Vanuatu. Recently Solomon islands announced opening a third citizenship by investment program in the pacific region.

Samoa lies about halfway between Hawaii and New Zealand, has $1.2 billion GDP with 200,000 population.  Samoa should not be confused with American Samoa (US territory)

Under the Citizenship Investment Program, The Government requires foreigners to invest and follow two conditions.

• The investor must invest a minimum amount of SAT$4m ($1.4m);
•  The investor must have a minimum net worth of SAT$2.5m ($1m);

The Samoan Citizenship by investment program is administered by the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Labour (MCIL), the legislation requires the office to submit annual report to the minister.

What happened to this Samoan CBI program?

According to the 2017-18 annual report published by MCIL published in 2020,

Total non-taxed revenue collected a small revenue of SAT$68,450.00 (US$24,300) was recorded from a total of 312 Foreign Investment Certificates (new, renewals and amendments) applications received, assessed and approved, and two citizenship investment applications to promote and to be an agent for the Citizenship Investment Scheme.

• One (1) application was received for citizenship under the Programme, however, applicant withdrew application.
• Two (2) applications received to be Agents and one (1) was approved and the other was put on hold pending additional required information from the applicant.
• Two (2) applications received to Promote the Programme and one (1) was approved and the other was put on hold pending additional required information from the applicant.

This CBI program is designed in-house by the Samoan Government. Investors and family members will go through due diligence checks like another CBI, then issued temporary residence permit, then permanent residency which later leads to citizenship. Applicants must pay due diligence fee $7500 for investor, and spouse and $1750 for children under 18,

Investments must be maintained for 5 years and passport issued for 5 years with extensions later.

One major advantage of this program is the entire investment can be withdrawn leaving only 15% after PR. The Passport of Samoa is a very desirable, as it has visa free access to Canada, EU Schengen area, UK and Russia.

The investor must intend to invest in any of the following qualifying investment areas;

• Leasing and developing of government lands;
• processing or manufacturing of agricultural produce;
• processing or manufacturing or fishery products;
• tourism;
• information or communication technology;
• electricity generation through bio-fuel, solar, water or wind;
• investment in a government development fund for the purposes of national development or investment in a prescribed charitable trust;
• any services other than any services listed in the Reserved List under the Foreign Investment Act 2000.

Agents can submit applications for two licenses to MCIL

• Agency application ($17,500 fee / SAT 50,000)
• Marketing promoter ($350 / SAT 1,000)