The 10th annual Citizenship-by-Investment (CBI) Index has released its 2026 due diligence assessment, ranking 14 global jurisdictions on the rigor of their screening frameworks for citizenship applicants, with Caribbean nations dominating the top spots. St. Kitts and Nevis claimed the leading position by earning a perfect 10 out of 10 score, followed by Dominica and Grenada, which tied for second with 9 points each. Antigua and Barbuda retained its prior score of 8, landing it in fourth place in the category rankings.
The CBI due diligence metric is designed to evaluate the strength, comprehensiveness, and effectiveness of the safeguards jurisdictions put in place to protect the integrity of their citizenship-by-investment programs. These systems are built to flag applicants that could present financial, national security, or reputational risks to host governments, ensuring that only low-risk, legitimate participants gain access to citizenship status.
According to the 2026 report, the strong performance of top-ranked Caribbean CBI programs stems from years of incremental, targeted improvements to their application vetting workflows. Key enhancements that have boosted regional performance include mandatory in-person or virtual interviews for all applicants, third-party independent background checks conducted by specialized international firms, and deeper cross-regional coordination to share intelligence on high-risk individuals.
St. Kitts and Nevis’ top score reflects the nation’s decades-long investment in building one of the world’s most extensive vetting frameworks for CBI applicants, the report notes. Notably, all 14 jurisdictions included in the assessment retained their 2025 due diligence scores this year, with no gains or losses recorded across the board.
The assessment framework evaluates both internal government checks and independent external vetting processes, analyzing how jurisdictions collect, cross-reference, and verify information provided by applicants or gathered from third-party sources. Core evaluation criteria include requirements for police clearance certificates (including how many jurisdictions of prior residence applicants must obtain certificates from), biometric data collection such as fingerprinting, and identity verification protocols.
A central pillar of the assessment is scrutiny of how programs verify an applicant’s source of wealth and funds. This safeguard is critical to preventing individuals with illicitly obtained assets from gaining citizenship, protecting the financial integrity and global reputation of host countries. Additional evaluation criteria include mandatory interview requirements, lists of excluded nationalities, and protections for the qualifying investments that applicants make as part of their CBI application. It is important to note that the score measures only the structural safeguards and procedures built into each program, not the implementation of those procedures in individual application cases. The report did not identify any specific failing that led to Antigua and Barbuda’s lower score relative to the top three jurisdictions.
Beyond applicant screening, the due diligence category also assesses regulatory protections for the qualifying investments that CBI applicants are required to make. Following Antigua and Barbuda in the rankings, Saint Lucia, Malta, Vanuatu, and Nauru all earned 7 points each. Austria and São Tomé and Príncipe scored 5 points, while Egypt received 4. Cambodia and Türkiye scored 3, and Jordan rounded out the rankings with 2 points.
While all due diligence scores remained unchanged in the 2026 edition, the report emphasized that the global regulatory environment for CBI programs continues to evolve rapidly. Growing international scrutiny has pushed jurisdictions to place greater emphasis on robust vetting, cross-border information sharing, and consistent global standards for program integrity.
Due diligence is one of nine core categories evaluated in the annual CBI Index, and the report identifies it as the foundational element of long-term program credibility. Strong vetting frameworks also enable governments to effectively manage the wide range of risks associated with granting citizenship in exchange for investment, protecting both national interests and the program’s standing in the global economy.