In a significant legislative development for Antigua and Barbuda’s lucrative Citizenship by Investment (CIP) programme, the nation’s House of Representatives has approved the 2026 Citizenship by Investment (Amendment) Bill, with cross-party support from senior lawmakers emphasizing the urgent need for strengthened oversight amid rising international pressure.
Trevor Walker, the Member of Parliament for Barbuda, emerged as a key backer of the reforms, framing the updated regulations as a critical safeguard for the country’s largest source of non-tax revenue. Walker told parliamentary deliberations on Tuesday that the CIP programme, which he estimates injects more than $100 million into the national budget annually, is the backbone of Antigua and Barbuda’s public finances, but its long-term survival depends on addressing growing global scrutiny through enhanced transparency and accountability.
Warning that the programme faces mounting geopolitical challenges that threaten its future, Walker argued that preserving its credibility must be a top policy priority for the government. He specifically welcomed the reinstatement of mandatory annual audits, a provision that was controversially repealed back in 2016. The new legislation not only brings back routine audit requirements, it also adds new rules mandating formal responses to audit findings, authorizes special targeted audits, and expands mandatory reporting obligations for CIP administrators.
Walker went a step further, urging the government to fully reinstate the detailed semi-annual reporting requirements outlined in the original 2013 CIP enabling legislation. He noted that while reports are still submitted to parliament currently, they lack the granular detail about contributions, investment flows and programme activity that the original law required, a gap that creates unnecessary room for suspicion among both domestic citizens and international partners.
The call for tighter rules comes as Antigua and Barbuda has faced increasing scrutiny of its investment migration scheme from both the European Union and the United States. Walker acknowledged that decades of cutthroat competition between Caribbean CIP jurisdictions had previously pushed many countries to relax regulatory standards to attract more applicants, but he highlighted that the Eastern Caribbean region is now unified in moving toward harmonized, stricter rules. He stressed that the fate of all regional programmes is interconnected: “When this boat sinks, we all go down with it,” he said, pointing out that any national programme’s failure to meet global standards could lead to restricted visa-free access for all Caribbean passport holders, eroding the value of citizenship across the bloc.
Walker also extended rare cross-party praise to Prime Minister Gaston Browne for his longstanding advocacy for a centralized regional regulatory body to oversee CIP programmes across the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), saying he hoped the new framework would deliver on the promise of stronger governance.
In his remarks opening the debate, Prime Minister Browne clarified that the core purpose of the amendment is to align Antigua and Barbuda’s domestic law with the agreement establishing the Eastern Caribbean Citizenship by Investment Regulatory Authority, which is set to come into force later this year. The new regional body will enforce uniform regulatory standards across all participating member states, limiting the ability of individual nations to deviate from collectively agreed rules that protect the integrity of all programmes.
Key provisions of the new bill include a requirement for annual independent financial audits and biannual operational audits of every national CIP unit, with the regional regulator tasked with ensuring compliance and protecting sensitive applicant data. The legislation also raises the minimum residency requirement for successful CIP applicants and their dependent family members from five days to 30 days, bringing Antigua and Barbuda into compliance with the regional standard already approved by all OECS members. Browne added that the amendments resolve any remaining inconsistencies between domestic law and the regional agreement, formalizing policy changes that have already been implemented through administrative action.
Other new rules require the national CIP Unit to submit detailed six-month progress reports to both the regional regulator and the national parliament, while granting the regional body expanded oversight authority. The authority will now manage pre-qualification of CIP agents, require formal no-objection notices before local operating licenses are issued, mandate adherence to regional standards and guidelines, and require the revocation of licenses when regulatory approval is denied or withdrawn. Browne emphasized that these changes are designed to block unethical and unqualified promoters from participating in the programme and ensure consistent regulatory standards across the Eastern Caribbean. Following full debate, the House of Representatives passed the bill into law.