A second passport for your children: up to what age they can come along

In flag theory, the second passport is the flag that lasts longest. For children that counts twice over: what they receive today in their parents' application they carry for life, and many will one day pass it on to children of their own. A passport is a right, not a permission. A visa can be refused or revoked; a citizenship belongs to your child. The family rules of every programme, for spouses, parents and siblings too, are gathered under family.

Citizenship by investment with children: how they join the application

Citizenship by investment, CBI for short, works with a main applicant and their dependants, as the programmes call them. You file one application, make one contribution or investment, and your spouse and your children are naturalised in the same procedure. At the end, every child receives their own certificate and their own passport.

Who counts as a child is set by each country's law. Three points are worth knowing:

• Biological and adopted children. St Kitts and Nevis, Dominica and Antigua and Barbuda expressly put adopted children on the same footing as biological ones.
• Your spouse's children. St Kitts and Nevis, Dominica, Grenada and St Lucia cover children of the applicant or of the applicant's spouse. So your wife's or husband's child from an earlier relationship comes along too.
• Due diligence fees only from a certain age. Young children carry no due diligence fee of their own. In St Kitts and Nevis and in Dominica you pay it for every dependant aged 16 and over, in Antigua and Barbuda from age 12.

Parents sign for minors. In Sierra Leone the signature of one parent with custody or of a legal guardian is usually enough; St Kitts and Nevis requires both parents to sign, unless one parent can prove sole custody.

Up to what age children can come along: the limits at a glance

Children under 18 are included in every programme compared. It gets interesting with adult children: here the programmes are up to twelve years apart.

Two programmes stand out. São Tomé and Príncipe takes children up to 30 and states no further condition. Antigua and Barbuda also goes up to 30, but requires your child to depend on you financially. St Lucia has a feature many people overlook: up to 21 a child counts without any further check of support, and only after that must you support them fully.

For Türkiye, Jordan and Cambodia the family rules are on the respective programme pages.

Children with disabilities

For an adult child with a physical or mental disability, four programmes set no age limit. St Kitts and Nevis, Dominica and Antigua and Barbuda accept them from 18, St Lucia at any age. In Dominica, Antigua and Barbuda and St Lucia the condition is that you support your child fully, and in Antigua and Barbuda also that they live with you.

Children over 18: studies, support and marital status

With adult children, the authorities look not only at age but at circumstances. Three questions come up again and again.

Is your child studying?

Vanuatu's Development Support Program takes children up to 25 in full-time education as supported dependants. Dominica requires children aged 18 to 30 to attend a recognised institution of higher education. St Kitts and Nevis does not ask about studies: unmarried children aged 18 to under 30 come along as long as you or your spouse maintain them. A child taking a gap year to travel after finishing school should therefore enrol before the application goes in.

Do you support your child?

Almost every programme wants to see that your adult child lives on your money. St Kitts and Nevis, Dominica and St Lucia require full support, Grenada support by you or your spouse, Antigua and Barbuda financial dependence. A child with their own salary and their own flat usually drops out of these programmes. For such a child, São Tomé and Príncipe (up to 30) and Sierra Leone are the right programmes, or the child files an application of their own.

Is your child married?

Dominica takes unmarried daughters under 25 if they live with you and you support them. In other programmes the child's marital status plays no explicit role, but whether they still depend on you does.

Sierra Leone takes a different path. For adult children the programme names neither studies nor support as a condition, but a higher rate: a child aged 18 or over costs 20,000 USD each on the Fast Track and in Heritage Citizenship, instead of 10,000 USD.

What each child costs in the application

In most programmes children cost less than adults. How much less depends on whether the base amount already covers a family.

In Antigua and Barbuda the due diligence fee is zero for children up to 11, 2,000 USD for children aged 12 to 17 and 4,000 USD for dependants aged 18 and over. The processing fee is 20,000 USD for a family of up to four and 10,000 USD for each additional person. Vanuatu's Development Support Program works in tiers: 165,000 USD for a married couple with one child, 180,000 USD with two children, 10,000 USD for each additional person.

In Sierra Leone the programme fee is joined by the submission fee of 4,750 USD and the processing fee, background check included, of 5,000 USD, both covering up to five people. A family with three children therefore pays these fees only once.

The cheapest citizenship for the whole family

The question parents ask most often: which programme gets all of us a second passport for the least money? The answer depends on how many children you have. The cheapest programmes, calculated for two parents with children under 18, contributions only, without fees:

For families, São Tomé and Príncipe is hard to beat. Nauru asks a lower contribution until 31 December 2026, 90,000 USD for you, 2,000 USD for each family member aged 16 or over and nothing for children under 16, but its fees take a family of four to 115,700 USD in total. In São Tomé and Príncipe the 95,000 USD donation covers two to four people, and each additional family member costs 5,000 USD. On top come the submission fee of 5,000 USD per application and 750 USD per person for the documents. Sierra Leone sits higher, but charges only 10,000 USD for each child under 18 and sets no upper age limit for adult children either.

The larger the family, the stronger Antigua and Barbuda becomes. The contribution to the National Development Fund stays at 230,000 USD, however many children come along. Only the processing fee rises, by 10,000 USD per person from the fifth person on.

With older children the picture sometimes flips. If you have a 24-year-old son who is no longer studying, he drops out in Dominica, but comes along in São Tomé and Príncipe or Sierra Leone, and in St Kitts and Nevis as long as you maintain him. Every fee and amount is under costs, and the programmes side by side in the comparison.

When a child is born after the application

Families grow, and applications take time. What happens to a baby born during the procedure or after naturalisation? The programmes have very different rules for this.

• St Kitts and Nevis expressly adds a child born after submission and before the certificate is issued to the pending application. On the real estate route and in the Public Benefit Option, a dependant added after approval in principle costs 30,000 USD, and a child under 3 born after the certificate 7,500 USD.
• São Tomé and Príncipe adds a citizen's newborn up to its first birthday for 500 USD. Other dependants can join after approval for 5,000 USD.
• St Lucia has its own contribution rate for a citizen's newborn aged twelve months or younger.
• Grenada expressly counts a child born within twelve months of naturalisation as a dependant.
• Dominica allows the naturalised main applicant to register a child under 18 born or adopted afterwards at a later date.
• Antigua and Barbuda also adds children later, at tiered amounts: 10,000 USD up to age 5, 25,000 USD from 6 to 17, 50,000 USD from 18. Even the future child of a child included in the application can be added later.
• Sierra Leone generally does not provide for later additions to a submitted or completed application. If your family is still growing, plan for it before you submit.

Now or later: why timing matters for your child

Every birthday can push a child over a limit. At 18 the cheaper child rate ends in many programmes. After the 21st birthday, inclusion without proof of support ends in St Lucia; after the 25th, inclusion as a student ends in Vanuatu; at 30, inclusion as a child ends across the Caribbean and in São Tomé and Príncipe, except in the case of a disability.

Antigua and Barbuda shows especially clearly what waiting costs. In the initial application you pay no due diligence fee for a child up to 11. If a child is only added later, that costs between 10,000 and 50,000 USD, plus due diligence and passport fees.

For parents this means: the cheapest moment is the application in which all the children come along together. If today you have one child of 17 and one of 24, choose the programme that still takes both. How to bring your parents and grandparents into the same application is shown in parents and grandparents in a CBI application.

What the second passport means for your child in Germany

The most important news for German parents: your child stays German. Since 27 June 2024 the Nationality Modernisation Act (Staatsangehörigkeitsmodernisierungsgesetz) has been in force. Anyone who acquires a foreign citizenship on application no longer loses German citizenship, and a retention permit (Beibehaltungsgenehmigung) is no longer needed. That applies to you, to your spouse if they hold German citizenship, and to every child naturalised in the same application.

Your child then holds two citizenships, just like a child who acquired both at birth. Which rights and duties follow from that, and why no child today has to choose one passport at 18, is explained in children with two passports.

For your child, the second passport works above all for the future. It is the option they will not have to acquire from scratch at 25 or 40: for studies, a company, a place to live or simply as a plan B. A right they do not have to apply for and do not have to ask for.

Birth abroad, descent or investment

CBI is not the only route to a second passport for children, but it is the only one you can choose at any time.

Birth on foreign soil is the passport you give your child at birth. In countries with birthright citizenship (jus soli), citizenship arises by law, without any investment. The catch: this route is open only once, on the day of birth, and it gives a passport to the child alone. The overview is in birth tourism, and the direct comparison of the two routes in birth tourism or CBI. Where in Latin America your child receives a second passport at birth is shown in the workbook born in Latin America.

Descent is the second route. If your child has grandparents from a country that passes citizenship down the generations, the passport may already be waiting. For Ireland, Irish citizenship for children sets out the rules in detail.

Investment closes the gap for every child who is already born and has no claim by descent. Many families combine the routes: the youngest child through birth, the older children and the parents through CBI. An overview of every route to a second passport for families is in your second passport as freedom insurance (in German).

In the end, what counts is that every child gets their passport while they still fit into the application. The age limits will not wait, but they are no reason to rush. Lay your children's dates of birth next to the age limits, and within minutes you will see which programme carries the whole family.

Frequently asked questions