Citizenship Planning for Families: Dependants, Children, and the Next Generation

Citizenship planning is, at its heart, a family matter. The decision to acquire a second citizenship affects not just the main applicant but their spouse, their children, potentially their parents, and — through the citizenship-by-descent provisions of nationality law — future generations who may never have met the person who first made the application. Understanding the family dimensions of citizenship by investment is essential for those who are thinking about more than the immediate application.

This guide covers how family members are included in CBI applications, how citizenship passes to future generations, and the practical benefits — particularly in education and international mobility — that flow down to children and grandchildren.

Including Family Members in a CBI Application

Most established citizenship by investment programmes allow the main applicant to include qualifying dependants in the same application, subject to additional fees and the completion of due diligence on each dependant above a certain age (typically 16 or 18).

Spouse or civil partner. The main applicant's spouse or legally recognised civil partner can be included in almost all CBI programmes. The additional investment required is typically modest — some programmes charge an additional government contribution for the spouse; others include the spouse within the main applicant's qualifying investment. Due diligence is conducted on the spouse in the same manner as the main applicant.

Dependent children. Children who are financially dependent on the main applicant can be included in most programmes. The standard age limit is 25 or 26, provided the child is enrolled in full-time education and can demonstrate financial dependency. Children aged 18–26 in education are included in many programmes at a lower additional fee than adult dependants; children under 18 typically attract lower or no additional fees. Children with disabilities who are wholly financially dependent may be included at any age in most programmes.

Parents and parents-in-law. Several CBI programmes — including Dominica, Antigua and Barbuda, and Grenada — allow inclusion of the main applicant's parents or parents-in-law as dependants, subject to minimum age thresholds (typically 55 or 60), proof of financial dependency, and an additional per-person fee. This provision is particularly valuable for families where elderly parents are genuinely supported by the main applicant and where including them in the same citizenship application is both practically useful and an act of family security.

Siblings. Some programmes, including Antigua and Barbuda, permit the inclusion of siblings in certain circumstances — typically where the sibling is unmarried, financially dependent, and has no independent family of their own. This is the exception rather than the rule among CBI programmes.

Unmarried partners. The recognition of unmarried partners varies by programme. Married spouses are universally recognised. Civil partners are recognised in programmes that have compatible legal frameworks. Unmarried partners who are not legally recognised as such in either their home country or the programme jurisdiction may not be eligible as dependants — a consideration for clients in committed relationships who are not formally married.

The Additional Investment for Dependants

Including family members in a CBI application typically increases the total investment or contribution required. The precise amounts vary by programme and route:

For donation routes (e.g. Caribbean National Economic Fund contributions), the donation threshold for a family of four is typically USD 50,000–100,000 more than for a single applicant, with further increments for additional dependants. This represents excellent value for larger families compared to multiple separate applications.

For real estate routes, the qualifying investment amount typically does not increase with the number of dependants — the same property threshold covers the whole family, though additional application and due diligence fees are charged per additional person.

Investors with large families — particularly those who wish to include parents, multiple adult children, or siblings — should model the total all-in cost carefully before selecting a programme, as per-person fees for additional dependants can be significant.

How Citizenship Passes to Future Generations

Once you have been naturalised as a citizen of a CBI country, your citizenship can typically be transmitted to your descendants — but the specific rules of each country's nationality law govern how this works.

Children born after naturalisation. A child born to a citizen of most countries will be a citizen of that country by birthright — automatically, by operation of law. For CBI-acquired citizenship, this principle generally applies: children born after the parent has been naturalised are typically citizens of the CBI country by descent. The manner in which citizenship was acquired by the parent (by investment rather than by birth) is irrelevant to the child's status.

Registration requirements. In practice, citizenship by descent often requires formal registration — either at birth (if the child is born abroad) or within a specified period. The parent must usually register the birth with the relevant consular authority and apply for the child's citizenship certificate or passport. Failing to do this promptly does not extinguish the citizenship right, but may complicate the administrative process later.

St Kitts and Nevis has explicit provisions for citizenship by descent for children of citizens — registration within a defined period from birth is required for children born abroad.

Generational limits. Some countries limit citizenship by descent to a fixed number of generations — typically one generation beyond the naturalised citizen. Others permit indefinite descent. Malta and Portugal, as EU member states, have nationality laws that allow citizenship to be passed through multiple generations, subject to registration — meaning that a Malta-citizen grandchild of a CBI applicant may be able to transmit Maltese citizenship to their children in turn.

The generational legacy of a CBI decision made today can therefore extend to great-grandchildren and beyond — particularly for EU citizenships. This is a dimension of the cost-benefit analysis that is easy to underweight because the beneficiaries do not yet exist.

The Education Benefit

For families with children approaching university age — or for those planning further ahead — EU citizenship has a specific and quantifiable educational benefit.

EU citizens are entitled to enrol at public universities in any EU member state on "home student" terms. In practical terms, this means:

• Germany: EU students at German public universities pay fees of approximately EUR 150–350 per semester — primarily administrative costs. Total degree cost for three years: under EUR 2,500. International (non-EU) students often pay the same low fees at German public universities, but this access depends on EU citizenship being the basis of legal presence in Germany.
• France: EU students pay approximately EUR 170–600 per year at French public universities and grandes écoles (varying by institution type). International fees at the same institutions would be EUR 2,770–3,770+ for undergraduate, more for postgraduate.
• Netherlands: EU students pay approximately EUR 2,314 per year (2024 rate). International students pay EUR 8,000–15,000+ per year.
• Sweden, Denmark, Norway: EU/EEA students pay no tuition fees at most public universities. International students typically pay significant fees.
• Italy, Spain: EU students pay fees similar to domestic students — typically EUR 1,000–4,000 per year, versus EUR 8,000–12,000+ for international students.

For a family planning for two children to attend four-year degree programmes in the EU, EU citizenship can save EUR 50,000–200,000+ depending on the universities chosen, compared to the international student fees those same children would pay as British-only nationals (who are classed as international students in the EU post-Brexit). Among the routes to EU citizenship, only Malta's MEIN programme confers citizenship directly by investment; Portugal and Greece offer investment-linked residency that leads to citizenship only after a qualifying period of genuine residence (in Portugal, ten years for most applicants following the 2026 Nationality Law reform; seven years in Greece).

This benefit, for families with young children, can help justify a significant portion of the cost of an EU citizenship or long-term residency route.

Marriage and Citizenship: The Family Dynamics

For families where citizenship planning involves multiple nationalities in the household — for example, a British applicant, a French spouse, and children with dual UK-French citizenship — the citizenship planning matrix becomes complex. Each country's nationality law interacts with the others in ways that require careful analysis.

Marrying a citizen of a third country. If a CBI-acquired citizen marries a national of a country that does not permit dual nationality, their spouse may be required to choose between their own nationality and the CBI citizenship upon marriage. This is not a common issue among the countries discussed in this guide (most Caribbean countries and EU member states permit dual nationality) but it arises for nationals of some Asian and Middle Eastern countries that restrict multiple citizenship.

Children with multiple citizenships. Children in multinational families may hold three or more citizenships simultaneously — British by birth, EU by parental CBI, and the nationality of a second parent. Most countries accept this without restriction, though some impose registration obligations and some have service obligations (military service in particular) that trigger for male citizens at specific ages. Families should review the obligations associated with each citizenship their children may hold.

Consenting adults in the application. For older children included in a CBI application, most programmes require the child's own signature on the application and their independent participation in the due diligence process. A parent cannot include an adult child in a citizenship application without that child's knowledge and consent — nor would it be appropriate to do so.

The "Whole Family" Wealth Planning Perspective

Citizenship planning sits at the outer layer of a comprehensive international family wealth plan. The layers typically work from the inside out:

At the centre is the investment portfolio — how assets are structured, invested, and managed across jurisdictions.

Around that sits the tax structure — residency, domicile, offshore structures, and the interaction of each jurisdiction's tax system with the family's asset profile.

Then comes the estate plan — wills, trusts, foundations, and succession arrangements that govern how wealth passes between generations.

Citizenship and residency rights form the outermost layer — the legal framework within which all of the above operates. The right passport and residency status determine where each family member can live, which tax systems apply, which succession laws govern estates, and what options are available if circumstances change.

A family with well-chosen second citizenships, genuine diversified residency across multiple countries, offshore trust structures in compliant jurisdictions, and a clear generational succession plan has maximum resilience against any single country's policy changes, political shifts, or economic disruptions. This is not tax avoidance — it is intelligent, fully disclosed international structuring that has been done by wealthy families for generations.

Compliance Caveats

Nationality laws differ by country and change through legislation. The eligibility criteria for dependants, the citizenship-by-descent rules, and the registration requirements described in this guide reflect the general position across the main CBI programmes as of 2026, but may differ in specific details for individual programmes. Seek legal advice from qualified nationality lawyers in the relevant jurisdiction before making decisions based on citizenship planning for family members. The tax and succession implications of multiple citizenships in a family require specialist multi-jurisdictional advice. Investments can fall in value; rules can change.

How Global Investments can help

Global Investments works with international families at every stage of citizenship and residency planning — from the initial selection of programmes that best serve the whole family to the estate planning and trust structuring that protects wealth across generations. We understand that citizenship decisions made today affect children and grandchildren you have not yet introduced yourself to — and we help you plan accordingly. Contact us for a confidential family consultation.