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Comoros.

How Comoros sells citizenship for investors: 1 citizenship programme, now closed. Every number and rule below links to the document it comes from.

Citizenship ↓
1
citizenship programme
51
numbers
7
prices and rules
27
events

15 documents and articles behind this page, listed at the bottom.

Citizenship

Sells citizenship, and with it a passport. Comoros: 1 citizenship programme, now closed; 51 numbers, 7 prices and rules. Every country's citizenship programmes

All the numbers, sources and downloads for Comoros in the data portal →

Economic citizenship programmeCitizenship
Status
Lowest price when it closed
Last change
Citizenship·Closed·2008–2016

Economic citizenship programme

Sells citizenship, and with it a passport.

Official name: Comoros economic citizenship programme (citoyenneté économique)

Lowest price when it closed: KMF 1 million

Weak evidence. The IMF says citizenship was granted 'in exchange for KMF 1 million; about US$3,000' per person. This looks like the official fee rather than what buyers paid. Most sales were bulk deals with the UAE (EUR 4,600 per passport under the 2011 agreement, t-1dad1be5d1). The parliamentary report puts individual prices at EUR 25,000-200,000 (t-8757c1f6aa). Sales were suspended in May 2016.

Notes from the research

Law on economic citizenship signed by President Sambi on 27 Nov 2008 after an earlier rejection (July 2008); a parliamentary inquiry later found the vote broke procedure. Mainly bulk sales to the UAE (and talks with Kuwait) to document stateless Bidoon, who did not move to Comoros; an initial deal of $200m for 4,000 families, then (2011) EUR 4,600 per passport with a minimum of 5,000. The IMF describes it as citizenship for KMF 1 million (about US$3,000) per person, with receipts routed via the Banque de France. Proceeds were large relative to GDP (IMF: about 3-4.5% in 2012 in 2013 reports, over 6% in the 2015 report). Passports were also sold outside the official channel, including to Iranians. Suspended after President Azali took office in May 2016. A parliamentary commission (set up June 2017, report Dec 2017) estimated missing revenue of $100m (Reuters) or $971m (AFP); the State Security Court sentenced ex-president Sambi to life for 'high treason' on 28 Nov 2022. Official law text and commission report not obtained.

Government income from selling citizenship, as a share of the economy, per year
0%2%4%6%8%20092010201120122013

The line follows the official figure for each period; faint dots are other sources and earlier versions.

Prices and rules

Rules while it was open

What is measured

  • Government income from selling citizenship, as a share of the economy14
  • CBI revenue missing or diverted7
  • Passports issued7
  • Spending on a CBI-financed public project, percent of GDP4
  • All money paid by buyers, including property purchases4
  • Program citizenships revoked3
  • Money the government received from selling citizenship2
  • CBI receipts saved, share of GDP2
  • Irregular payments alleged in connection with a grant2
  • People covered by listed fund contributions1
  • Donations paid into the government's fund1
  • Court award relating to CBI money1
  • and 3 more; see Explore below.
Gaps

What we know is missing

  • No yearly figures at all for applications or people let in or money raised.

A gap means no figure is in our data: either it was never published or we haven't found or read it yet. Charts leave gaps open rather than drawing across them.

Explore

All the numbers we have for Comoros

51 numbers about Comoros's citizenship programmes. Pick a programme and what you want to see. Each dot is one number from one document; click anything to open its source.

Timeline

What happened, and when

Sources

The 15 documents behind this page

The stories behind the numbers

Who buys passports and golden visas, what they cost, and what happens when governments change the rules. Written from this data, in the newsletter.

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