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I have a US citizen friend who is a (legal, permanent) resident in the UK (ie with ILR), who would like to vote, but naturalisation as a British Citizen is very expensive - £906 is the current fee.

We noticed that Commonwealth citizens are entitled to vote here, and we were wondering if there were any Commonwealth nationalities that could be acquired more cheaply, without the need to travel to the actual country, and from a country that would be OK with retaining her US nationality as a dual national.

I can't imagine there actually are any countries that sell off their citizenship that cheaply, but I thought this was the place to ask.

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    Does your friend have a lot of money to invest? At least some countries offer citizenship to people who invest in government bonds, startups etc. Depending on how those investments do, it could be more or less than a grand...
    – Gagravarr
    Commented Jan 14, 2015 at 11:08
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    I guess if your friend already has the necessary ILR years to get naturalised then £906 is kinda cheap. For other countries your friend defintiely needs to spend some time there as well to get naturalised (even for investment related naturalisations), which takes time and appropriate visas as well, which might cost way more than £906. If you disregard this then for example a South African naturalization is only $40
    – SztupY ♦
    Commented Jan 14, 2015 at 13:30
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    Turk & Caicos Islands, but you need to make an investment which will be well over 900 pounds.
    – user26732
    Commented Jan 14, 2015 at 16:11
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    Your friend will be able to make a larger difference in the world by doing things within the community other than voting. On the other hand, acquiring UK citizenship and abandoning the US one might significantly reduce his or her ongoing tax burden in the US, which could be worth a lot more than 906 pounds.
    – John Zwinck
    Commented Jan 22, 2015 at 7:24
  • Dumping US Citizenship is another matter (which today, costs $2300)
    – Douglas Held
    Commented Aug 13, 2015 at 3:46

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Without doubt, the cheapest way forward is UK citizenship.

If you have a look at the BBC article Where is the cheapest place to buy citizenship you will find the cheapest country listed is Dominica - starting at $100,000 USD plus fees. It's a commonwealth country, and thus fits your requirements on everything other than cost.

Generally, though, you're looking at $500,000 to EUR5,000,000 for citizenship by investment programs. And many of these programs require residency, or that you set up a business in the country that employs people.

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The cheapest commonwealth country to acquire its citizenship is Grenada. For less than US $130,000 you can get a Grenada citizenship in about 4 months without any residency requirements. You do not even have to visit Grenada to obtain its citizenship.

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