By: Staff Writer
June 17, 2025
The Donald Trump administration is considering banning up to 36 countries from entering into the United States and several of the countries on the list from the leaked memo from the US State Department are Citizenship By Investment jurisdictions in the Caribbean.
The countries that could face a full or a partial ban if they do not address these concerns within the next 60 days are: Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Benin, Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cote D’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Dominica, Ethiopia, Egypt, Gabon, The Gambia, Ghana, Kyrgyzstan, Liberia, Malawi, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, South Sudan, Syria, Tanzania, Tonga, Tuvalu, Uganda, Vanuatu, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
Specifically, the sale of citizenship without a residency requirement, a defining feature of many CBI programmes in the Caribbean, was flagged as a major concern.
Also cited were broader governance issues in some countries, such as alleged government fraud and, in certain cases, accusations of “anti-American” activity by nationals residing in the US.
The memo sets a deadline of 8 a.m. next Wednesday for the affected governments to submit an initial plan outlining how they intend to meet the new requirements. It also suggests that countries willing to accept third-country nationals deported from the US, or to enter a so-called “safe third country” agreement, may be able to reduce the risk of sanctions.
The State Department also said that the reason for the ban is that these countries have no competent or cooperative central government authority to produce reliable identity documents or other civil documents, or they suffered from widespread government fraud.
The move is a significant expansion of a ban Trump proclaimed on June 4 which suspended entry into the United States for citizens from 12 specific countries, including the CARICOM member Haiti as well as restricted access for Venezuela and Cuba.