Antigua & Barbuda Immigration Rules and Authority Research

Governed authority release

Immigration Department; Minister and Cabinet; Passport and Citizenship Office; Labour and Free Movement Desk; Immigration Appeals Tribunal and courts; Citizenship by Investment Unit; route-specific registries and UNHCR

Active release 1; only the approved active release is public

Published: July 14, 2026
Next review: August 13, 2026
Filing-channel state: Route Authority Actor Source Health And Stage Specific
Monitoring state: Manual Source Review

Filing boundary

Antigua and Barbuda has no universal immigration, work, residence, nationality, business, protection, or filing channel; route, authority, actor, current source, source health, and personal stages control. The law repository says current-year legislation is available only from the Government Printery and its 2026 online collection is empty. A bill, Cabinet note, release, or missing online Act does not prove enactment, commencement, an open window, or legal effect; confirm the Gazette or Printery, especially for proposed 2026 amnesty and CIP changes. Strict TLS verification on 2026-07-14 failed for laws.gov.ag, immigration.gov.ag, evisa.immigration.gov.ag, forms.gov.ag, abipco.gov.ag, ird.gov.ag, investantiguabarbuda.org, and passport.gov.ag; gazette.laws.gov.ag presented a hostname mismatch. The same strict check succeeded for ab.gov.ag, caricom.org, help.unhcr.org, abconsulate.nyc, antigua-barbuda.com, and cip.gov.ag. Never bypass certificate validation or send data, automate, or pay through an endpoint that fails normal TLS. The eVisa address redirects externally and blocks automated clients; no public filing API was verified. Emailed government forms still require physical delivery because signatures cannot be verified. A visa or exemption permits seeking entry and never guarantees admission; admission, visa, and work permission are separate. The Act permits a visitor stay up to six months and ordinarily caps an extension at 90 days. Extension pages conflict: one publishes EC$300/150 while the fee page adds EC$50 processing and EC$150/75; confirm amount, endorsement, and receipt before payment. Older guidance conflicts, so nationality, purpose, form, and fee require live confirmation. Visa-on-arrival guidance is not a consolidated statutory nationality rule. Schedule 7 provides work, study, marriage, and retiree change-of-status filing, but CS-1/2/3 are undefined and its final enacted sentence is visibly truncated. NDR remains in section 12A, but new applications closed on 15 November 2025; legacy pages do not reopen it, current holders must contact Immigration, and NDR time does not count toward section 40 residence. The 2022 amnesty is closed; accessible material does not prove enactment, commencement, or a current 2026 window. Ordinary residence requires four continuous lawful years immediately before application and yields a three-year permit; spouse residence requires a one-year marital union. Permanent residence is the abode, 30-days-per-year, current US$500,000 income route or Cabinet substantial-economic-activity route and is issued for 12 months with annual renewal. Older FAQ Classes D/E/F are non-operational. Only a valid permit holder registered as a permanent resident has the section 42(4) work-permit exemption; it does not extend to ordinary residents or dependants. Work permit, Immigration endorsement, residence, entity registration, business licence, concession, and landholding are separate approvals. The 2025 CARICOM/Dominican Republic Order is schedule-limited and waives specified permit fees, not the application or application fee. OECS/CSME routes require qualifying nationality, category or certificate, and authority processing; Antigua and Barbuda is not in the four-state October 2025 full-CARICOM-free-movement regime. External-company guidance conflicts on pre-start versus 12-month registration timing, so the Registrar must confirm. The annual business-licence rule applies generally, with additional scheduled-business conditions for a non-Antiguan or Barbudan operator. Non-citizen landholding requires transaction-specific licence and exception review, including the limited lease and qualifying CSME rules; ownership never creates residence or work status. Asylum starts with UNHCR RSD at the Government's request: no fee, adult interviews, representative participation, and a 30-day email appeal may apply, but no verified domestic form or automatic admission, residence, work right, status, or removal stay exists; urgent human handling is required. Citizenship and passport routes are separate. CIP is presented as active by the secure official Unit site but is licensed-agent-only; investment, due diligence, certificate, oath, five-day presence, and passport are separate. Recheck law, forms, fees, signatures, source health, and receipts per route. This release activates no pathway, decision, form pack, monitoring, fee, representative filing, portal action, payment, transmission, or submission.

Representative participation

An attorney-at-law practising Antigua and Barbuda law must be admitted under the Legal Profession Act and hold a current practising certificate. Counsel may advise, prepare a filing packet, and act only where the route law, current form, receiving authority, and client mandate permit; professional status is not a universal filing entitlement. A work-permit application may be filed by the applicant or a representative, but the intended employer must complete and sign its prescribed statement. Each applicant, sponsor, parent or guardian, employer, certifier, reference, deponent, and citizenship applicant retains the declarations, evidence, interview, biometrics, oath, and attendance assigned to that actor. An extension applicant ordinarily attends Immigration unless the Chief Immigration Officer directs otherwise in writing. First-issue and lost or stolen passport stages are personal; renewal, post, mail, authorised delivery, parent or guardian, consent, collection, and interview rules vary by competent office and never transfer applicant certification duties. Ordinary citizenship follows its prescribed applicant, witness, notice, reference, oath, Minister, Permanent Secretary, and competent-post stages; no universal Passport Office filing channel was verified. Only a currently licensed Citizenship by Investment agent may submit a CIP application; attorney or promoter status is not a substitute. Company, business, land, CSME, OECS, and UNHCR matters retain separate statutory actors and offices. Confirm the practising certificate, mandate, form version, signatory, personal stage, authority account, and receipt. Never share or automate credentials.

Official authority links

Antigua and Barbuda Constitution Chapter VIII — citizenship by birth, descent, and registrationhttps://ab.gov.ag/detail_template.php?page=aboutAB%2Four_constitution

No destination preparation pathway is available for Antigua & Barbuda.

Filing boundary

Representative participation

Official authority links

No source-specific document rules are published for records from Antigua & Barbuda.