An official programme of the Government of the Republic of Vanuatu — Council of Ministers Decision N°273 Legal framework Contact EN
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News & notices

Official updates from the Vanuatu National Bureau programme and the COM-approved Task Force.

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Official records, public noticesProgramme updates are treated as public institutional records, not promotional announcements.
June 2026

Handbook for Members of Parliament published

A plain-language handbook explaining the Vanuatu National Bureau Bill 2026 — the Bureau, the programmes, the citizenship firewall, the economic case and the safeguards — has been prepared for every Member of Parliament, with the full draft Bill annexed for reference.

The legal framework
June 2026

Drafting of the Bill advances with Parliamentary Counsel

The Vanuatu National Bureau Bill 2026 — a single framework Act consolidating the National Status, Non-Citizen travel document and Digital Residency programmes — is being finalised with Parliamentary Counsel ahead of presentation to Parliament.

How the law is built
2026

Task Force settles Drafting Instructions

The COM-approved Task Force settled the Drafting Instructions for the Bill, working with the responsible Ministries and the State Law Office — defining the Bureau’s governance, the two-stream revenue model and the integrity framework to be carried into legislation.

Governance & transparency
October 2025

Council of Ministers establishes the programme — Decision N°273

By Decision N°273 of 6 October 2025, the Council of Ministers approved the digital-residency and national-status (non-citizen travel-document) programmes, the Vanuatu National Bureau, and the partnership to deliver them — and appointed a Task Force under the Prime Minister’s authority to implement the decision.

About the Bureau
2025

A deliberate pivot: residency-first, never citizenship

The programme direction marks a course-correction for Vanuatu: away from the contested sale of passports of the past, toward a high-integrity model that sells vetted services — a national status with a non-citizen travel document, and a digital residency — while citizenship stays where the Constitution put it: with the people of Vanuatu.

This is not citizenship

For media enquiries, contact the programme office. Official notices are also published in the Gazette.