Nauru: The $90k Passport | Episode 240
Your next passport could cost less than a luxury car and take you farther!
Until now, you may have never heard of Nauru, a small island nation in the Pacific, with a population of just 12,000 and a landmass you could cross in half an hour. Nauru has launched one of the most disruptive citizenship-by-investment programs yet. With a price tag of $90k, only a 3-4-month waiting time, and zero residency requirement, this one is hard to beat.
In today’s episode, Mona Shah is joined by Edward Clark, CEO of the Nauru Program Office, to unveil the program, which is turning heads and issuing passports at a staggering rate. We cover geopolitical anxieties that are driving demand for Nauru citizenship, including fears of military conscription, political uncertainty, and instability in the Middle East. Then there is the family-friendly structure, which lets you bring siblings, adult children, and even your mother-in-law for minimal extra cost!
Nauru has 86 visa free destinations to offer, including Singapore, Hong-Kong and the UAE, at a price tag which undercuts the Caribbean upwards of $60k. So, whether you need a plan B for your family, want to travel politically neutrally, or are simply intrigued by the CBI markets’ newest disruptor, tune in for your introduction to Nauru.
Second passports are no longer exclusive to the ultra-wealthy, and Nauru is proof.
“Sometimes you don’t even know you need it until it’s too late. So it’s better to have that as a contingency plan.” – Edward Clark
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Edward Clark
Edward Clark is the Chief Executive Officer of the Nauru Economic and Climate Resilience Citizenship Program. His role is to oversee the management of the Program Office to ensure it is run effectively and to the highest standards. Edward has extensive experience in the banking and financial services sector, specializing in risk, financial crime compliance, regulatory compliance, and governance. He has worked with large multi-national banks and non-bank institutions across Asia-Pacific including as the Chief Compliance Officer for HSBC’s New Zealand operation. His experience in anti-money laundering, sanctions, combating bribery and corruption as well as fraud and tax evasion are integral to maintaining the integrity of the Program.
Transcript
This transcript was produced using AI and subsequently edited for style and clarity. The edits do not alter the substance of the speaker’s remarks
Mona Shah (0:59 – 1:56)
Welcome back to Global Investment Voice. A few weeks ago, we sat down to talk about Sao Tome and Principe, and a particular number kept coming up. That’s 90,000 U.S. dollars. Yes, you heard it right. 90,000 U.S. dollars. That is what a second passport is being marketed at right now in two very different corners of the world.
One is in the Gulf of Guinea and the other in the South Pacific. Today we’re looking at the Pacific one, Nauru. The world’s third smallest country with a population of roughly 12,000 has launched what could be the most talked about citizenship program of 2026.
And I’m delighted to say that I don’t have to speculate very much today because the person who runs that program is here with us. Edward Clark is the Chief Executive Officer of the Nauru Program Office based in Auckland, New Zealand. Edward, welcome to Global Investment Voice.
Edward Clark (1:57 – 2:00)
Good morning, Mona. It’s an absolute pleasure to be on the show today.
Mona Shah (2:02 – 2:14)
Well, it’s a pleasure to have you. But let me ask you, I know you haven’t been in this industry very long and you came from what we would call the dark side, from the banking. But what brought you to Nauru?
Edward Clark (2:15 – 2:38)
Really by luck. I happened to, as you say, I’ve been working in the banking industry previously and we had actually sold the retail business for HSBC in New Zealand. I was between jobs and really an approach from LinkedIn came out of the blue saying we’re looking for someone to run this program.
Mona Shah (2:38 – 2:40)
You had a very negative view of the industry, right?
Edward Clark (2:41 – 2:53)
I did, actually. And the first time that I heard about the industry was in books about money laundering. And so this was my preconceived and maybe misconceived perception about the industry.
Mona Shah (2:54 – 2:55)
And basically now?
Edward Clark (2:56 – 3:05)
Well, that’s changed very much since I’ve been in the industry. As you can imagine, I’ve got a very different view on what this industry is all about now.
Mona Shah (3:05 – 3:11)
Yeah. And what role do you play in the program office, your day-to-day job?
Edward Clark (3:12 – 3:35)
So I’m the CEO of the Nauru program office. We’re representing the Nauru Economic and Climate Resilience Citizenship Program . So I’m basically responsible for running the citizenship program on behalf of the government.
That’s making sure that our team is operating effectively and we’re delivering on our promise of a fast and efficient citizenship program.
Mona Shah (3:36 – 3:55)
Oh, excellent. Well, then you’re the right person to answer many of these questions. I will say, though, that when I was doing research earlier on, everything led to Henley & Partners.
So I was wondering, is that something that everybody has to go through if they’re interested in the Nauru program?
Edward Clark (3:56 – 4:19)
No. So I’ll explain a little bit. So, Henley & Partners were involved in the conception of the program, and they effectively were contracted by the Nauru government to set up and run the program.
So, we are technically a subsidiary of Henley & Partners, but we operate entirely independently from the rest of Henley & Partners.
Mona Shah (4:19 – 4:45)
Got it. So let me ask you, though, it’s not well known in the U.S. right now. Even Sao Tome is something which is pretty new.
But the one thing that we are hearing and reading about is, and I understand, there has been a huge increase in applications, and you’ve been at the helm of this program’s first year. Tell us a little about it. Has it surprised you?
Edward Clark (4:46 – 5:09)
Absolutely. I mean, firstly, I was new to the industry, so I didn’t know what to expect. And, you know, we came in at the end of 2024.
And as you know, in the market, you know, there are various programs in the Caribbean at that time. You also had Vanuatu. So, we very much sort of came in as a strong competitor or alternative to Vanuatu.
Mona Shah (5:09 – 5:39)
Yeah. Well, just to give it some color, I think it’s interesting to understand. So, you have Sao Tome or Sao Tome at 90,000.
You have Nauru at 90,000. And then Vanuatu, I believe that was, that is like 150,000 or 130,000. And then you have all the Caribbeans, which start from, I think, Grenada and Saint Lucia.
It starts from 150 to 200, Saint Kitts at 230. So, it is significantly lower than the others.
Edward Clark (5:40 – 6:50)
Yeah. And I think, you know, this reflects Sao Tome’s decision to launch a citizenship program as well. But what, you know, we felt or I guess the team at Henley and Partners felt and Nauru felt was that there was a real gap in the market in terms of a lower cost program that is perhaps a little bit more accessible.
And as you know, as things have developed, the price in the Caribbean has gone up quite a lot over recent years. So, it did create quite an interesting gap in the market. And you can clearly see with the volumes that are coming through in both Nauru and Sao Tome, there is clear demand for products like this.
You know, the differentiating factor for places like the Caribbean historically has been the EU access. And that probably reflects the higher price tag. Whereas, you know, Nauru, Vanuatu now, Sao Tome don’t have that.
So, it makes sense to price them at a lower price point. But clearly there’s a lot of demand for these kind of products because people are not seeking alternative citizenships for the mobility. It’s actually for other reasons.
Mona Shah (6:50 – 7:30)
That’s something I’m going to go into in a minute. But what we are seeing now in the US, I mean, as immigration attorneys, and of course, the Trump administration isn’t helping or rather it is helping, people are not confident anymore. And they do want a backup passport, and they want a backup passport for other reasons, more than one reason.
And the thing is, this is priced so well, they can easily throw this in. Interestingly, though, when I was doing research, I noticed that one of the first publicly reported approval was a German family living in Dubai. That was in September of 2025.
Edward Clark (7:31 – 7:31)
Correct.
Mona Shah (7:32 – 7:36)
Are you comfortable sharing any numbers with us as to how many have been since?
Edward Clark (7:37 – 7:56)
I was looking at this earlier this week, actually. I think we have now over 56 new citizens of Nauru since the program was launched. So, you know, and we’re seeing that number grow on a daily basis now, which is really exciting as we’re getting quite a lot of traction.
Mona Shah (7:57 – 8:11)
Before I get into why, I am going to ask you, the world has changed dramatically, as you know, in the last two and a half months or two months with the whole Iranian war, Middle East instability. Are the global events showing up in your inbox?
Edward Clark (8:13 – 9:48)
Oh, 100 percent, Mona. And even before, actually, just with geopolitical uncertainty. And this is an example of the German family.
You know, they were worried about the prospect of military conscription. And, you know, they thought maybe having a second citizenship might give them a bit of a backup plan or way out of that for their children. And as you know, and I think this is a conversation that is happening in the U.S. right now, potentially, it’s still ongoing in Germany, and you can imagine in many other countries. So, with the geopolitical uncertainty and these kind of events playing out, absolutely, it just really hammers home the benefits that having a second citizenship can provide to individuals and families, like a backup plan in case this happens. You know, you think about maybe if you’re in, say, Ukraine, as an example, and you wanted to leave the country as a citizen, and this is hypothetical, but if you wanted to leave the country as a citizen, you might not be able to leave because they might want to call you up to serve. Whereas if you have a second citizenship, maybe that gives you a way out.
Just as one example, or even in the geopolitical, you know, we’ve had other examples of a U.S. citizen, as an example, not feeling comfortable to travel to certain destinations on a U.S. passport. So, he wants an alternative citizenship to travel because it’s a politically neutral passport, which is really interesting.
Mona Shah (9:49 – 10:01)
That is really good, interesting, and that’s what I’m finding that a second citizenship is for. And I think Nauru is like Sao Tome, right? It keeps things confidential?
Edward Clark (10:02 – 10:07)
Absolutely. That’s really important to the integrity of the program and trust from the applicants.
Mona Shah (10:08 – 10:14)
So, what are the reasons are you seeing people come into purchasing a citizenship for Nauru?
Edward Clark (10:14 – 11:06)
So, you do have the traditional reasons being mobility. Certainly, that’s a big driver for a large portion of our applicants. We’ve talked a little bit about the geopolitical uncertainty and just having a backup plan.
That’s a strong one as well. We do see a little bit for education purposes as well. So possibly, particularly for example, Chinese nationals to apply for an international school, you’d need to be holding an international passport, as an example, in some countries.
This is not just in China. I think in places like Philippines that I’m aware of. So that’s driving a lot of demand as well.
And then you have just basic contingency planning for whatever reason. And there’s a lot of benefits that that can provide.
Mona Shah (11:07 – 11:17)
So, Edward, just walk us through for our listeners very, very briefly the actual mechanics of the journey to actually receive your passport in hand.
Edward Clark (11:18 – 11:22)
So, the overall processing time is around three to four months.
Mona Shah (11:23 – 11:24)
Oh, that’s good. That’s fast.
Edward Clark (11:25 – 12:21)
We are fast. We have had a couple of teething issues along the way, as you can expect, but we are able to resolve a lot of those very quickly. So, you submit an application to us, our team will review all the documents, make sure they’re in order.
We will conduct some initial due diligence on the application to make sure it has a reasonable chance of success. We work then with the police force in Nauru. We work with the financial intelligence unit in Nauru.
And we also work with some third-party due diligence providers to conduct some background checks, similar to the Caribbean. And there is an interview involved as part of that process. But it’s normally quite a quick interview.
It should take around 15 minutes. And it’s relatively straightforward, just confirming a lot of the information that’s been provided in the application and addressing anything that might have come up during due diligence.
Mona Shah (12:22 – 12:30)
And remind me also how many family members that you have. Obviously, you have your spouse and dependents, but what is the age?
Edward Clark (12:31 – 12:44)
So, we actually have a very inclusive or family friendly approach. And I would argue we are the most family friendly citizenship program out there.
Mona Shah (12:45 – 12:47)
You mean you’re allowed to bring your mother-in-law?
Edward Clark (12:49 – 12:59)
Well, I’ll give you an example. So, you can bring obviously your spouse and your children. But importantly for children, we don’t have any age restriction.
Mona Shah (13:00 – 13:00)
Oh, wow.
Edward Clark (13:01 – 13:20)
And there are no financial dependency restrictions as well. So, in a lot of programs, the children have to be financially dependent on their parents. That is not the case.
That’s also the case for parents. They don’t need to be financially dependent.
Mona Shah (13:20 – 13:23)
Oh, you can have the mother-in-law. I was joking.
Edward Clark (13:23 – 13:43)
Yes, you can have the mother-in-law. You can have your siblings as well. Wow.
So, it actually is very family friendly. And I think this is a real differentiator for Nauru because of the family friendly approach. And that actually makes it quite an affordable program for families.
Mona Shah (13:43 – 13:44)
That’s very interesting.
Edward Clark (13:45 – 13:56)
And of course, given the lack of restriction. So, children, it doesn’t matter if they’re married or not. It doesn’t matter what age they are.
It doesn’t matter if they’re employed or not. They are able to be included in the application.
Mona Shah (13:57 – 13:59)
And it all comes under one 90,000 application?
Edward Clark (14:00 – 14:20)
There are a couple of additional fees, but they’re not, I would say, very reasonable. I think to add another family member is only 2,000 US dollars. And only if they’re over the age of 16.
So actually to add an additional family member or child that is under the age of 16, there’s no additional cost.
Mona Shah (14:21 – 14:32)
No, that’s incredible. But one of the features that I did read up about, which is the fact that you can have common law partners. So, you accept, and I believe you do accept gay couples too.
Edward Clark (14:33 – 15:16)
I’ll have to correct you on that one. So yes, it is common law and we do accept de facto. And this is really reflective of Nauru law and what is common in Nauru culture.
And this is why we changed the whole family approach with that family inclusive policies. That’s only recently been changed. But we wanted to align with the very family values focus of Nauru.
And we felt that this was the right thing to do. And that’s similar with de facto and common law partners. The exclusion to that is that gay couples are not recognized or same-sex relationships are not recognized in Nauru.
And so we need to be respectful of that culture as well.
Mona Shah (15:16 – 15:26)
All right. And tell me a little bit about the passport itself. What does it actually unlock for the holder?
How many countries visa-free or visa-free on arrival?
Edward Clark (15:26 – 15:41)
Currently, we have 86 visa-free destinations and key destinations include Singapore, Hong Kong and UAE. And we are actively working to increase the number of visa-free destinations as well.
Mona Shah (15:42 – 15:45)
I think you have Ireland too. Ireland and Russia.
Edward Clark (15:46 – 16:04)
Russia is a visa-free destination. Ireland is not. That changed around the time we launched the program back in 2024.
But Russia and Nauru actually has quite a good diplomatic relationship with Russia, which is why that exists.
Mona Shah (16:05 – 16:18)
So I have to ask you, who are the applicants then who are excluded? Because Russians are excluded from a lot of programs. I thought they were excluded here.
And I believe, what, Iranians are also excluded?
Edward Clark (16:19 – 18:36)
So currently, our approach to excluded countries is based on the UN high-risk country list or the FATF blacklist. So, there are three countries on that being Iran, North Korea and Myanmar. So that’s how we have sort of defined what is excluded.
And this is something that is hard-coded into the legislation. So, if that changes, then we will change our approach in line with that. But we do accept applications from places like Russia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, but they are restricted.
So what we typically look for when we think about a restricted country is has that person, so if there might be a citizen of Russia, as an example, we won’t automatically accept the application, but we will accept it if they’ve been living outside of Russia for at least a period of five years, or if they are already resident in what you might class as a tier one country, such as the US or the EU or UK or New Zealand, Australia, as an example, where they’ve effectively gone through those security measures and been granted residency. So, it’s either five years or they’re a resident in certain countries. And we also need to make sure that they have very limited financial ties to Russia.
So, if those two criteria are met, then we will accept. And this is a recent policy decision that we have made. So, we made this change at the start of February this year, where we started accepting Russian applicants and we started to receive applications for Russians.
The risk is really about the individual and not so much about the country. And we think that this can be effectively managed. And by doing it on a restricted basis, we’re able to manage the, I would say, reputational risk and geopolitical risk that comes with making a decision like this, at the same time as managing the individual risk relating to the applicants, which is where the real risk actually lies.
Mona Shah (18:36 – 18:54)
Edward, there’s so much to talk about. And I know you are so knowledgeable. You know, you have to come back on more programs and discuss other issues with us.
But before I let you go, let me ask you something. If I wanted a passport from Nauru, do I have to actually go and visit the country and stay there?
Edward Clark (18:55 – 19:25)
No. So this is, again, one of the advantages to the Nauru program is that there are no residency requirements and there are no travel requirements to visit the country. So, the entire process can be done remotely.
I don’t expect that this is going to change either. We want the Nauru program to be accessible. And Nauru is not the most accessible place.
So, asking people to travel there would be, I think, quite a challenge.
Mona Shah (19:27 – 19:29)
Yeah. How do you get there?
Edward Clark (19:31 – 20:11)
I want to say, you know, having a remote program and being able to do everything digitally enables us to process things very fast, which is something that is really important for us. Now to answer your second question, how do you get to Nauru? There are two ways.
You can either travel through Fiji or you can travel through Australia. But what is interesting is Nauru actually has their own airline for a country of 12,000. That’s quite a lot.
And also, not only is it their own airline, but that airline services a number of other countries in the South Pacific. So, they actually act as a vital lifeline to a number of countries. That’s a separate conversation I think.
Mona Shah (20:13 – 20:37)
Right, right. Well, we have lots more to discuss, lots and lots. And we look forward to having you back on our program.
This was our first taste of Nauru, and I am sure you’ve already whetted a lot of appetites. It’s not, you know, second passport doesn’t always solve a defined problem, but it is, and it doesn’t pretend to be either, but it is a step in the right direction, I think.
Edward Clark (20:38 – 21:02)
Oh, absolutely. You know, we see this from nearly all of our applicants in terms of the varying benefits that it offers. And sometimes you don’t even know you need it until it’s too late.
So, it’s better to have that as a contingency plan. You know, if you’re able to afford it, it’s actually a very valuable asset for someone to hold for various reasons, as we’ve talked about earlier.
Mona Shah (21:03 – 21:09)
Right. Well, we love to get you back. And thank you so much for being a guest on Global Investment Voice.
Edward Clark (21:10 – 21:13)
It’s an absolute pleasure, Mona, and I look forward to further discussions.