Chronicles of a Chronic Caribbean Chronicler
By Earl Bousquet
As of May 2026, the St Lucia passport allows the holder to travel visa-free to 138 countries, including Europe’s Schengen states and Singapore.
A Saint Lucia passport holder can travel to approximately 138 to 146 destinations without a visa, with a visa on arrival, or via an Electronic Travel Authorization (eTA).
Key destinations include the United Kingdom, the European Union (Schengen Area), Singapore, Hong Kong, and many countries in the Americas.
Key Travel Access Details include:
- Visa-Free Access to 90–92 countries
- Visa Free eTA on Arrival to over-40 additional destinations; and
- Visa-free access to all 29 Schengen area countries, the UK and several Commonwealth nations
The Saint Lucia passport is ranked 27th globally in 2026, with a mobility score of 139.
Some countries grant Saint Lucia nationals visa-free entry, while others require a visa on arrival, or an electronic entry permit.
A holder of a Saint Lucia passport – whether a born Saint Lucian or an ‘Economic Citizen’ (through the island’s Citizenship by Investment Program (CIP) — can visit 90 countries without a visa.
Another 14 countries allow Saint Lucia citizens to get a visa upon arrival, without applying for a visa in advance; and 21 more countries require an electronic travel authorisation (eTA) before travelling.
It used to be ‘quick and easy’ to obtain an eTA online (in 15 to 20 minutes) by inputting your passport data and once an eTA was issued, the applicant was allowed to travel to these two destinations.
But not anymore.
While 13 states provide travellers two options — either get a visa on arrival or obtain an eTA in advance – today, the visa requirements for holders of Saint Lucian passports vary, depending on the destination country.
Much has changed – and especially US President Donald Trump, who’s unleased ICE agents on their dirtiest immigration cleansing mission ever.
The EU started 2026 raising Europe’s drawbridges to restrict entry by citizens of states with CIPs, claiming holders of ‘economic citizenship’ passports are violating entry rules in ways and numbers that require serious restrictions.
Yet, in the name of protecting the ‘privacy’ of the persons the claim to be conscious breaking the rules with clear intent, EU member-states instead chose to impose entry blockages to pressure Caribbean governments concerned to abandon their highly dependable CIPs.
Same with the USA, where today, even if one has a visa, entry conditions, including exceptionally high non-refundable deposits, make it harder than ever for Caribbean citizens to visit, whether for business, pleasure or medical attention.
Why?
Because the EU and USA are in competition – between themselves and with the Caribbean – to attract people who want passports other than their own.
The UK and France competed with the US to attract ultra-rich Chinese entrepreneurs and fleeing Russian oligarchs in the first quarter of the 21st Century – and now they’re competing to offer ‘Golden Visas’ to billionaires.
After the Ukraine War started, UK, France and other EU nations turned on the same Russian oligarchs they had welcomed with golden handshakes, seizing their properties and restricting their public visibility alongside state actors.
The US also went into the business of selling citizenship to high-priced bidders, but President Trump introduced his US version of the ‘Golden Visa’ – available to billionaire prepared to deposit millions — and enjoy tax-free and citizen status for 271 days.
And now, the EU and US are in a clear trans-Atlantic alliance to restrict entry by Caribbean citizens, directly citing their CIPs – and even demanding they be scrapped.
Believe it or not, the EU and US are competing directly with the small Caribbean islands to attract persons in the lucrative business of wanting to buy new passports.
Those after new passports will naturally settle for the cheaper and faster CIP deals available and opt for the new passport that will give them free access to the most nations.
But even here, those who compile and distribute the related information select to highlight countries with access to the most visa-free destinations.
In that sense, the 21 ‘Most Powerful’ passports with the highest number of destinations starts with Singapore (192), the EU at 183, US at 179 and ends with Argentina and Brazil (168 each).
The ‘Weakest’ starts with Nigeria (43) and ends with Afghanistan (23).
Ranking 27th in the world with access to between 138 and 146 destinations, Saint Lucia passports rank very high in the second tier between highest and lowest, with the difference with the US at 41 and the EU at 45 (destinations, not nations).
But nowhere on the charts will one find the middle-ground of nations that rank between 168 (the lowest of the highest) and 44 (the highest of the lowest).
So, it’s left to the island’s CIP to seek to sell the relatively high value of the Saint Lucia passport to the growing number of persons wishing for passports other than their country’s.
The small Caribbean nations that depend on CIPs do so to offset the reductions and cancellations of foreign aid by the world’s richest nations.
The richest feel it’s more important to fund Ukraine in a war it’ll never win, than to continue making it possible for millions in developing nations to live day-to-day from medicines funded by international assistance.
Selling ‘citizenship’ of parts of the world to inhabitants of Planet Earth takes a lot to explain to persons considered stateless by states inhabiting spaces destined by history and geography.
Similarly, nationalism will see African and European nations rebelling against unneighborly immigrants – whether in the case of British rejection of Poles who’d work for less than ‘Brits’ or African nations where populations, like in the USA and UK, blame ‘immigrants’ for all their homegrown ‘national security’ problems.
But it all has to do with sale of sovereignty through purchase of citizenship through passports, which is just another example of the declining decadence of appreciation of the common and equal value of every citizen of Planet Earth!
And I rest my case…