How to Know if an Agent Is Pushing You Toward a Specific Programme
Six signs that the advisor on the other end of the call is recommending what suits them, not what suits your family — and what to ask to find out.
An advisory conversation across the desk — the considered work that precedes every recommendation.
A second citizenship is one of the most consequential decisions an internationally mobile family will make. It is also one of the most opaque markets we know of. The same five Caribbean programmes are sold by hundreds of firms — at very different fee structures, with very different incentive arrangements — and most clients never know what is driving the recommendation they receive.
This piece is a short field guide. If you are talking to any citizenship-by-investment firm — including ours — these are the signals worth watching for, and the questions worth asking.
1. The recommendation arrives before the diagnosis
A serious advisor cannot tell you which programme is right for your family in the first five minutes of a first call. They need to understand your nationality, your travel patterns, your family composition, your timeline, your tax exposure, your business interests, and your reasons for wanting a second passport in the first place.
If the firm recommends a specific programme on the first call — before any of that — they are recommending the programme that pays them best. Not the programme that fits you.
Ask: Can you walk me through how you decide which programme to recommend, and what information you need from me before you can?
2. The fee is structured as a commission, not a fixed cost
This is the single most important question, and it is rarely asked. Most CBI firms are paid by the programme — by the country, by the developer if real estate is involved, sometimes by a chain of intermediaries — and the amount they earn varies enormously depending on which programme you choose.
A firm that earns more from one programme than another has an unavoidable incentive to point you in that direction. The only structural fix is a fixed advisory fee paid by the client — not a commission paid by the programme.
Ask: Is your fee fixed, or does it vary depending on which programme I select? Who pays you — me, or the country?
3. A price below the published government minimum
The five Caribbean CBI programmes have published, gazetted minimum contribution levels. They are not negotiable. They are set by Cabinet, posted on government websites, and verifiable by anyone with an internet connection.
If a firm offers you a programme for less than the published minimum, one of three things is true:
- They are quoting an old price that has since changed,
- They are quietly absorbing part of their own commission to win the deal, or
- They are operating outside the programme.
The first is unprofessional. The second is unsustainable — the firm has already proven its fee structure is opaque. The third is illegal.
What makes this particular signal worth watching for is that the most damaging quotes are usually delivered verbally, by phone or in a meeting — never in writing, never on the firm’s own website. A scammer’s website will display the real government minimums, because the firm knows that a public deviation from the gazetted price would invite revocation. The illegal price arrives in conversation. The legal price arrives in the brochure. Both come from the same firm.
Key
Heard you could get a programme for less than the published price? Do three things before you commit.
We give this checklist to every client who has heard a quote that sounds too good to be true. It takes about fifteen minutes and it has, more than once, stopped a serious financial loss.
-
Go to the official government website for the programme. Find the gazetted minimum contribution and the published government processing fees. Compare both against what you have been quoted. If the quoted price is below the published minimum — or if the firm is “absorbing” the processing fees as part of an offer — you are not looking at a legal application.
-
Visit the country’s embassy or high commission in your jurisdiction with the written quote. Ask the official whether the figures match what their citizenship unit charges. Embassies are formally separate from agents, and they have no commercial interest in your decision. Their answer is independent.
-
Ask the firm itself to point you at the regulation that authorises the price they have quoted. Government-set minimums are statutory. There is, by definition, a regulation behind any legitimate fee structure. A firm that cannot produce that regulation — or that produces something vague, or that pivots the conversation — has just told you the answer.
These three checks cost nothing. They are independent of one another. And they are the single best protection an applicant has against the most common form of CBI fraud, which is the firm that sells the application off-book and disappears with the money.
Ask: Can you point me to the official government page where this price is published, and to the regulation that authorises any deviation from it?
4. They steer you away from comparing
A firm that is confident in its recommendation will compare its preferred programme against the alternatives, in writing, with the trade-offs surfaced. A firm that is pushing a single programme will discourage you from looking at the others — usually with phrases like “they’re all basically the same” or “the others aren’t really worth considering.”
The five programmes are not the same. Antigua’s family pricing structure is the most generous; Dominica is the lowest entry point for a single applicant; Grenada has the United States E-2 treaty; St Kitts has the longest institutional history; St Lucia is the youngest and most carefully designed. A firm that won’t compare is a firm that doesn’t want you informed.
Ask: Can you give me a side-by-side comparison of all five, even if you have a preference?
5. The timeline they quote is faster than the published timeline
Caribbean CBI programmes operate on published processing timelines — typically three to six months for a clean file. A firm promising approval in 30 days is either ignoring the actual due diligence the programme requires, or implying a level of influence over the regulator that no agent has.
Caribbean CBI Units are independent of the agents they license. They have to be, by statute. An agent cannot accelerate due diligence; only the unit can.
Ask: What is the published processing timeline on the government website, and how does your timeline compare?
6. Pressure to decide quickly
The most reliable warning sign of any kind. A senior advisor will give you the diagnosis, give you the proposal, and let you take it home. A pushy advisor will tell you the price is going up next month, the programme is changing, the slots are filling. Some of these things are occasionally true. Most of the time, they are sales tactics.
A citizenship decision should never feel like a closing deadline. If it does, the urgency belongs to the firm, not to you.
Ask: If I take a week to think this over, will anything change?
What a clean conversation looks like
The cleanest conversations sound like this:
- The advisor asks more questions than they answer.
- The first piece of paper you receive is a written diagnosis, not a contract.
- The fee structure is explained on the first call, and it does not change depending on which programme you choose.
- Government website links are offered, not avoided.
- The advisor tells you, plainly, when a programme is not suitable for your circumstances.
- No one mentions a deadline that isn’t published by the government itself.
If a firm cannot do these six things, the conversation is not advisory. It is a sale.
A closing note
We hold ourselves to this standard publicly, and we expect to be measured against it. Our fee is fixed at the same level regardless of which of the five programmes you choose. We compare all five in writing, in every Diagnosis. We do not begin an application until eligibility is confirmed against the relevant CBI Unit’s published standards — and if a file we have accepted is denied, we refund every payment made on the file, including the government’s non-refundable fees.
If you are in conversation with another firm and want a private second read on what you’ve been told, we will give you one — without taking the file from them. You can speak with a senior advisor at PassPro or request a confidential consultation at your convenience. The point of this guide is not to win your business. The point is for you to leave any CBI conversation, with any firm, knowing what you are being sold and why.
Have a specific question?
A senior advisor will answer it directly. Free, no obligation.
Begin a Confidential Conversation