BASSETERRE, St Kitts and Nevis — Kittitians and Nevisians living abroad could soon have a clearer path to claiming citizenship through their ancestry, following the passage of legislation designed to reconnect eligible descendants with the Federation.

The St Christopher and Nevis Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2026, was passed in the National Assembly on October 23, with Attorney General Garth Wilkin urging eligible members of the diaspora to return, invest and contribute to national development.

“Come home. Come home to own land without asking permission. Come home to build, to invest, to teach, to heal, to farm, to retire,” Wilkin told the Assembly.

The amendment allows adults born abroad on or after September 19, 1983, whose parent or grandparent became a citizen of St Kitts and Nevis at Independence, to apply for registration as citizens.

The government says the change addresses a gap in the law that had left some descendants without a route to citizenship through their ancestry for 43 years.

Wilkin said the reform was also intended to bring more skills, investment and expertise into the country as the government pursues its Sustainable Island State Agenda.

“We cannot build that with fifty-one thousand people, Madame Speaker. Nobody could,” he said, pointing to nationals living in cities and communities including Toronto, New York, New Jersey, Birmingham, Leeds and Bermuda.

He argued that the Federation needed to make better use of the knowledge and experience of its people overseas, rather than relying on their support from afar.

“For forty-three years we have asked those people to love this country from a distance. We have taken their remittances and their barrels and their Christmas visits and we have given them, in return, a passport that says they belong to somebody else. This Bill ends that,” Wilkin said.

“It says to the children and grandchildren of the men and women who left these shores in the hard years: you are not the diaspora. You are the Federation. You always were.”

The government intends to begin accepting applications under the new Section 3A pathway on Monday, November 2, 2026, subject to the necessary regulations being enacted.

Application forms are expected to be available through the Ministry of National Security, Immigration and Citizenship in Basseterre, its website and St Kitts and Nevis’ overseas diplomatic missions.

Arrangements are also being developed to allow applicants to pay online by card, while overseas missions will assist those applying from abroad.