Gonsalves granted 403 people SVG citizenship since 2019

Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves has granted Vincentian citizenship to 403 people since 2019.

Gonsalves disclosed the information to Parliament in response to an article published by a St. Lucia website, claiming that the prime minister had granted 352 people Vincentian citizenship in 2019.

The data might have originated in a commentary, which was also sent to iWitness News, in which a writer who uses various pen names said that 352 people were awarded Vincentian citizenship between 2019 and 2024.

However, the information was presented by the St. Lucian media entity as a news article, and the period during which the 352 people were granted citizenship was changed from “2019 to 2024” to “2019”.

The article appeared in the St. Lucia website even as iWitness News was trying to verify the numbers in the commentary we had been asked to consider publishing.

“Now, I would like to address one allied matter which has been drawn to my attention, and I think I should provide it by way of information, because it’s relevant in the circumstances,” Gonsalves told Parliament.

His comments came as he asked lawmakers to pass a law to grant Vincentian citizenship to the surviving members of the 1975 Men’s West Indies Cricket Team.

“… I think I owe the house and the country the presentation of some information in view of what has arisen,” said Gonsalves, who has ministerial responsibility for the granting of citizenship.

He told Parliament that he understood that a website, which he said was “probably a fake website”, had published an article saying that he had granted citizenship to 352 foreigners in 2019.

That same information had been repeated on a radio station, the prime minister noted. 

“Well, I knew straight away that that couldn’t be true, because I know the numbers; not precisely in every year, but broadly,” Gonsalves said.

“And any citizenship which has been granted, been granted within the terms of those eligible for consideration by the authority for citizenship upon application for registration as a citizen,” he said, adding that he had asked his office to provide him with the statistics.

He said that 74 people were granted citizenship in 2019, according to data from “the office of citizenship”. 

Of those 74, 54 were by registration — “… that is to say, persons who have been living here for over a period of seven years, or who got permanent residence and qualified to be a citizen later on”.

The other 20 people obtained Vincentian citizenship through marriage, the prime minister said. 

“Incidentally, onone occasion, I recall that an honourable member of the opposition had asked me a question — might have been 10 years ago — about numbers,” Gonsalves said.

He said that 65 people were granted Vincentian citizenship in 2020 — 35  by marriage and 30 by registration, “within the terms which I have outlined for persons over the seven-year period”.

Gonsalves told Parliament that he was presenting the numbers as they had been given to him.

“I haven’t interrogated them with the staff. I assume that they wouldn’t send me incorrect information,” he said.

In 2021, 55 people were granted citizenship — 36 through marriage and 19  by naturalisation.

In 2022, the figure was 48  — 26 by marriage and 22 by naturalisation.

“In fact, when one of my security officers told me about that, I said, well, the number, that is a hugely inflated number. But in any case, they would be either marriage or by naturalisation,” he interjected, referring to the claim that 252 people were granted citizenship in 2019. 

Then in 2023 — 63 people were granted Vincentian citizenship, 38 by marriage and 25 by naturalisation.

The numbers include three people — two St. Lucian and a Trinidadian — who were granted citizenship under a law that allows the government to grant citizenship to grandchildren of people born in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Gonsalves said. 

The children of people born in SVG are eligible for Vincentian citizenship as a constitutional right. 

The prime minister said that in 2024, 63 people were granted Vincentian citizenship, made up of 17 by way of marriage and 46 by registration 

“Those by registration are through the naturalisation process — and 15 second generations. And interesting for these second generations, they were British, Guyanese, Trinidadian, Canadian,” the prime minister said, adding that they were grandchildren of people born in SVG. 

“And then we had introduced administratively a requirement … if you’re a citizen by descent, first generation, we advise you to come and get a citizenship certificate, so you can have something to say that you’re a first generation, not second. 

“And there were six such persons. But this wouldn’t affect anybody. If you go and you turn up with your birth certificate and so on, the normal way to the passport office for your passport.”

Gonsalves said this was part of an effort by the government to “build a record of first generations, too, now that we have been second generations.

“And then up to the present time, in 2025, we have 12 by marriage up to today, and 23 by naturalisation. 

And first generation who obtained certificates, there were seven of them and those who got second generation… 

“In fact, it is very interesting that most of them,  in this year, British; there are Canadian, American, Guyanese, Trinidadian, but most of them British, who is a grandchildren of Vincentians. So I thought that I will provide the information,” the prime minister said.