HONDURAS - HOW TO ACQUIRE CITIZENSHIP AND PASSPORT BY NATURALISATION

HONDURAS

GENERAL INFORMATION

Capital:                          Tegucigalpa

Area:                              112,090 km² (102^nd in the world)

Highest point:               Cerro Las Minas (2870 m a.s.l.)

Population:                   8,045,990 (95^th in the world, 2010 estimate)

Population density:    62/km² (135^th in the world)

Language:                     Spanish, Indian dialects, also English and Creole on the Caribbean coast

Religion:                        Roman Catholic 96%, Protestant 3%, other religions 1% (Islam, Buddhism, etc.)

Form of government: Presidential republic

Independence:            15 September 1821 (independence of Spain)

Currency:                      Honduran lempira (HNL)

Calling code:               +504

Internet domain:       .hn

Honduras is a country in Central America. Its neighbours are Guatemala in the northwest, El Salvador in the southwest and Nicaragua in the southeast. The south of the country borders on the Atlantic Ocean; the opposite side is surrounded by the Caribbean Sea. Administratively, Honduras consists of 18 departments. Honduras belongs among the poorer Latin American nations, but large amounts of foreign capital and investments have flown into the country in recent years thanks to good investment incentives. The government has adopted numerous incentives (zero or low taxes, easy acquisition of residency or citizenship for foreigners) to attract foreign capital to the country. The GDP per capita in 2015 was USD 4500. Most of the Honduran exports are agricultural produce such as coffee, bananas, palm oil, tobacco, cigars, seafood, semi-finished products, and textiles.

ACT ON NATURALISATION AND CITIZENSHIP

The immigration policy and the citizenship law are governed by several acts of law, which have been modernised recently. According to the Citizenship (Naturalisation) Act of Honduras, Article 24, the following may become a citizen of Honduras by means of naturalisation:

1. A citizen of a Central American country who has had at least one year of residency in Honduras, or

2. A citizen of Spain who has had two consecutive years of residency in Honduras, or

3. Other foreigners who have had a place of residence in Honduras for more than three consecutive years, or

4. Acquisition and award of citizenship to a foreigner immediately if announced and approved by the National Congress of Honduras for outstanding merit and services provided by the foreigner for Honduras, or

5. A foreigner who is part of a preferred group in selected governmental projects serving scientific purposes, agriculture or industry, after one year of residency in the country, or

6. A foreign woman who marries a Honduran man (applies to women only).

DOCUMENTS REQUIRED FOR THE APPLICATION

The following documents are required from an applicant for naturalisation; they have to be translated into the SPANISH LANGUAGE!!

1. A colour photocopy of your passport (all the pages completely)

2. A colour photocopy of your ID (all the pages completely)

3. A colour photocopy of your birth certificate (all the pages)

4. Your parents’ personal information (name, surname, date of birth, place of birth, nationality, address of residence)

6. A colour digital passport photo (has to be in JPG, TIFF, PNG or PDF)

7. A completed application for naturalisation

8. A 100% payment for the services

Documents provided by our legal office for you and included in the price of services specified below:

-          letters of proxy and fees for their registration

-          honorary declaration by a citizen of Honduras that they have known the applicant for several years as a decent and exemplary person

-          guarantee for the applicant by a citizen of Honduras

-          Honduran criminal register

-          government fees for the application

-          notarial fees

-          a physician’s declaration of the applicant’s good health

APPLICATION FILING PROCEDURE

The applicant has to send us the documents specified in 1 to 7 above first electronically by e-mail (in PDF, JPG, TIFF or PNG) for verification, and then by courier services DHL/Fedex or UPS. The payment for the service together with the documents. (More on the payment below in the section Price of services). We issue an invoice for the client. In case the Honduran authorities do not approve the application, we return 100% of the money to the client. The experience is that 99.9% of all applications are approved, because we check and process them carefully in advance.

After receiving the application and payment, our legal office processes the application within 48 hours and files it with the applicable authorities in Honduras. Within 14 days, 99.9% of naturalisation applications are approved, followed by registration of the applicant as a new citizen in the Honduran system, i.e., the population database, citizen register, etc. As soon as the entry is made, which does not take longer than approx. 5 more days, we can request a new Honduran birth certificate and a Honduran citizenship confirmation for our client. We then legalise the birth certificate for the client at the Honduran Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which gives it a so-called apostille (as per the Hague Convention). The whole procedure takes no longer than 30 days, only 14 days in most cases thanks to our 25 years of experience and personal contacts in the region. That is the end of the procedure for us; we send you the legalised original birth certificate and confirmation of Honduran naturalisation and citizenship first as a copy by e-mail and then as the original to your desired address.

Afterwards, you can collect your passport from any embassy or consulate of Honduras, or personally in Honduras (recommended), as any other citizen and national of Honduras. You can only collect your citizen ID in Honduras; the embassy does not process those. If you do not intend to live in Honduras permanently, you will only need a birth certificate and passport. We can arrange a duplicate of the birth certificate or any legalisation in connection with your citizenship, documents or passport at any point in the future, for a tolerable fee of tens of dollars and the postage costs. Of course, being a regular citizen of Honduras, you can arrange any personal documents directly in Honduras or at any embassy without our assistance.

WHY SECOND CITIZENSHIP AND PASSPORT

There are a number of reasons; the majority of our customers have given the following reasons in the last 25 years:

-          visa-free travel to most countries of the world (more than 105 countries of the world, including Europe and the EU);

-          avoidance of foreign currently restrictions in your or other country;

-          easier access to international markets by changing your citizenship;

-          banking and financial reasons;

-          easy opening of bank accounts abroad;

-          war or riots in your own country;

-          political instability in the applicant’s country;

-          settlement in a neutral and friendly country;

-          avoidance of tax duties in your own country;

-          protection of financial assets;

-          threat of citizenship or passport withdrawal in your country;

-          tax-related reasons;

-          etc.

VISA-FREE TRAVEL

A Honduran passport offers its holder visa-free travel to most countries of the world, notably European countries, including Schengen Area countries, Central and South American countries, the Caribbean, and many other countries of the world. As a holder of a Honduran passport, you have a very easy path to acquiring any visa for any country of the world, including Canada and the USA. The list of countries not requiring a visa expands with additional countries every year, totalling over 105 today (see attachment), which far exceeds “competing” offers such as that of Dominica (not to be confused with the Dominican Republic), Belize, St. Vincent, St. Kitts and Nevis, Panama, etc.

PRICE AND FEES

The price per person is USD 15,000; for other family members it is USD 9,000 for each other person older than 18 years. With respect to similar schemes of countries such as Dominica (not to be confused with the Dominican Republic), Belize, St. Vincent, St. Kitts and Nevis, Panama, etc., where the prices are between 150 and 250 thousand USD and subsequent additional legal costs of up to 50 thousand USD per application, and the procedure taking from 3 to 9 months and often even longer, Honduras is the best option, also considering the visa-free travel options, which countries such as Belize, Dominica, Panama, etc., clearly do not offer.

The fee is payable upon ordering the services to our bank account; we also accept payments in case, via PayPal, Western Union, MoneyGram. We do not accept cheques. If you do not wish to pay us for an ordered service beforehand, we offer our clients the option to set up a fiduciary (deposit) account with:

-          the International Court of Arbitration in Santo Domingo, or

-          the Institute of International Cooperation and Development of Latin America, or

-          the Czech-Dominican Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The fiduciary (deposit) account service works in the way that agreement are made (in the English language), where our legal office pledges to arrange for the client (you) a service connected with acquisition of citizenship, for which you (the client) pledge to pay the appropriate amount, which you have deposited with one of the three institutions above. As soon as we have arranged all the services for you, the institution releases the money for us, so that you are certain to obtain what you have ordered to the extent, quality and time promised by us and expected by you, and we are certain to be paid for the services rendered for you.

CONTACTS:

COMPANIES HOUSE DR SRL

Plaza Central, Piso No. 2, Inposdom Oficina No. 341-7

Avenida Winston Churchill, 10149 Santo Domingo - Piantini

República Dominicana

Tel: +18294305152

Fax: +18299548127

E-mail:info@companieshousedr.com