Nauru's citizenship programme currently has the lowest starting price of any covered on this site, From USD 90,000 for the main applicant, the government minimum before agent and professional fees. That figure is not the programme's standard price. It comes from a time-limited designation called the Iruwa Initiative, and on the current instruments it ends on 31 December 2026. If you are considering Nauru, the end date is the single most important fact about the price.
Everything below comes from Nauru's own published legislation and gazette notices, as recorded in our data.
Step one: the law that made discounts possible
The reduced price rests on a power added to the programme's Act in December 2025. Amendment Act No. 50 of 2025, dated 23 December 2025, let the Cabinet designate “special projects” that carry temporary discounts on the contribution. The same Act set a limit: due diligence fees cannot be discounted.
So the discount is a creature of a specific Cabinet power, not a general price change. That is why it has a start date, an end date and a name.
Step two: a new fee schedule in January 2026
On 29 January 2026, Amendment Regulations SL 2 of 2026 introduced a new fee schedule for the programme, covering the contribution, application fee, due diligence and administration fees, and moving filing to electronic means. The same regulations split the fees into a filing stage and an approval stage, which becomes important when the end of the discount approaches, as explained below. That schedule's contribution is the standard rate, the one that applies outside any special project.
Step three: the Iruwa designation
The first special project under the new power was the Iruwa Initiative. Its designation cut the main applicant's contribution from the standard rate to USD 90,000 for the period from 29 January to 30 June 2026.
Step four: the extension to 31 December 2026
On 5 June 2026, before the first period ran out, the Cabinet extended the designation to 31 December 2026, by an instrument published in the government gazette.
| Date | Instrument | What it did |
|---|---|---|
| 23 December 2025 | Amendment Act No. 50 of 2025 | Allowed Cabinet to designate special projects with temporary contribution discounts |
| 29 January 2026 | Amendment Regulations SL 2 of 2026 | New fee schedule, including the standard contribution |
| 29 January 2026 | Iruwa Initiative designation | Reduced main-applicant contribution until 30 June 2026 |
| 5 June 2026 | Extension of the designation | Reduced contribution kept until 31 December 2026 |
What the discount does not change
The reduction applies to the main applicant's contribution only. Every other fee in the schedule stays where it was. That includes the per-person due diligence fees, which the Act says cannot be discounted, the contributions for dependants aged 16 and over, and the passport fees. Dependants under 16 carry no contribution at all in the schedule, so for a young family the discount on the main applicant's contribution is a larger share of the government total than it is for a family with older children. It also leaves the extra contribution for siblings, who became eligible dependants under the same December 2025 Act, untouched.
One structural detail is easy to miss: the agent's fee and the programme office's administration fee are taken out of the contribution before it reaches the treasury fund, rather than added on top. Our reading: because those two fees are fixed sums, the discount comes out of the share that reaches the treasury fund.
Other changes to the programme in 2026
The price is not the only thing that moved this year. Three other official changes are worth knowing about if you are applying around the end of the Iruwa period:
- From 31 March 2026, an amending Act made the Minister for the Program Office the responsible minister, and allowed the minister to refuse an application directly, without taking it to Cabinet.
- From 12 May 2026, a constitutional amendment changed the country's name to Naoero throughout the programme legislation, and the programme is now styled the Naoero Economic and Climate Resilience Citizenship Program.
- In August 2026, a public-service post of Director for the programme was created in the Office of the Registrar, within the Department of Justice and Border Control.
None of these changes the price, but the first matters for anyone whose file raises questions: refusals no longer need to go through Cabinet.
What happens after 31 December 2026
On the current instruments, the designation expires at the end of 2026, and from then the standard contribution in the January 2026 fee schedule applies again. There are two ways that could change. The Cabinet could extend the designation again, as it did in June, or it could designate a new special project with its own terms. Neither had been announced in the official sources we checked.
The timing question nobody publishes
Here is the practical problem. Nauru splits its fees into two stages: application and due diligence fees are paid when the file is submitted, and the contribution and passport fees are paid when the approval-in-principle letter is issued, within 30 days. The programme office says approval typically takes three to four months from submission.
Put those together and an application filed in the autumn of 2026 might reach approval, and the contribution due date, after 31 December. We did not find a provision in the designation or its extension that says which date decides the rate: filing, approval or payment. Ask your agent to confirm in writing which contribution will apply to your file, and on what basis, before you submit.
Is the reduced price a reason to hurry?
In our view, the price should not be the only reason. Nauru's other features carry more weight over the life of the passport: its holders have visa-free short-stay access to the Schengen area, the UK has required visit visas since December 2025, and its family definition is one of the widest of any programme. Those are covered on the Nauru programme page, and our post on which relatives each programme includes compares the family rules.
If you are weighing Nauru against the alternatives, the Nauru and São Tomé comparison sets the two lowest-priced programmes side by side, and the cost page explains what makes up the full total beyond the starting price.