Spouses applying for citizenship in Saint Kitts and Nevis face different police-check instructions

Resolve the police-history period before ordering certificates

Spouses preparing citizenship applications for Saint Kitts and Nevis should establish the police-record coverage with their receiving mission before paying for certificates. This current-rule guide compares the published regulations with mission instructions, which do not describe the same history period. The 2024 Marriage and Child Applications Regulations require police certificates covering places where the applicant resided during the three years before submission.

London describes a six-month residence history and certificates no more than six months old. Ask how to satisfy the regulation’s three-year coverage: certificate age and history coverage are different requirements.

Check the supporting packet for the mission you will use

Washington’s Forms and Documents page lists a completed application and medical certificate, two passport photographs, notarised birth-certificate and passport-data copies, the spouse’s birth certificate, citizenship evidence where applicable and the applicant’s criminal background check. It separately says its medical-certificate form accompanies all citizenship applications. Use that mission’s linked marriage and medical forms when asking it to assess a United States submission.

The London packet requires four photographs and originals, even when certified copies are supplied. Toronto’s published checklist permits original or notarised civil-document copies and lists two photographs. Confirm photograph numbers with the receiving mission. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs forms directory identifies citizenship by marriage separately from descent and names National Security as the submission authority. Start with the marriage packet, then confirm the mission-specific original-document requirements.

Toronto also requests a divorce decree or death certificate if either partner was previously married, and citizenship evidence for the spouse where applicable. Its photographs must be signed by the recommender. Those instructions make the supporting history important: the current marriage certificate does not, by itself, supply the requested evidence about an earlier marriage or the spouse’s citizenship.

Clarify the older three-year marriage instruction

Toronto’s checklist also says applicants must have been married for at least three years. A government Cabinet statement issued on 20 May 2019 reports a different position: Cabinet found no legal requirement imposing a waiting period apart from an unwritten policy considered at variance with the law, and approved processing marriage applications from 13 May 2019 subject to the relevant documents.

That statement is historical evidence of the policy decision, not proof that every later checklist has been corrected. The published 2024 regulations identify an applicant aged at least 18 who is a citizen’s spouse. Ask National Security to clarify the applicable marriage-duration requirement if a receiving mission relies on the older three-year instruction. The unresolved checklist difference should be settled before a couple plans a submission around an assumed anniversary deadline.

Confirm the base fee and the mission’s additional charges

The regulations specify a non-refundable XCD 1,000 application fee. Washington publishes USD 372 payable by cashier’s cheque to the Accountant General. London lists GBP 175 for a marriage before 1983 and GBP 350 after 1983, by bank draft to the Accountant General. These are published service instructions, not currency conversions calculated here or a confirmed individual quotation.

London also lists GBP 75 forwarding and GBP 50 per original requiring attestation, invoiced after physical-file checking. Request the current assessment. The regulations allow commissioned due-diligence checks at the applicant’s cost, notified before commissioning; no fixed amount was verified.

Distinguish preliminary mission checking from the ministry decision

London requires PDF scans for consular review before posting originals with the bank draft. Additional attestation and forwarding charges follow its invoice. This preliminary check precedes dispatch of the paper file; no enquiry was sent for this report.

The regulations provide for a final decision no later than 24 months after submission to the Ministry. That is not a promised two-year approval, and preliminary mission checking is not the same event as ministry submission. London says the Ministry provides no definitive processing timescale or expedited service. Confirm receipt at the appropriate stage and avoid treating acceptance of scans as citizenship being granted or as permission for an urgent journey.