Contents
Thirty-nine chapters on the law and practice of the Federation: its political and legal system, the Nevis and St Kitts international sectors, shipping and intellectual property, local business, regulation, real estate and citizenship by investment.
Prentice & Co is a commercial law firm based in Charlestown, Nevis, founded in 2019 by Vieoence Prentice. The firm acts for local and international clients and specialises in corporate and commercial law, dispute resolution, financial services regulation, private client matters and real estate. Its practice pairs an international outlook with deep local knowledge. Much of its work is cross-border, and the firm regularly acts alongside counsel in London, the United States and the wider Caribbean.
Vieoence Prentice, Principal
Vieoence Prentice founded Prentice & Co after extensive experience in England and the wider Caribbean in corporate, commercial, regulatory, banking, intellectual property and public law. He began his career with the financial services regulator in Nevis, where as Registrar of Insurance he helped develop the island’s international insurance regulatory regime. He read law at the London School of Economics and Political Science and holds a finance degree from Pennsylvania State University, where he was a Schreyer Scholar. Most recently he completed the Harvard Law School Executive Education programme in mergers and acquisitions.
Contact
Prentice & Co
P.O. Box 1228, Main Street
Charlestown, Nevis
St Kitts and Nevis
T: +1 869 660 8282
E: vp@prenticeandco.com
W: www.prenticeandco.com
Few jurisdictions of any size offer the range that the Federation of St Kitts and Nevis fits into 261 square kilometres (101 square miles). It is a stable Westminster-model democracy inside a currency union whose dollar has held its US peg for fifty years, with a common-law court system culminating in the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. It operates the world’s oldest citizenship-by-investment programme and an open international ship registry. Nevis is home to an international finance centre whose statutes are studied, and copied, well beyond the Caribbean. And its tourism and real-estate economy continues to attract marquee resort brands.
It is also a jurisdiction that rewards accurate, current information. The Federation is, for many commercial purposes, two legal environments wearing one flag. The National Assembly legislates federally while the Nevis Island Assembly maintains its own ordinances. The years since 2023 have brought genuine change: a consolidated and repriced citizenship programme under new regulations, a first dedicated Nevis limited partnership law, a new online gaming regime, a modernised copyright statute, expanded regulatory powers for the Financial Services Regulatory Commission, and intensifying international attention to investment migration. Much of what circulates online about St Kitts and Nevis is out of date. Some of it was never right.
This guide is our answer. Across thirty-nine chapters it sets out the law and practice of doing business in the Federation as they stand in August 2026. It does so candidly, including where the jurisdiction’s arrangements are untested or under pressure, because that candour is what makes the rest of the guide worth relying on. Each chapter closes with a practical note drawn from experience: the trap people fall into, the sequencing that saves time, the question to resolve before spending money.
We hope you find it useful. We would also be glad to help with what a guide cannot do, which is applying the law to your particular facts.
Prentice & Co
Charlestown, Nevis
August 2026
The guide moves from foundation to application. Part I describes the political and legal architecture everything else sits on. Parts II and III cover the international (“offshore”) sectors of Nevis and St Kitts respectively. The statutes are separate, and so are the chapters. Part IV covers the international ship registry and intellectual property. Part V turns to operating domestically: local companies, the tax framework, banking, non-profits and insurance. Part VI profiles the regulators. Part VII covers real estate, tourism and development. Part VIII closes with the Citizenship by Investment Programme, covering its origins, its current requirements and the international landscape around it.
This guide is published by Prentice & Co for general information only. It is not legal, tax or investment advice, and it is not a substitute for advice on your particular circumstances. The law is stated as at 20 August 2026 on the basis of sources believed reliable at that date. Legislation, fees, government policy and international arrangements described here change frequently, and some figures are set by administrative practice that can move without published notice. No reader should act, or refrain from acting, on the basis of this guide without taking professional advice, and nothing in it creates an attorney-client relationship. To the fullest extent permitted by law, Prentice & Co accepts no liability for loss arising from reliance on this publication.