STP Family Inclusion: Spouse, Children Under 30, Parents/Grandparents 55+, and the $5K-Per-Dependent Math

Every CBI program prices family inclusion as additive. Add a spouse, add a dependent, add a fee. São Tomé & Príncipe does not work that way. The government donation moves from $90,000 to $95,000 when you add a spouse, and that same $95,000 covers up to four members total. Solo file, couple file, family-of-four file: $5,000 of pricing separates the cheapest and most expensive of those three, before due diligence and advisory.

That is not a discount. That is a different economic model. Here is what it actually says about who STP is built for, who counts as family under the framework, and how the math behaves once you move past four heads.

The Numbers, Flat

The Fundo Nacional de Transformação (FNT) donation under São Tomé's Decreto-Lei n.º 07/2025 is $90,000 for a single applicant and $95,000 for a family of up to four. Inside the family bracket, there is no marginal cost per additional head. A solo file and a couple's file are separated by $5,000; the couple's file and a family-of-three are separated by zero; the family-of-three and family-of-four are separated by zero.

Compare that to the Caribbean. St. Kitts opens at $250,000 for a single applicant. Dominica opens at $200,000. Antigua opens at $230,000. Adding a spouse or dependents to any of those files typically lifts the floor by another $25,000 to $50,000 per head, depending on age band. STP's family bracket of $95,000 sits below every Caribbean single-applicant floor and well under a quarter of Caribbean family-of-four pricing.

Run the per-passport math at family-of-four. STP delivers four citizenships for a $95,000 government donation, or $23,750 per passport. Vanuatu's family-of-four rate ($180,000 government plus $2,500 per person for Birth Registration and National ID) prices at $47,500 per passport. Türkiye's $400,000 covers a family but prices at $100,000 per passport at family-of-four, and the citizenship sits behind a three-year property hold. El Salvador's $1M-plus-$999-per-additional structure prices at roughly $250,750 per passport at family-of-four.

There is no other active CBI program where a Bitcoin family can put four passports in possession for under $25,000 each.

Five thousand dollars to add three more passports to the family stack. That is not a generous per-head discount. That is a sovereign deciding the marginal cost of issuing additional documents to a nuclear family is small enough that it should not gate the file.

Who Counts As Family Under The STP Framework

The four-head bracket runs across three categories: spouse, dependent children, and dependent senior parents or grandparents. Each carries its own qualifying test.

Spouse. A legally married spouse files on the same application with an apostilled marriage certificate. STP also recognizes a documented de-facto partner: a long-term cohabiting partner with proof of shared life (joint lease, joint accounts, shared dependents). De-facto recognition is one of the more permissive postures in the CBI market. Most Caribbean programs require legal marriage; Vanuatu does the same. STP's posture here matters for Bitcoiners whose partnership arrangements may sit outside conventional marriage paperwork.

Children up to age 30. Unmarried children up to age 30 who are financially dependent on the main applicant are eligible. Two sub-bands sit inside that ceiling. Children under 18 are included automatically with their birth certificate. Children aged 18 to 30 require proof of financial dependence: full-time enrollment in an accredited educational program, documented disability, or otherwise verifiable absence of independent income. The 30-year ceiling sits at the permissive end of the global CBI market and is significantly higher than Vanuatu's 25-year cap.

Parents and grandparents aged 55 or older. Parents 55-plus who are financially dependent on the main applicant can be added. Grandparents 55-plus qualify under the same financial-dependence test. STP is one of the few CBI programs that explicitly extends multi-generational filing rights to the senior tier. Caribbean programs that accept parents typically cap age at 65 or require both parents to file as a single unit; STP's 55+ floor and explicit grandparent inclusion make a three-generation filing structurally possible.

The 18-to-30 Dependency Paperwork

The age-30 ceiling on dependent children is the most distinctive feature of the framework, and the band between 18 and 30 is where files actually do paperwork. The Unidade de Cidadania por Investimento e Doação (UCID) reviewing the application wants evidence the adult child sits inside the legal definition of "dependent."

The documentation set is short. A current enrollment letter from an accredited university or technical institute, plus proof of tuition payment by the main applicant. Alternatively: a medical certificate evidencing disability that prevents independent income, plus a sworn statement from the main applicant accepting financial responsibility. Adult children on a gap year, between programs, or in non-accredited tracks face the highest paperwork burden because the dependency narrative is harder to anchor in a single document.

The bar is not high. It is, however, a bar that needs to be cleared with documents rather than assertions.

Multi-generational Math

A Bitcoiner filing for STP citizenship can, in principle, include a spouse, two children, both parents, and surviving grandparents. The four-head ceiling on the $95,000 flat-rate bracket is real, but the post-approval mechanism for additional dependents runs at $5,000 per additional head. A family of six (couple, two children, two parents) prices at $95,000 for the bracket plus $10,000 for the over-cap dependents, or $105,000 in government donations for six passports. That is $17,500 per citizenship at family-of-six. No other active 2026 CBI program comes within a factor of three of that per-passport figure at multi-generational scale.

The post-approval pricing also covers the situation most family applications eventually face: a child is born during or after the application. Newborns of São Tomé citizens receive automatic citizenship by descent under Nationality Law No. 07/2022; the administrative cost of registering that descent runs $500. New spouses added after the main file processes cost $10,000.

What The Framework Is Not

A clean read of the family math requires being clear about what the $5,000-per-additional-dependent number is not.

It is not free citizenship. The $90,000 government donation, the 5% advisory fee, the $5,000 due diligence fee, and the standard apostille, translation, and courier line items still apply. A family of four lands at approximately $105,000 to $110,000 all-in, not $95,000.

It is not a shortcut around due diligence. Every adult applicant clears UCID screening: AML/CTF, sanctions, criminal record, source of funds, adverse media. The UCID memorandum dated April 2026 also temporarily suspends applicants holding three or more foreign passports under Nationality Law No. 07/2022; applicants with one or two existing nationalities remain fully eligible. Multi-citizenship Bitcoiners should map that constraint against their existing passport collection before filing.

It is not legal advice. Family structures interact with tax, inheritance, and immigration law in ways that depend on the specific jurisdictions involved. Consult a qualified tax advisor regarding your specific situation.

Who This Is Built For

The STP family framework selects for three kinds of Bitcoiner. First, the principal applicant whose immediate family (spouse plus one or two children) is the structural unit being protected; the $5,000 marginal cost is the strongest argument against running a sequential, one-passport-at-a-time application strategy. Second, the multi-generational Bitcoiner whose parents or grandparents are still active in family life; the 55+ floor and grandparent eligibility convert STP from a passport into a generational reset. Third, the Bitcoiner positioning the family for the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP) pathway to Portuguese permanent residence and, eventually, EU citizenship; CPLP residency clocks accrue per person, so getting every family member into the CPLP system in a single $95,000 filing is the cheapest entry point to a European future that exists in the market.

A solo Bitcoiner with no spouse, no children, and no aging parents is a perfectly good fit for STP. But the family framework is where the price structure reveals what STP was actually built to do.

Getting Started

Practical first step: get the family's documents in order. Apostilled marriage certificate. Birth certificates for every child, showing both parents. Police clearances for every adult applicant. Source-of-funds documentation that holds up to UCID review. For the 18-to-30 dependent band, current enrollment letters or medical evidence. For the 55-plus parent or grandparent additions, proof of financial dependence.

21 CBI's advisory fee on STP is 5% of the government donation: $4,500 for a single applicant, $4,750 for a family of up to four. The $5,000 due diligence fee is paid at engagement. BTC, Lightning, and USDT are our payment rails for both; credit cards and bank transfers also accepted as needed. 21 CBI's internal pre-qualification screen is a $150,000 minimum bank balance; this is our threshold, not an STP government requirement.

If you want to walk through whether STP is the right shape for your family, book a confidential advisory session. Encrypted. No obligation. No payment required to start the conversation.

Adam Juchniewicz, CEO, 21 CBI US Air Force veteran. Bitcoiner since 2020. Licensed agent of The Bitcoin Office of El Salvador.