Most CBI programs price per applicant; add a spouse and the contribution climbs, add a child and it climbs again. El Salvador does not. The $1,000,000 government contribution is flat across family size and covers the main applicant in full; each additional applicant adds $999 in processing fees. One number for the principal, one rounding-error figure for each dependent.
The canonical government contribution covers the principal applicant in full: due diligence, certification, passport issuance, and national ID. No fiat accepted at the sovereign tier.
Single Applicant
The Freedom Passport contribution settled in BTC or USDT through BTCPay Server. On-chain confirmation in minutes; bottleneck at this stage is government acknowledgment, not banking rails. BTC/USD rate locked at the moment of wire.
Government contribution (flat)
$1,000,000
21 CBI advisory fee (5% flat)
$50,000
Single applicant all-in
$1,050,000
The sovereign contribution does not scale with family size. Each additional applicant beyond the principal adds $999 in processing fees, which covers due diligence, certification, passport, and national ID for that person. The 21 CBI advisory fee is flat across the table.
| Line item | Single | Couple | Family of 3 | Family of 4 | Each add’l |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Government Donation (BTC/USDT, incl. main applicant) | $1,000,000 | $1,000,000 | $1,000,000 | $1,000,000 | $0 (flat) |
| Additional Applicant Fee ($999/person) | $0 | $999 | $1,998 | $2,997 | $999 |
| 21 CBI Advisory Fee (5%) | $50,000 | $50,000 | $50,000 | $50,000 | $0 (flat) |
| All-in total | $1,050,000 | $1,050,999 | $1,051,998 | $1,052,997 | $999 |
All figures USD. Government contribution settled in Bitcoin (BTC) or USDT. Live BTC/USD equivalents at the Cost Calculator.
Externally, $1,000,000 is the canonical figure: that is the headline, that is what the principal application costs, that is what The Bitcoin Office records against the 1,000-participant cap. Internally, the figure decomposes into two lines on the sovereign ledger: $999,001 in sovereign contribution proper, plus $999 in the main-applicant processing fee folded into the headline. The $999 component matches the per-additional-applicant fee, which is how the framework treats every applicant on the same processing footing while leaving the contribution itself sovereign and flat.
The distinction matters only at the bookkeeping level. For families, counterparties, and source-of-funds documentation, treat the $1,000,000 as the single canonical figure for the principal application; treat each additional applicant as $999 in processing fees.
External (canonical)
$1,000,000
The single headline figure for the principal application. Counts as one slot against the annual 1,000-participant cap.
Internal (bookkeeping)
$999,001 + $999
$999,001 sovereign contribution proper plus $999 processing fee for the main applicant, folded into the headline. Visible on the sovereign ledger; not relevant to families.
The Adopting El Salvador framework caps Freedom Passport issuance at 1,000 participants per calendar year. The cap preserves the genuine-link character of the citizenship and keeps issuance proportionate to sovereign capacity. Once the year fills, new applicants enter the queue for the following year.
In practice: engaging earlier in the calendar year improves placement and shortens the review window. The 6 to 8 week processing window applies once you are in the active queue; late-year engagements may see queue carry-over into the subsequent year. We track cap utilisation through The Bitcoin Office and advise on filing timing during engagement.
The $1,000,000 government contribution settles in Bitcoin (BTC) or USDT through BTCPay Server. The Bitcoin Office of El Salvador does not accept fiat for the sovereign contribution: this is a program rule, not a 21 CBI preference. BTC/USD rate locked at the moment of wire; on-chain confirmation in minutes.
For the 21 CBI advisory fee, BTC, Lightning, and USDT are our payment rails; credit cards and bank transfers also accepted as needed. The advisory fee is the only cost line on the engagement that admits any rail beyond Bitcoin and USDT; everything related to the sovereign Salvadoran fees is on-chain only.
The Bitcoin Office of El Salvador and the Dirección General de Migración y Extranjería (DGME) run the source-of-funds review jointly. Among regulators we work with, the Bitcoin Office is the only one designed from the ground up around Bitcoin as a national strategic asset; a clean source-of-wealth file for a Bitcoin-origin position does not require translation between fiat and Bitcoin worlds the way other agencies require.
The full methodology is public: Bitcoin source-of-funds methodology.
At $1,000,000 single-applicant, El Salvador is the highest-priced program 21 CBI advises on. The price funds the only sovereign Bitcoin-aligned citizenship in existence. Non-CRS (no automatic financial-account exchange under the OECD Common Reporting Standard). 0% capital gains on Bitcoin for foreign investors. 132 visa-free destinations including the Schengen Area, processed in 6 to 8 weeks. No other passport in the portfolio carries that combination at any price point.
If the Freedom Passport is the right shape (Bitcoin-native, Non-CRS, Schengen-accessing), the next step is a confidential call. We will give you our honest reading of fit, cap timing, and source-of-funds posture against your specific position. Encrypted. No obligation.
Adam Juchniewicz, CEO, 21 CBI
