How to verify a licensed El Salvador agent.
Before you trust anyone with a $1,000,000 decision, confirm they are who they say they are. The Bitcoin Office authorizes agents, and Director Stacy Herbert signs the authorizations. This page is the checklist: ask for the certificate, check the dates, confirm the entity, and make sure the contribution settles to the government wallet, not to a middleman. Don't trust, verify.
Five checks before you move a single sat.
Authorization for the Freedom Passport flows from The Bitcoin Office, not from a firm's marketing. Each of these five checks rests on a record you can open yourself. Run them on us, and run them on anyone else who asks for your trust.
Ask to see it
A genuine Licensed Agent is authorized by The Bitcoin Office, and the authorization is a written certificate. Ask for it and read it. If an agent cannot produce one, the claim is unverified, full stop.
Confirm the authority
Director Stacy Herbert of The Bitcoin Office signs agent authorizations. The signing authority matters as much as the agent's own name; a certificate with no authorizing signature authorizes nothing.
Check it is in force
A certificate carries validity dates. Confirm the authorization is current, not lapsed. Ours is valid 27 February 2026 to 26 February 2027, and those dates are printed on the document you can open.
Match the legal name
The legal entity on the certificate should match the entity on your contract and invoice. 21 CBI operates as Bitcitizen LLC; both names appear on our materials so the chain is transparent, not hidden.
Government, not agent
The $1,000,000 contribution settles to the El Salvador government wallet in BTC or USDT, never to an agent. The reserve it feeds is auditable on-chain at bitcoin.gob.sv.
Apply it to us first
We publish our own certificate so you can run all five checks on 21 CBI before you run them on anyone else. The credential is on the record, not asserted. View the certificate
Authority flows from the state, not from a brand.
Verification is easy once you know where authority comes from. It does not come from a logo, a polished website, or the word “official.” It comes from a signed authorization issued by The Bitcoin Office.
Follow the chain, because it is what separates an authorized agent from a confident stranger. The Freedom Passport is established under Legislative Decrees No. 918 and No. 286 and administered by The Bitcoin Office in coordination with the Dirección General de Migración y Extranjería (DGME). Within that structure, The Bitcoin Office authorizes agents, and Director Stacy Herbert signs the authorizations. An agent does not appoint itself; it is appointed, in writing, by the institution that runs the program. The certificate is the evidence of that appointment, which is why the first and most important step is simply to ask to read it.
This is also why titles do their work in the dark. Words like processor, official partner, representative, or facilitator carry no authority by themselves. Some parties using them are legitimate sub-agents working under a licensed agent; others are not authorized at all. The label tells you nothing. The certificate tells you everything: the entity, the signing authority of The Bitcoin Office, and the validity dates. You can confirm the program's own legitimacy independently on the legitimacy page, and read the full program record on the Freedom Passport page.
The contribution settles to the government, not the agent.
The single most important thing to understand about the money is also the simplest. The $1,000,000 government contribution and the agent's advisory fee are two different payments, to two different places. Confusing them is exactly the gap a bad actor would exploit.
$1,000,000 to the government wallet
The flat $1,000,000 contribution is paid in Bitcoin or USDT and settles directly to the El Salvador government wallet. It is never sent to an agent's personal or company account. The national reserve it feeds is published and verifiable on-chain at bitcoin.gob.sv.
$50,000 to the agent, separately
The agent charges a separate advisory fee, a flat 5%, payable in BTC, Lightning, USDT, or fiat, due at approval. That fee is the agent's; the government contribution is not. A licensed agent prepares and submits your file, never custodying the contribution.
A private wallet for the contribution
If anyone asks you to send the $1,000,000 to a private wallet they control, or to an escrow they describe but cannot evidence, stop. The contribution route is to the government, and it is the same regardless of which licensed agent files your case.
Read the reserve yourself
You do not have to take anyone's word that the program is real or that the money has a sovereign home. The national Bitcoin reserve, approximately 7,684 BTC as of June 2026, is auditable block by block at bitcoin.gob.sv.
The full cost breakdown, including the all-in tiers, sits on the cost page and the pricing page. How a contribution is paid in Bitcoin is set out on the pay-in-Bitcoin page.
Run it line by line, before you commit.
Keep this open while you talk to any agent, ours included. Each line is a question with a verifiable answer; if a line cannot be answered with a record, treat that as the answer.
This is a diligence guide, not legal or tax advice. Verifying an agent confirms standing to file; it is not a guarantee of any outcome on your specific application, which depends on your own facts and a clean source of funds. The screening you pass is set out on the source-of-funds page.
We hold ourselves to the same standard.
A verification guide is worth nothing if the firm writing it hides its own credential. So we publish ours, in full, and invite you to run all five checks on us first.
21 CBI, operating as Bitcitizen LLC, is a Licensed Agent authorized by Director Stacy Herbert of The Bitcoin Office, valid 27 February 2026 to 26 February 2027. The certificate is not described; it is published. You can open it, read the entity, confirm the signing authority, and check the dates, then decide. The advisor is Adam Juchniewicz, CEO of 21 CBI, with a background in U.S. immigration policy, an LL.M. from the University of Malta, and a holder of Bitcoin since 2020.
If a firm will not show you its certificate, you have your answer. We show you ours first, because that is the standard we are asking you to hold everyone to. Don't trust, verify.
That is the view of Adam Juchniewicz, CEO of 21 CBI, and it is the operating principle of this site: every claim we make about our own standing points to a record you can open, not a sentence you have to believe. Read the certificate at the El Salvador agent license, see who stands behind it on the about page, and when you are ready to begin, do it on the record at the first call.
Verification is for the careful, not the credulous.
This page is for the buyer who intends to commit $1,000,000 and wants to confirm the counterparty before, not after. If that is you, the checklist above is the whole job: ask for the certificate, confirm the signing authority and the dates, match the entity, and make sure the contribution settles to the government wallet. It is not for someone looking for a reason to skip diligence because a website looked professional, or because a party called itself official; a logo is not a license, and a title is not a signature. None of this casts doubt on El Salvador, which is a lawful, sovereign program established under Decrees No. 918 and No. 286. It is about the party in front of you. Verify them, and the rest of the decision is yours to make on the facts.
The diligence questions.
How do I verify that an El Salvador Freedom Passport agent is licensed?
Ask the agent for their authorization certificate and read it. A genuine Licensed Agent is authorized by The Bitcoin Office, and the authorizations are signed by Director Stacy Herbert. Check four things on the certificate: the name of the legal entity, the signature of the authorizing authority, the validity dates, and whether the certificate is published rather than merely described. If an agent cannot show you a certificate, or shows one with no signing authority or expired dates, treat the claim as unverified. 21 CBI, operating as Bitcitizen LLC, publishes its certificate in full: it is valid 27 February 2026 to 26 February 2027.
Who authorizes Freedom Passport agents in El Salvador?
The Bitcoin Office authorizes agents for the El Salvador Freedom Passport, and Director Stacy Herbert signs the authorizations. The program itself is established under Legislative Decrees No. 918 and No. 286 and administered by The Bitcoin Office in coordination with the Dirección General de Migración y Extranjería (DGME). No private firm authorizes itself; authority flows from the signed authorization of The Bitcoin Office, which is why the signature and the signing authority on a certificate matter as much as the agent's own name.
Does the $1,000,000 contribution go to the agent?
No. The $1,000,000 contribution settles directly to the El Salvador government wallet, in Bitcoin or USDT, never to an agent's personal or company account. A licensed agent prepares and submits your file and charges a separate advisory fee; the agent never custodies the government contribution. If anyone asks you to send the $1,000,000 to a private wallet they control, or to an escrow they describe but cannot evidence, stop. The national reserve that the contribution feeds is auditable on-chain at bitcoin.gob.sv.
What is the difference between a licensed agent and a processor or official partner?
The only status that carries authority is a Licensed Agent authorized by The Bitcoin Office, with a signed certificate. Titles such as processor, official partner, representative, or facilitator carry no authority by themselves and are not a substitute for an authorization certificate. Some of these parties are legitimate sub-agents working under a licensed agent; some are not authorized at all. The test is the same in every case: ask for the certificate, confirm the signing authority of The Bitcoin Office, and check the validity dates. If a party calls itself official but cannot produce a verifiable certificate, the title is marketing, not standing.
How do I check that the legal entity behind an agent is real?
Confirm the legal entity named on the certificate matches the entity you are contracting with and the entity that issues your invoice. A trading name and a legal name can differ legitimately: 21 CBI operates as Bitcitizen LLC, and both appear on our materials so the chain is transparent. What should never differ is the name on the authorization certificate and the name on the contract you sign. If the certificate names one entity and your agreement names another with no stated relationship, ask why before you proceed.
What is the legal basis of the El Salvador Freedom Passport, and how do I cross-check it?
The Freedom Passport is established under Legislative Decrees No. 918 and No. 286, with the 2025 Bitcoin-law amendment in Decreto Legislativo No. 199. It is administered by The Bitcoin Office in coordination with the DGME, within the LEAD digital-asset framework supervised by CNAD. You can cross-check two things independently of any agent: the legal basis, by reference to the decrees, and the national Bitcoin reserve, approximately 7,684 BTC as of June 2026, which is published and verifiable on-chain at bitcoin.gob.sv. An agent who relies on these public records, rather than asking you to take their word, is showing you the right thing.
What are the red flags of an unauthorized Freedom Passport agent?
Five red flags: no authorization certificate, or one with no signing authority; a certificate with expired or absent validity dates; a request to send the $1,000,000 contribution to a private wallet rather than the government wallet; a self-applied title such as official partner or processor with no verifiable certificate behind it; and a mismatch between the entity on the certificate and the entity on your contract. Any single one is enough to pause. None of these is about El Salvador, which is a lawful, sovereign program; they are about the counterparty in front of you. Don't trust, verify.
How can I verify 21 CBI specifically?
21 CBI, operating as Bitcitizen LLC, is a Licensed Agent authorized by Director Stacy Herbert of The Bitcoin Office, valid 27 February 2026 to 26 February 2027. The certificate is published at passport.sv/assets/el-salvador-agent-license.pdf; you can open it and read the entity, the signing authority, and the dates rather than take a description of it. The advisor is Adam Juchniewicz, CEO of 21 CBI. We apply the same test to ourselves that we ask you to apply to anyone: the credential is on the record, not asserted.
Don't trust. Verify.
Ask for the certificate, confirm the signing authority and the dates, and make sure the contribution settles to the government wallet. Run those checks on us first: our credential is published, our entity is named, and the dates are on the document. Then, if El Salvador fits, book a confidential session with Adam.