In truth you can actually effectively “buy” citizenship in just about any country in the world if we look at it from the point of view investing some of your life (and subsequently your time and money). You can eventually become naturalised via a process that would naturally come with various investments into the economy of that country. That’s not what I’m bringing into focus with this post however. What I’m going to discuss here is the outright act of buying citizenship!
Yes, it’s possible to effectively buy a passport of a country in which you were not born and then enjoy full citizenship rights as a result! It’s not as straight forward as something like “depositing money into the government’s bank account,” or anything like that, if there is such a thing in any case.
Controversy
Because of the big scowl worn across the international community’s face in relation to the practice of trading “economic citizenship,” those countries which effectively sell citizenship have made attempts to be a little more subtle and I guess “ethical” about it. So it’s not a matter of just flying in to the likes of Dominica, Malta, Saint Kitts and Nevis and quite a few others and then completing a transfer to receive your passport a few short days later.
What this process entails is investing in some or other designated investment area which is either set up by the government of the country you want to buy citizenship from, or a programme which is accredited by that government. In some cases you have what I believe to be the most logical options if it was indeed your plan to actually live in the country from which you purchase citizenship, like buying a property counting as an accredited investment in exchange for the passport you require.
Why a second passport?
I guess if my engagement in Multilotto.co.uk yielded some of what I like to call “goodbye money” – money which if I had would have me saying “goodbye” a lot more, since I’d be travelling that much more – I would probably add dual-citizenship to my shopping list, but only as far as such an investment would actually make sense to my situation and not be too much of a hassle. I mean I can understand exactly why someone from somewhere like South Africa would want to buy citizenship in a country like Dominica of the Caribbean – they’d be able to travel to places like Switzerland without needing to apply for a visa – but for someone who is from the UK for example, you’d also have to have specific reasons for wanting to own a second passport from the likes of Greece, Guatemala, Malta, Cyprus, and even Austria and Germany!
One of the major reasons is tax – many of these places which sell citizenship offer tax free living or have very low taxes in comparison to the likes of the UK and the U.S.A, which is why many investors go on to set up companies in those regions.
From where would you buy a second passport if you won some of that “goodbye” money, if you would consider it at all?
