I seldom link to articles at Huffpost with approval, today is an exception. They have a quite interesting column about U.S. citizens purchasing passports, which is to say “citizenship,” in other countries without giving up their U.S. citizenship. Caveat: it takes a sh*tload of money.
Henley & Partners, the world’s premier passport brokering company, said that in 2022, more Americans inquired about citizenship by investment — programs that allow people to pay for citizenship instead of gaining it by demonstrating their ties to a country — than in any previous year. Americans were also the leading nationality for submitting applications.
The author quotes associate professor Kristin Surak of the London School of Economics and Political Science - who studies the sale of citizenship - who reports:
Very wealthy people, they’re very, very risk-averse. They’re kind of paranoid. They have a lot of money, and they’ll do a lot to keep it safe — a second citizenship, a third citizenship, a backup Plan B, a backup Plan C, a backup Plan D. … You’re getting more and more ‘Armageddon Americans’: Either [President Joe] Biden ‘the communist’ is going to take over America, or the fascists are going to take over.
People acquiring second passports often acquire property or otherwise invest in the issuing nation. In some jurisdictions, that is a requirement.
If you’re interested, the two major firms facilitating such transactions are described as Henley & Partners of New York and Latitudes, based in London with offices in California. Countries currently offering the sale of citizenship may include Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Malta, Montenegro, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, and Vanuatu.
