What the Media Gets Wrong About Second Passports

The mainstream media does a terrible job of reporting on foreign residency and citizenship options.

A good case in point is a recent online article my editor spotted with a click-baity headline: “Interested in a second passport? Get ready to pay hundreds of thousands.” It was based on an interview with a representative from a famous (and expensive) migration consultancy.

The article starts by noting the dramatic rise in the number of Americans looking to move abroad. Correct. But it immediately veers towards second citizenship… which happens to be investment migration firms’ bread and butter. Other options for foreign residency are presented as suboptimal.

Once the bias towards citizenship is established, the article highlights the onerous paperwork requirements, and the large amounts of money involved.

The article is essentially an advertisement for the services of an investment migration firm. Firms like these make millions of dollars every year, with big fees for every citizenship application, successful or not.

This stuff irritates me to no end. The article doesn’t give consideration to the fact that there are so many other ways to get a second passport. Citizenship by investment via a top-tier consultancy is not the only way to move abroad or get a second citizenship. I’ve found two dozen countries where you can get citizenship by living there for five years or less, with some requiring only two to three years.

Getting a residency permit to live in these places often involves nothing more than showing proof of sufficient income. Once you've done that, you just live there. Given that almost every other country in the world has a much lower cost of living than the US—especially when it comes to healthcare—your journey to a second citizenship through naturalization can save you money.

As part of my consultation service at Global Citizen, I often meet people convinced that diversifying themselves outside the US is unattainable. They’ve searched the Internet, and they see expensive citizenship-by-investment schemes and companies charging huge fees everywhere. It creates a false impression of what’s possible and not for ordinary folks like us.

I want you, the reader, to know that there are straightforward and affordable routes to overseas residency and a second passport… even for the little guy.