Second (alternative) citizenship allows travelling freely around the globe, brings new business and asset protection opportunities, gives excellent educational opportunities, the right to live and work abroad, open foreign bank accounts, and so on and so forth.
There are several ways of acquiring foreign citizenship: by naturalization, by marriage, by the right of soil, by providing military services to a foreign country, etc. The fastest way of obtaining a second passport is applying for foreign citizenship by investment. With this option, you don’t even have to live in a foreign country to have its passport.
Below we discuss the most attractive citizenship-by-investment opportunities, review the conditions and the prices, and indicate the timeframes of foreign citizenship acquisition. You will learn what citizenship-by-investment options are the least expensive ones and where you can obtain a second passport in the fastest manner.
Second citizenship from the legal point of view
Many countries of the world allow dual citizenship but some countries don’t. It is important to realize this fact because if you live in a country that disallows dual citizenship, you may have to make a difficult choice if you acquire foreign citizenship. Namely, you will have two options: whether to conceal having second citizenship or to renounce citizenship of your home country. Both of these options are obviously undesirable. Therefore, you have to find out if your country allows you to be a bipatride or not before you start investigating the available opportunities.
What does a ‘strong passport’ mean?
National passports are assessed by several criteria and then ranked. In general terms, a strong passport is a passport of a national state that gives visa-free access to a large number of other national states. The lists of these states are not constant: they can become longer or shorter. In 2023, Singapore had the strongest passport: it gave visa-free access to 193 foreign countries. Great Britain ranks 3rd with 189 visa-free destinations and the USA ranks 7th with 185 such destinations.
How to obtain foreign citizenship by investment
There are three basic routes to foreign citizenship by investment: a non-returnable donation, an investment into real estate in the foreign country, and an investment in a business venture or a fund. As a rule, the donation is the cheapest option.
On the other hand, an investment is returnable and moreover, you can make a profit if you invest wisely. We suggest that you should not think that the cheapest option is the best option. By investing, for example, in a business venture in a foreign country you can get a second passport and earn some money at the same time! That is to say, you don’t have to ‘buy’ foreign citizenship: you can acquire it by investment proper.
Countries that offer the most affordable second citizenship
Today, five countries in the Caribbean (St. Kitts and Nevis, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, and St. Lucia), Vanuatu in the South Pacific, and Turkey in Asia offer the most affordable second citizenship.
You have to pay a personal visit to Turkey to obtain citizenship of the country and you have to visit Antigua at least once within the first five years of holding its passport. In all other cases, you don’t have to travel to the foreign country at all to acquire its passport. All the application procedures can be carried out remotely and the passport will be sent to you with a courier.
Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, and St. Lucia offer the least expensive citizenship: a donation of US$100,000* will make you a citizen of any of these three countries. The fastest way to acquire foreign citizenship is to apply for citizenship of Vanuatu: the process takes from 6 weeks.
*Please note that the administration fees and the costs of legal services have to be added to the sums that we quote below.
Review of citizenship-by-investment programs
Antigua and Barbuda
US$100,000 — a donation to the state fund;
From US$200,000 — an investment into real estate that can be resold after 5 years;
Application processing time – 3 to 6 months;
Family applications are accepted: the main applicant can add his/ her spouse, financially dependent children of up to 30 years of age, parents above 55 years of age, and unmarried siblings to the application for citizenship;
Citizenship is hereditary;
The investor has to visit the country once;
Passport rating – 28th (151 visa-free destinations including the Schengen zone and Great Britain).
Dominica
US$100,000 — a donation to the state fund;
From US$200,000 — an investment into real estate that can be resold after 3 years;
Application processing time – 3 to 6 months;
Family applications are accepted: the main applicant can add his/ her spouse, financially dependent children of up to 30 years of age, parents above 55 years of age, and unmarried siblings between 18 and 25 to the application for citizenship;
Citizenship is hereditary;
No personal visit requirement;
Passport rating – 32nd (143 visa-free destinations including the Schengen zone and Great Britain).
Saint Lucia
US$100,000 — a donation to the state fund;
From US$300,000 — an investment into real estate that can be resold after 5 years;
Application processing time – 2 to 6 months;
Family applications are accepted: the main applicant can add his/ her spouse, financially dependent children of up to 30 years of age, parents above 55 years of age, and unmarried siblings of up to 18 years of age to the application for citizenship;
Citizenship is hereditary;
No personal visit requirement;
Passport rating – 22nd (147 visa-free destinations including the Schengen zone and Great Britain).
Saint Kitts and Nevis
US$250,000 — a donation to the state fund;
From US$400,000 — an investment into real estate that can be resold after 7 years;
Application processing time – 5 to 6 months;
Family members: the main applicant’s spouse, dependent children of up to 25, and parents;
Citizenship is hereditary;
No personal visit requirement;
Passport rating – 24th (155 visa-free destinations including the Schengen zone, Great Britain, and the UAE).
Grenada
US$150,000 — a donation to the state fund;
From US$220,000 — an investment into real estate that can be resold after 5 years;
Application processing time – 4 to 6 months;
Family members: the main applicant’s spouse, dependent children of up to 30, parents, and siblings;
Citizenship is hereditary;
No personal visit requirement;
An E2 visa to the USA is available;
Passport rating – 30th (147 visa-free destinations including the Schengen zone, Great Britain, China, and the UAE).
Vanuatu
US$130,000 — a donation to the state fund;
Application processing time – from 6 weeks;
Family members: the main applicant’s spouse, dependent children, and parents;
Citizenship is hereditary;
No personal visit requirement;
Passport rating – 98th (98 visa-free destinations).
Turkey
From US$400,000 — an investment into real estate that can be resold after 3 years;
Application processing time – from 6 months;
Family members: the main applicant’s spouse and dependent children of up to 18;
Citizenship is hereditary;
A personal visit is required;
Passport rating – 52nd (112 visa-free destinations including Japan and the UAE).
There are other citizenship-by-investment opportunities too but we have listed the most affordable ones.
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