Economic Citizenship & Second Passports

Economic Citizenship & Second Passports – This term refers to a government sanctioned program whereby a person can obtain a citizenship quickly by investing money in a government approved Project in the country. Generally the economic citizenship involves an investment of $250,000 - $450,000 (when all the fees are added together) in a government approved real estate project or other government investment. In many instances one can qualify for the economic citizenship program by purchasing a residential home that meets the guidelines.

Don’t expect to get a really great real estate deal. The qualifying real estate will be grossly inflated in price far exceeding the true value. The real estate has to be paid for in cash to qualify. There is usually a requirement that one has to retain the home bought under the program for a long time even for as long as you have their residency and passport. Most of the jurisdictions offering these programs of economic citizenship in return for investment do not require the person to remain in the country for any long periods of time as long as the person travels in and out of the country annually they should be fine.

Some economic citizenship programs come with a residency and a second passport, and some come with a citizenship and a second passport. Our law firm can assist you in the acquisition of an Economic Citizenship and Second Passport in one of several Central and South American countries. They all have visa free travel to between 60 and 90 countries including the EU, Central America South America and parts of Asia.

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Economic Citizenship & Second Passport Considerations – One of the primary concerns the investor should have before embarking into any economic citizenship and second passport program is what are the tax ramifications going to be from being a citizen or resident of that country. Does the economic citizenship and second passport-granting nation tax offshore income? Does it have an income tax? What about capital gains tax, inheritance tax, VAT tax, property tax, etc.

Make sure the country does not support squatter’s rights like in Venezuela if you intend to buy real estate there that will not be occupied year round. Squatter’s rights allow homeless people to move into your property if you vacate it for some months. You return home to finds that squatters have broken in and now live there possible even having livestock on the property. You go to court to get an order evicting them to find out that they have a right to occupy a vacant unoccupied piece of land or house. Be careful!

Second Passport Name Changes – Some advertise come to this country get an economic citizenship and a second passport, file for a name change and get a second passport in your new name. Seems like a good idea to have a new identity for opening bank accounts. Be careful! These name changes are generally in the public registry, not the ones we do. Many countries in the post 9/11 world are getting listings of all the name changes filed in all countries. The governments understand these things. This is a great way to call attention to yourself and even get yourself in some databases you do not want to be in.

Diplomatic Second Passports – Forget diplomatic passports. First of all it is probably a scam. Next if you travel on a Diplomatic passport you will just about always require a visa. Imagine asking the issuing country to get you a visa every time you wish to travel on this passport. The embassy from the country that issued you the passport would have to request it each time. What would that cost? You would need to keep sending the passport in by courier and what would that cost? Do you look like you are from that country? Do you speak the language of the issuing country? All of these things are going to serve as red flags and cause questions, queries and problems. If this was a realistic scenario every bad guy would be using it. Forget it.

African Economic Citizenships and Second Passports – Many African nations offer economic citizenships and second passports. Sadly the only African passport that is going to get you an offshore bank account is one from South Africa and they do not offer such programs. Banks have seen many scammers and con artists use these African passports over the years and do not accept them for identity documents anymore.

Remember not that many people from developing African nations have a legitimate need for an offshore bank account. If you found an offshore bank that accepted these African nation passports I would not expect that bank to be around very long. These passports would be most difficult to use for travel. Visas would be required except when traveling to other developing African nations and the visas would need to be applied for in the passport issuing country. You are probably not going to want to spend much time there going to interviews at consulates and embassies when you wish to travel.

Interviews would include questions like: Do you have other passports, why not use the other passport, where is your birth certificate, do you speak the language, show me your electric and phone bill, show me bank statements, where do you work, where are your working papers, where is your health card, where did you go to elementary school, and I think you get the idea.

These African Economic Citizenships and Passports are completely worthless and don’t delude yourself into thinking if you were involved in a terrorist incident where people were detained by terrorists that the terrorists would fall for the African Passport. This would just project you into the category of a person of special interest to the terrorists and things would become worse rapidly as they tried to figure out what you were up to and why.

Slow Track Citizenship Alternatives – If you are wealthy and have no problems dropping $350,000 into a real estate project in some Caribbean country then economic citizenship programs may work out well for you. If this is too much money for you to invest in a house in some island you do not wish to live in then you should explore our approaches to second passport or economic citizenships.

There are also other options that can take five years. There are a number of countries where you can easily establish a residency. You start with a temporary residency, then it becomes a permanent residency after one year and then after three to five years your permanent residency allows you to get a passport from your new land. These are not economic citizenships. Rarely do they ever involve visa free travel to the USA or Canada. You do not have to really live in the country full time after you get the citizenship. You can often qualify by putting $5000 or less into a bank account in the country and sometimes the money can be taken out of the bank after three months. You can sometimes qualify just by showing the immigration people photocopies of your Visa Gold and Platinum cards. These countries have a residency ID card called a Cedula that often allows you to do cross border travel to the nearby countries by land (airlines like to see passports) and open up bank accounts as a resident.

These residencies which can be had in 2-3 months also let you reside in nearby countries for long periods of time. The residency facilitates the opening up of a bank account and joining the nation’s health care system, which is generally very inexpensive and surprisingly good in many cases. The countries we use do not tax offshore income. Many of these countries have nice condos for sale for $30,000. We can assist you by referring to real estate agents and other people in the country who will assist you correctly and lawfully.

Consultation – Panama Legal, S.A. Law Firm can assist you with our resources and legal affiliates throughout the Caribbean, Central and South America. Inquiries welcome by phone or email. You have attorney client privilege with us in all communications.