One of our most sought-after services here at Nomad Capitalist is helping people get second residencies. Clients often come asking what is the quickest and easiest way to get residency somewhere outside of their home country.
Some want to have a Plan B, which includes a place to go should things go badly in their home country. Others want a Plan A, someplace nice to go to as they’re developing theirTrifecta Strategy, building a new business, or growing their current one.
There are many reasons people choose to find a second, third, or even fourth place to reside and become a citizen.
Whatever your reasons, I highly encourage you to go beyond a second residence and get a second passport. Residence is temporary and, even with a permanent residence, you are not a citizen. There may be benefits to not being a citizen in some countries (think mandatory military service in Singapore). But, if a country decides to change its policies or not renew your visa, then there’s not much you can do as just a resident.
Only as a citizen do you have the right to a guaranteed place to live.
There is also a difference between having citizenship and having a passport. Being a citizen of a country means you qualify to get a passport from that country, but it does not mean you have one.
For example, for Christmas one year, I asked my sister to join me in Mexico for the holidays. She lives in the US and has access to one of the most powerful passports in the world. Except she had zero travel privileges because she hadn’t gone through the process to get a passport.
So yes, you may have acquired a second citizenship somewhere, but be sure to obtain and keep your passport up to date so that you have the travel privileges that go with that country’s passport.
Now that we have cleared up that confusion between residencies, citizenships, and passports, one question remains: Where can you get the easiest citizenships and passports?
In this article, we will first give a quick look at the different ways you can obtain citizenship, take a moment to define exactly what we mean by “easiest citizenship”, and then look at the easiest way to get a second passport with each different method in four separate regions of the world: Europe, the Caribbean, Asia and the South Pacific, and Latin America.
We’ll sum things up with a few frequently asked questions and give you plenty of resources along the way to aid your search for the perfect second passport for your unique needs and desires.
