Guest Post by Mark Nestmann
Dual citizenship, coupled with a second passport, holds numerous benefits. It can:
- Expand your travel and investment possibilities;
- Give you the right to reside in another country or countries; and
- Allow you to cross international borders if your primary passport is lost or stolen.
However, the most compelling reason to obtain a second passport is that it could literally save your life. During World War II, the Nazis stripped German citizenship from hundreds of thousands of Jews and shipped them off to concentration camps. Most died there, but a few thousand fortunate survivors had an escape plan: a second passport they could use to escape the Nazis to freedom.
Thankfully, America allows dual citizenship – you can get a second passport from another country and still maintain your US one.
If you’re thinking about taking this step, now is a great time to do so. That’s because the Commonwealth of Dominica, which has the lowest cost “citizenship-by-investment” program in existence, just announced a major expansion in the number of countries that its citizens can visit without a visa.
Effective June 1, 2015, Dominica passport holders will no longer need visas to visit the “Schengen area” – a total of 26 European countries – for visits up to 90 days. In addition, you can travel to any other Schengen country in this 90-day period. In most cases, you won’t need to show your passport except when crossing borders between Schengen and non-Schengen countries.
With the addition of the Schengen area, Dominica citizens can travel without a visa, or obtain a visa upon entry, to more than 120 countries.
(The Schengen area consists of Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland. All a Dominica citizen needs to do to enter these countries for up to 90 days is hold a valid Dominica passport. It’s already possible for a Dominica passport holder to visit Ireland and the United Kingdom visa-free.)
The advantages of visa-free entry to Schengen countries are obvious. Whether you wish to visit Europe for business or pleasure, visa-free entry permits you to make last-minute plans without undergoing a possibly time-consuming application process.
This development greatly increases the value of a Dominica passport. Indeed, while Dominica currently has the least expensive citizenship-by-investment program in the world, I anticipate that the government will increase the price significantly in the near future.
The quickest and least expensive way to acquire citizenship and a passport from Dominica is by making a contribution to the government. For a single applicant, the contribution is $100,000. A $175,000 contribution entitles you and your spouse to citizenship. For an additional $25,000, a married couple can add up to two children under the age of 18 to their application. You can include adult dependent children, 18–25 years old, with your application for an additional $50,000 each. And you don’t make the donation until after your application is approved. Legal, due diligence, and processing fees average an additional $25,000–$30,000.
Total costs for a single applicant are about $130,000. This represents a savings of more than 50%, compared to the least expensive options from Dominica’s primary competitors in the citizenship-by-investment market: the Federation of St. Kitts & Nevis and Antigua & Barbuda.
With the addition of the Schengen area to its visa-free travel network, the Dominica passport represents a value equivalent to either of these alternatives but at a very significant discount. But I suspect this discount won’t exist for much longer.
The last time Dominica raised the cost to acquire second citizenship was in 2012. Fortunately, applications submitted before the increased rates took effect were grandfathered in at the old prices. I suspect the same will be true for the next round as well. But there’s no time to wait if you want to beat the next price increase.
The Nestmann Group is the only US company licensed by the Commonwealth of Dominica to offer the citizenship-by-investment program. Over the years, we’ve handled nearly 100 applications for Dominica citizenship and passport.
And because of our special status, we’re working on something special to celebrate this substantial (and long awaited) development.
Mark Nestmann
Nestmann.com
Anybody , I needed to borrow 130,000 dollars so I can buy a duel citizenship and a second passport. Hell ,I forgot about my mom and little bb so make that 200,000 dollars. I promise to pay it back.
$130 K where do I sign up? Another bug out plan for the elite.
Drops, trickle, deluge.
The second passport doubled in value, while the first is getting to be a damn liability.
These 19 Passports Will Be A Lot More Valuable On July 1st
Submitted by Simon Black via Sovereign Man blog,
It seems strange that a complete accident of birth has such a massive impact on someone’s life.
We don’t get to control where we’re born. It’s a fluke really. Yet as soon as we come into this world a particular nationality is thrust upon us like a birthmark that stays with us for life.
Our nationality dictates so many things throughout our life.
It might mean that we’re required to serve in the military– to go fight and die in some foreign land at the behest of an insensitive, out of touch politician.
It might mean that we’re required to pay an ever increasing portion of our income to finance government largess that we don’t agree with at all.
It can also substantially restrict the places we can go and travel in this world.
That last one is a major issue, because travel is a huge opportunity.
The world is a massive place. It’s gorgeous and there’s so much to explore. Anyone who ever says it’s a small world clearly never spent 26 hours on a plane trying to get to Palau.
There are so many opportunities and so many amazing people to meet that it’s only possible to capture the full human experience through travel.
Yet if you happen to be born on a particular piece of dirt, your travel opportunities are limited.
United States citizens, for example, have a lot of latitude in terms of where they can go. Though there are still a lot of restrictions.
Americans need a visa to go to a number of countries, including Russia, China, and several countries in South America.
If you’re from Ukraine, on the other hand, you can travel to Russia without a visa. However the vast majority of the world is off-limits unless you first jump through a number of administrative hoops.
Representatives from the European Union recently closed out a summit in Riga to decide the future of EU visa policy with respect to Ukraine.
Once again, Ukraine was denied visa-free access to the EU, proving that “European support” for Ukraine against Russia is just hot air and empty promises.
There are, however, 19 other countries, which will be joining the EU visa-free list as of July 1, 2015. They were officially approved late last year and reaffirmed at the summit.
They are: Colombia, Peru, Dominica, St. Lucia, Grenada, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Trinidad & Tobago, UAE, Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Nauru, Palau, Micronesia, Samoa, Solomon Islands, East Timor, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.
The thing that’s interesting about nationalities is that even though we’re born with one, you don’t have to live your entire life with that single option.
It is possible to obtain citizenship and a passport from another country. This means more options to travel and more options to live and work somewhere else should you want.
Panama is a great example.
There’s still an easy and inexpensive process to obtain residency in Panama, and in 5-years time you’ll be able to apply for naturalization, and then a passport.
Of the 19 countries that join the EU visa-free list this July, both Grenada and Dominica have “economic citizenship” programs where you can make a low six-figure investment in the country in exchange for citizenship.
Colombia and Peru are two places where you can become a legal resident and apply for citizenship in 2-5 years.
This can be very cost-effective, as in Colombia it can cost less than $1,000 to obtain residency, including legal assistance.
Bottom line– there are always options. You don’t have to go your entire life being restricted by something that was an accident of birth.
Having a second passport means having more freedom and more possibilities.
So, finding expedited or cost effective ways to obtaining one is a great tool and insurance policy for anyone to consider.