{"id":11149,"date":"2023-08-11T17:51:23","date_gmt":"2023-08-11T17:51:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/isafespend.com\/personal-finance\/retirement\/the-2-worst-passports-in-the-world\/"},"modified":"2023-08-11T17:51:24","modified_gmt":"2023-08-11T17:51:24","slug":"the-2-worst-passports-in-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/isafespend.com\/?p=11149","title":{"rendered":"The 2 Worst Passports In The World"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The citizenship-by-investment industry is in crisis.<\/p>\n

CBI has become a core part of the revenue model of several Caribbean island nations\u2014and some other countries\u2014over the last 40 years.<\/p>\n

The model is fairly simple. In exchange for their investment funds\u2014typically $100,000 and up\u2014the investor is granted citizenship in the country, with the right to live there permanently and carry the country\u2019s passport.<\/p>\n

As I wrote last month, a second passport\u2014a second citizenship\u2014is a valuable commodity. It is the ultimate \u201cbackup plan,\u201d precisely because it gives you the right to live permanently in another country if things turn sour at home.<\/p>\n

A second passport can also grant the holder visa-free travel to more countries than their original passport (the citizenship they were born with).<\/p>\n

Citizenship-by-investment today is a cottage industry of various firms that match wealthy clients with CBI programs, enabling clients to obtain second passports.<\/p>\n

<\/fbs-ad><\/p>\n

For wealthy globetrotters, a second (or third or fourth or fifth) passport is a powerful asset that opens doors to more countries and gives you a \u201cPlan B\u201d residency\u2026<\/p>\n

Typically, the visa-free travel aspects of holding a second passport have received more attention\u2014and held more appeal\u2014than the fact that the passport gives you the right to live in the issuing country.<\/p>\n

For wealthy Chinese, Russians, and Middle Easterners, for example, without visa-free access to the EU and the U.K., a second passport from, say, a Caribbean Commonwealth nation, can grant this access.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s this CBI \u201cbackdoor\u201d access to Europe and the U.K. that\u2019s at the heart of the current industry crisis\u2026<\/p>\n

Access Denied<\/strong><\/h2>\n

U.K. Home Secretary Suella Braverman last month put a stop to visa-free access into Britain for citizens of two CBI nations\u2014also members of the Commonwealth\u2014Vanuatu and Dominica.<\/p>\n

Braverman specifically named the countries\u2019 citizenship-by-investment programs as the reason she was shutting down visa-free access. \u201cCareful consideration of Dominica\u2019s and Vanuatu\u2019s operation of a citizenship by investment scheme has shown clear and evident abuse of the scheme, including the granting of citizenship to individuals known to pose a risk to the U.K.,\u201d she said in a statement.<\/p>\n

The Dominican government had been trying to alleviate the U.K.\u2019s concerns\u2014by revoking some of the CBI passports it had recently issued. This was too little, too late.<\/p>\n

Dominica had given passports to individuals in the UAE
\n UAE
\n <\/fbs-ticker> who had previously been denied access to the U.K. The fact that they\u2019d been denied a U.K. visa wasn\u2019t declared on their CBI applications. Hence Braverman\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n

The U.K. action on Vanuatu follows a similar path taken by the European Union. The EU withdrew Vanuatu\u2019s visa-free access to the Schengen Zone (27 countries) last year following allegations of improper vetting and the selling of passports to dodgy people, including the Gupta brothers, Indian nationals linked with corruption in South Africa; and a Turkish banker imprisoned for harboring an alleged murderer.<\/p>\n

The percentage share of revenue the Vanuatu government gets from its CBI program has plummeted by 50% since then.<\/p>\n

All Vanuatu and Dominican citizens now have to go through the cost and time of applying for visas to travel to the U.K. and EU, because of the actions of a few bad actors.<\/p>\n

Crisis Management<\/strong><\/h2>\n

If you\u2019re interested in getting a second passport through investment, Vanuatu and Dominica might be the \u201ctwo worst CBI passports\u201d in the world right now\u2014because of all the bad press and the fact that countries\u2019 CBI schemes have clearly lost favor with some Western governments.<\/p>\n

You do have several other options. Aside from Dominica, the other four Caribbean nations with CBI programs are Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, and St. Lucia.<\/p>\n

After the British decision on Vanuatu and Dominica, the European Commission reportedly gave an ultimatum to Caribbean CBI countries, listing multiple demands that they would have to meet in order to retain visa-free access to the EU. These included enhanced due diligence, mandatory applicant interviews, and an increase in investment thresholds.<\/p>\n

St. Kitts and Nevis\u2019 CBI Unit promptly released a statement that addressed the EU\u2019s concerns, including an announcement that it was doubling its minimum CBI investment to $200,000.<\/p>\n

Vanuatu and Dominica are hardly the first CBI countries to face allegations of corruption, lack of due diligence, or passports being sold to bad people.<\/p>\n

Indeed, St. Kitts and Nevis nine years ago was at the center of a similar scandal, after selling passports to alleged bad actors, including the son of the president of Equatorial Guinea, who faced corruption charges in America and France; the governor of a Nigerian state, who stood accused of organizing secret killings; as well as three individuals at the center of a U.S. Treasury Department investigation for evading U.S. sanctions against Iran.<\/p>\n

The St. Kitts program has been very eager to clean up its act since then.<\/p>\n

Allegations of poor management and poor due diligence hit government-run programs around the world all the time\u2026 CBI is not immune.<\/p>\n

But despite current and past crises\u2014and though visa-free arrangements may change back and forth over time\u2014citizenship by investment is here to stay.<\/p>\n

As long as governments are in search of money, they will offer access to investors willing to invest.<\/p>\n

The U.S. government itself recently acknowledged that CBI was a legitimate way for Caribbean nations to attract capital.<\/p>\n

That begs the question\u2026 For the investor, what truly is the value of citizenship by investment?<\/p>\n

Does Visa
\n
\n V
\n <\/fbs-ticker>-Free Travel Really Matter?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

If you\u2019re an individual investor looking to get a second passport, is the travel document itself\u2014and the number of countries to which it gives you visa-free access\u2014the most valuable thing?<\/p>\n

Or is citizenship in another country\u2026 the rights and privileges it bestows\u2026 truly the more valuable commodity?<\/p>\n

My husband and I both have two passports (American and Irish). We didn\u2019t get either through investment, but nevertheless I can speak on the value of holding dual citizenship from personal experience.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no doubt we\u2019ve enjoyed some travel privileges because of our second passports. During the pandemic, Americans were banned from traveling to Europe and Europeans couldn\u2019t enter America. But because my husband and I held both EU and U.S. passports, these rules didn\u2019t apply.<\/p>\n

Americans will soon need a visa again to enter Brazil. But I\u2019ll be able to continue to travel to Brazil visa free, with my Irish passport.<\/p>\n

However, there\u2019s only a marginal difference between the number of destinations you can access without a visa on a U.S. passport versus an Irish passport.<\/p>\n

A U.S. passport, according to the latest Henley & Partners Passport Index, gives you visa-free access to 184 countries, while an Irish passport will get you to 188 visa free.<\/p>\n

The destinations I can get to on my Irish passport visa free, but not my U.S. passport, include Venezuela and Iran\u2026 not places I have a burning desire to visit right now.<\/p>\n

Of course, the travel benefits of a second, more \u201cpowerful\u201d passport increase significantly if your original passport is from, say, Bahrain (88 visa-free destinations) or China (80 visa-free destinations).<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, visa-free travel is just one consideration that comes into play when you\u2019re looking at your options for second citizenship.<\/p>\n

Visa-free travel gets a lot of attention, reinforced by the column inches devoted to indices like the Henley Passport Index.<\/p>\n

But the more significant benefit of a second passport is having another country to call home. Usually, you can pass this right on to your children too.<\/p>\n

Investing in a \u201csecond home\u201d (a second citizenship) is a somewhat different prospect than choosing a CBI country based on its travel document (passport).<\/p>\n

It involves different calculations about your centers of vital interest, where you\u2019d be happy to spend significant amounts of time, and your family\u2019s future.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s potentially a far more rewarding investment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read the full article here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The citizenship-by-investment industry is in crisis. CBI has become a core part of the revenue model of several Caribbean island nations\u2014and some other countries\u2014over the last 40 years. The model is fairly simple. In exchange for their investment funds\u2014typically $100,000 and up\u2014the investor is granted citizenship in the country, with the right to live there<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11150,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-11149","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-retirement"},"yoast_head":"\nThe 2 Worst Passports In The World | iSafeSpend<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The citizenship-by-investment industry is in crisis. 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