There's no downside if you can do it and extreme wealth is only a requirement if some of the many offers don't apply to you. Spain was basically giving away citizenship a few years back. Bulgaria is pretty open.
This is a personal decision but I think it's better to be pragmatic about it. If your country of origin permits dual citizenship I'd do the naturalization simply because it gives you more flexibility. It's a more secure status, no need to worry about renewing or spending longer periods abroad. And you get to vote of course.
Citizenships and passports are bureaucracy and they don't define who you are, that comes from your heart. I'd look at it as a practical matter.
Citizenships and passports are bureaucracy and they don’t define who you are, that comes from your heart. I’d look at it as a practical matter.
You sound like my wife before I gave in and we got a marriage license. I don't need a fucking shaman or some civil servant in a black weird dress to legitimize our relationship.
I felt/feel the same way. Still got married to my wife for legal reasons. Her mother is insane and if something happened to my wife, we don't want her getting power of attorney, nor do we even want her in the hospital if it can be avoided.
They are saying you get X rights if you have Y status. Where Y is your legally recognized relationship with a person.
It is understood that if my wife can't make a medical decision and one has to be made I can repeat what her wishes would have been. Why is that? Because we are married? Why does being married matter? Because it is a relationship? Why does that differ from any other relationship? Because it is a legitimate one.
This whole process is the government or some religion saying this relationship between two people is a special exception from the rules governing regular relationships.
Other relationships are legitimate, they just aren't legally recognized by the government. You can make a contract that gives anyone rights to medical decision-making.
Another thing to consider is that US citizens must pay taxes on all foreign income and investments even if they leave to live outside the US. This is why the US has made renouncing US citizenship expensive and complicated, like even after you renounce it you still have to pay US taxes for 10 more years despite losing the rest of your citizenship privileges immediately.
There is a downside to US Citizenship for some though, as one of the only countries on earth yo demand you pay taxes on income earned outside the country
True, but iirc also some banks outside the US refuse to open an account for you if you're a US citizen due to some weird compliance rules that the US requires
I think Portugal will basically sell you a passport for a €250,000 investment. I don't know about Spain. I had Spanish residency years ago but moved away and let it slip, residency was pretty easy to get back then. I'd fuckin love to have an EU passport.
Portugal will give you a residence visa for a €500,000 investment but you have to actually spend time in Portugal and learn Portuguese if you want to become a citizen one day (5-6 years later).
Some Caribbean islands will sell you immediately citizenship and passport for like $300,000 though.
These are all lame countries anyways, now I would love to have a Denmark or Sweden passport or something but last I looked it was pretty hard (For us lowly plebs anyways...)
They are if they're just giving it passports to rich ppl. Imagine welcoming in ppl who are collectively fucking up the world and somehow thinking you'll be exempt if you let them into your country?
It isn't like they are supervillains. The system allows bad actors. Look at all the issues these companies have had trying to branch outside the US and slamming into labor laws, regulations, culture, taxes, etc.