A question of national identity?

We are born British, American, Swiss, or whatever, and as a result we hold the passport of our country of origin. And we don’t get to choose which passport that is. Well, most of the time. Some of us have been lucky enough, mostly through marriage or because we haven been living in a foreign land long enough, to be able to acquire a second (or even third?) nationality and hence passport. Not that this matters much most of the time, unless you obviously want to live in a country and be able to exercise all your civic rights and duties, but when you do travel abroad, it may matter what passport your travelling on.

But there is another group of people, mostly the mega rich, and probably mostly from lower ranking nations, for which holding a well selected second citizenship is a matter of strategic interest: While a holder of a Chinese passport has visa-free access to countries representing only 26% of global GDP, an American passport increases this to 68%. So the rich and famous of this world , be it for tax or other reasons, can buy themselves a new nationality to further their business interests and quite possibly saves taxes as well.

While some countries are well known to peddle their citizenship for a more or less substantial investment, others are more surprising: Did you know, for example, that for a minimum investment of €10 million and after a qualifying period of 5 years you can become a French citizen? In the UK the minimum investment is £1 million and the qualifying period is 6 years and if you want to take up residency, you will have to spend a minimum of 185 days per year in good old blighty. And what a surprise: Even in Switzerland you can apply for its famous red passport if you invest a minimum of 250’000 Swiss Francs each year, the qualifying period, however is with 12 years rather long (I picked these examples from a list published by the World Economic Forum here).

As far as visa-free travel is concerned, best is to be Japanese, as they can travel to 193 countries around the world without having to apply for one, followed by Singapore and South Korea (192 countries) and Germany and Spain (190). The United Kingdom with 187 nations that don’t demand a visa for is in 6th place whereas Switzerland and the USA are ranked 7th with 186 countries each. On the other hand, nut much joy for holders of an Afghan passport, as only 27 countries allow them visa-free entry.

Personally I stick with my Swiss and British passports: In both countries I have lived (and am still living) and have extensive family connections and thus a bond with both cultures. Certainly, I acquired the British passport some 20 years ago now because I could and because it made sense for me: I had lived a number of years already in London, hat got married, now had a home and a son. The fact that this got me as Swiss by birth access to the EU was an bonus, but certainly not a determining criteria. I don’t see any need to acquire a citizenship for purely economic benefits, but then potentates in politically less stable parts of the world would no doubt disagree.