i. Portugal
The Easiest OVERALL Pick for Eu Citizenship.
Portugal is a smashing country to get citizenship from. Its passport is first-form, with visa-gratis access to 159 countries in 2022. As a Portuguese passport holder, you'll enjoy the power to alive, piece of work and travel freely in all 27 member-states of the European union (afterward discounting the UK.)
Getting a Portuguese passport is relatively easy. It requires becoming a resident of Portugal, and after five years, applying for citizenship.
Portugal's D7 Visa is frequently likewise referred to as the Retirement Visa, Passive Income Visa or Online Worker Visa. The D7 Visa offers foreigners the power to obtain temporary residency – provided that you lot have sufficient means to support yourself and any dependent family members while in Portugal.
The initial permit is issued for two years, and then renewed for another three. After five total years of residency y'all can use for citizenship and a passport, subject area to certain conditions.
To obtain residency under the D7 visa, you will need to prove that you accept sufficient recurrent income to sustain yourself in Portugal. The Portuguese government prefer seeing long-term, stable, passively derived income (i.e. non salary-based).
The official fiscal requirements are rather low, and tied to the Portuguese minimum wage (which in 2021, is €665 — about The states $799 — a calendar month).
- Principal bidder – The current minimum wage of €665;
- Spouse – 50% of the current minimum wage or €332.50;
- Dependent children under 18 years of age – 30% of the electric current minimum wage or €191.
Merely don't fret if you have no stable income to boast. Portugal volition likewise exist happy to accept savings, or a combination of savings and income.
In instance of simply savings, you will need to prove that y'all will exist able to sustain yourself for at to the lowest degree 24 months in Portugal – the length of validity of your initial residency allow.
Thus, all the numbers above you will need to multiply by 24. That ways that for a family unit of 4 yous would need to prove that yous have at to the lowest degree €32,040 (~$40,000) saved.
But that's the blank minimum. It's better to testify at to the lowest degree a few thousand more. Your local Portuguese consulate – where you lot'll submit your residency awarding – can advise you virtually what minimum sum they'd realistically similar to encounter.
In our stance, the D7 Visa is one of the best means to obtain residency in Portugal, and information technology tin can lead to Portuguse Citizenship through naturalization later five years.
Unlike with the Portuguese Golden Visa program, there is no minimum required investment in holding, and the application and service fees can be up to eight times lower than those associated with a Gilded Visa.
The trade-off is that you need to spend a minimum of iv months per year in Portugal to continue your D7 residency let renewable, and to become eligible to apply for citizenship.
With the D7, Portugal wants you to spend significant time on the basis. Here are the rules:
- You must stay in Portugal at least iv months a year in full, AND
- Yous cannot exist away from Portugal for longer than six months in a row.
So if you plan to fly to Portugal just one time a year, you must plan to come for at least six months.
And if you can visit Portugal twice a yr or more than ofttimes, then you could spend less total fourth dimension on the ground. For example, you lot could stay in Portugal from Jan till March (iii months) and so over again in September (1 month). This way y'all would comply with both of the in a higher place-mentioned requirements.
In contrast, on a Golden Visa, the minimum stay requirement has recently been lowered to an average of simply seven days per year throughout your residency.
In add-on, you will also exist expected to evidence basic proficiency in Portuguese (A2 language level) if you wish to apply for citizenship afterward v years of maintaining your D7 residency..
Lots of European countries make it difficult for those who weren't built-in in that location to become citizenship. In contrast, Portugal offers a fairly easy second citizenship route. In fact, it'south the easiest Eu citizenship option for those without the "right" grandparents.
Just how practise you get it?
Yous will demand to apply for your initial visa to stay in Portugal from your local consulate. We encourage you to employ roughly iii to 4 months within your expected difference date for Portugal.
Once you accept your D7 visa, you must travel to Portugal to obtain your temporary residence permit, which y'all will receive later a visit with the local government.
After five years of temporary residency in Portugal, you will be eligible for permanent residency and citizenship (the naturalization period was reduced from six to v years in mid-2018).
So if you have a few years, and don't have grandparents from Ireland, Italy or a German begetter, then Portugal is currently the European country where it is easiest to get citizenship.
Now, in this case, "easy" does not mean "Panama like shooting fish in a barrel". The financial requirements are higher to institute Portuguese residency, and you practice need to spend more time on the ground than you lot do in Panama.
But Portugal offers an incredible passport. And given the low barriers to entry, the lax residency requirements and the shortest timeline to naturalization in the EU, Portugal is by far the easiest way to go European union citizenship (without ancestry).
Continue in heed yet, that fifty-fifty though information technology's possibly the easiest European passport to obtain, the path from Portuguese residency to full citizenship takes at least five years of residency1
two. Kingdom of belgium
The Easiest Option For European union Citizenship for Business People.
If y'all're looking to relocate an existing or willing to start a new concern, Belgium is a smashing choice because it offers a fantastic, Tier 1 passport with visa-free admission to 158 countries.
Just like Portugal, with a Belgian passport, you lot could alive and work anywhere in the Eu. You've got gratuitous access to the European continent, no nightmarish red tape involved.
Unlike Portugal however, which requires only financial means, Belgium is 1 the easiest European passports to obtain for those looking to start a business.
And then, what's involved?
First of all, you'll need to establish economic ties in Kingdom of belgium through i of two options:
- Option 1: Establishing your ain company in Belgium and obtaining a "Professional" Carte (PC)".
- Option two: Obtaining a work let through a European company – likewise known every bit the Single Work Permit (SWP) or "Permis Unique".
Belgium offers the professional menu to applicants who tin can assist grow its economy, either by creating jobs, increasing exports, investing in fixed avails, by offer underrepresented services in Belgium, or past calculation economic value in some other way.
So when you obtain a "professional" card, y'all're gaining work authority equally an entrepreneur, not an employee (which is Pick #2).
The rules take changed since we last wrote about this strategy. Basically the procedure at present looks like this:
- Apply for a "professional" carte du jour and present a business proposal to the government at the same time.
- Once you obtain the card, set up a Belgian company to carry out the project proposal.
To reduce the possibility of the government rejecting your project afterwards you've already incorporated the company, information technology now makes sense to present your well-crafted, comprehensive business plan to the government meantime with applying for the bill of fare.
Go along in mind that the rejection hazard exists mainly when your project does not include an European union citizen.
Otherwise, you tin can act as a shareholder, a non-active partner, while an EU citizen serves equally a managing director. One time your professional person bill of fare is granted, yous can annals as a self-employed resident, and as director or active partner of the visitor.
This path is an established way to obtain the professional bill of fare (PC), with a pretty loftier success rate, according to local legal experts.
Alternatively, you lot tin can too purchase an already established Belgian business.
This residency process takes anywhere from six months to a year, but information technology ends upward existence cheaper (in terms of taxes) than gaining a piece of work permit equally an employee.
What else is required to make Pick 1 work?
Your concern plan will demand to exist comprehensive, outlining your idea, your motivations, your CV, your rails record, your blueprint for success, and your fiscal projections.
You lot'll need to prove entrepreneurial or managerial experience. You'll also need to demonstrate the financial ways to support your business. You'll likely increase your chances of success going this route if you pledge to employ others.
Our legal contacts inform us that one function-fourth dimension employee, to be hired after six months, is usually sufficient for a minor company. That should price you around €800/month in wages. Y'all'll besides pay "social contributions", simply there are more often than not enough of subsidies bachelor.
As a Belgian resident, you can stay or leave the country as you please, only if you desire full citizenship, you'll somewhen need to plant stiff ties to Belgium.
This track involves a work permit and requires yous to obtain a position with a Belgian company before inbound the country. If you are a non-Eu national, and then your Belgian employer must apply on your behalf at the Regional Office of Employment.
This track also takes less time to obtain than the Professional Carte du jour — generally only about three or four months.
The conditions to obtain the Single Work Permit (SWP) are approximately the same as those for a Belgian work permit. (The employer still has to utilize for you, for example.)
It is important to annotation that the SWP tin can also be obtained by "sending yourself" to Belgium from a company abroad.
The gist is that you obtain a work permit through a non-Belgian visitor… on the basis of exploring the market (for example – but it can be for annihilation else, in fact).
And yes, the visitor that sends you to Belgium can exist yours.
You'll too need to have at to the lowest degree one other person listed as a shareholder in this parent company. This creates a viable work contract, every bit yous'll exist reporting back to that person.
This path tin potentially be faster than setting upward a visitor in Kingdom of belgium to gain the Professional Menu. Once again, it only takes two to four months to obtain a Single Work Permit — either through a Belgian visitor that employs you, or through this other way of beingness sent to Belgium past a foreign visitor.
Alternatively, you can too buy an already established Belgian business.
If y'all are sent from a company abroad as a "posted" or "seconded" employee, at that place won't be any "social contributions" to pay.
This path is effective for residency, but because y'all're not paying into retirement and wellness schemes, it could jeopardize a futurity application for citizenship, as well as your healthcare status in Kingdom of belgium if you don't accept private insurance.
This residency process takes anywhere from six months to a year, but it ends upwards beingness cheaper (in terms of taxes) than gaining a work permit as an employee.
So what's required for Belgian citizenship?
Keep the business organization that yous registered open and active. Don't commit any crimes. Larn a niggling French or Flemish (Dutch) or German. Put your kids in Belgian schools. Join a few organizations and attend meetings. Testify that this is more than just a residency on newspaper.
You can renew your residency (first after 2 years, and then every five years) so long as you keep a clean record and fulfill your business obligations.
After just five years, you can apply for naturalization (full citizenship).
If y'all're looking to offset or relocate a business, Belgium might be the easiest European union citizenship to become.
Gaining residency in Spain is relatively straightforward. You can qualify for residency nether the residencia no lucrativa plan if y'all can bear witness that you lot have sufficient ways.
Spain volition be satisfied if you lot show them either enough savings or recurrent income.
In 2021, they want to run across at to the lowest degree €two,295 income for the main applicant plus some other €537 for each dependent whom you bring with you lot.
Income should proceed from stable sources such as your social security or alimony payments.
Still, if yous do non have whatsoever eligible income to boast, you can also testify you have plenty savings and/or liquid investments.
Since Spain grants your first residency for 12 months, the regime wants to encounter that you have enough money to sustain yourself in Espana for one full yr without working.
Then for a primary applicant you will need to bear witness at least €25,816 (calculated equally €2,295 * 12) in your bank or brokerage account… plus another €half-dozen,454 (calculated equally €537 * 12) for each dependent.
A family of four should safely qualify with almost €45,500 (~$55,000) already saved.
Yous will need to utilize for your initial entry visa into Spain from your local consulate at home. Once in Spain, you volition be able to pick up your residence permit on the ground.
After two years, y'all volition become eligible for a Spanish passport.
5. Panama
The Easiest Place In The World To Establish Residency
Panama used to be one of the easiest places to go citizenship in the world because of its simple, fast track residency procedure. And residency, in this case, is the first step towards a second passport.
The process works similar this: you go to Panama and use one of 50+ options to apply for residency. (Yes. More than 50. They actually want people to come to Panama. And the country also has easy citizenship requirements .)
Panama'due south Friendly Nations and Retirement Visas were the easiest options, and allowed the majority of people to become a permanent resident very apace.
One time yous submitted your residency awarding, you could leave.
Then, you come back a few months after to pick up your documents and ID carte. You're now a legal resident of Panama. You tin live in Panama if you want to – and it's a keen, mod, cute identify with a thriving economy – simply you don't have to.
Later on two years, you lot use (in Panama) to renew your residency.
Then, after a total of five years of residency, you can apply for naturalization (full citizenship).
Information technology helps if you can speak at to the lowest degree some Spanish, and if yous can evidence some social and/or business ties to Panama.
This strategy makes Panama possibly the easiest country to become a citizen (without using the ancestry option).
Aye, it takes some time – 5 years of residency – but the procedure is mostly simple and hassle-gratis. And 5 years is actually not a lot of fourth dimension to look when it comes to not-ancestry-based second citizenships.
The but major drawback of Panamanian citizenship is that the passport itself is not considered a Tier 1 certificate. In other words, you lot don't get into as many countries visa-complimentary and hassle-free with a Panamanian passport every bit yous would with, say, a Belgian or Portuguese passport.
2020 PROGRAM UPDATE: In 2020, Panama launched four Golden Visa blazon programs for citizens of countries not included in the Friendly Nations list. You tin can discover out more well-nigh the new Panamanian Residency By Investment Programs hither.
vi. Argentina
The Fastest Country To Get Citizenship In
South America offers many excellent easy second passport options.
One of them is Argentina, which offers the fastest style to get citizenship in the region. Later obtaining residency in Argentine republic, yous tin can qualify for total citizenship after only TWO years of living at that place (plus processing time of several additional months).
Two years is incredibly fast by all international standards.
Argentina's passport is likewise a pretty solid travel document, with visa-gratuitous access to more than 150 countries– including all of Europe and Russia, Southeast Asia, Due south America. The but major drawback is that an Argentinian passport does not give yous visa-gratuitous access to the United states of america or Canada.
(The all-time passport, and the most valuable second citizenship in South America, is offered by Chile. Nosotros item how to get Chilean citizenship in our gratis report – The Four Passports ANYONE Tin Obtain.)
Getting residency in Argentina is pretty easy. The official requirement is that you testify a minimum of $1,000/month in passive income to be eligible, merely our lawyers recommend showing $2,000 or more.
What kind of income qualifies?
- Income derived from financial investments: dividends, annuities, receipts from a trust, interest payments from Certificates of Deposit, etc.
- Retirement payments, such as Social Security
- Regular distributions from a concern you own outside of Argentina
- Rental income from exterior Argentina
If you have steady, passive income, y'all could qualify for a rentista visa, which is a one-yr visa that can be extended in 1-year increments. You'd need to set upward an Argentine depository financial institution business relationship and have the money deposited there monthly.
If this option appeals to you, it's best to commencement the process on the ground in Argentina, and not at a consulate in your home country, which could rapidly become a bureaucratic mess. Once y'all've got your temporary visa/residency, so yous'll demand to starting time spending time in Argentina.
You will need to spend at least six months per year there over the form of those two years.
At that betoken, you may apply for naturalization. You lot will need a fleck of Spanish linguistic communication proficiency, just the exam is easy enough to laissez passer without total fluency.
Continue in mind that in spring 2020 Argentina ordered i of the strictest coronavirus lockdowns of whatsoever country. Argentina banned commercial flights in and out of the state through September 2020, and were disallowment tourists from entering the country during much of the COVID-nineteen lockdowns…
Argentina even went so far as to ban its own citizens and residents who were outside of the country from coming dorsum home between March sixteen-31, 2020. That is something to keep in listen, especially if freedom to travel during potential future regime lockdowns figures prominently into your reasons for acquiring a second passport.
But investing time is not the only way to get strange citizenship. There's a more orthodox way that requires a little flexibility.
7. Brazil
The Easiest Passport To Get For Those Who Are Flexible
There are ii great things about having Brazilian citizenship:
One, they pass up to extradite their citizens to answer for foreign crimes. It but doesn't happen.
This doesn't only utilise to crimes, just as well to any activity foreign governments may not like. For example, Glenn Greenwald, who helped intermission the Edward Snowden story, lives in Brazil. He might have moved there to be with his Brazilian partner, but he likely stays at that place for the protection the state offers.
Two, ANYONE tin can be Brazilian, any their ethnicity– black, white, brown, Asian… it doesn't matter. Brazil is a huge melting pot. If yous get a citizen of Nicaragua, you're going to stand out if y'all're a green-eyed redhead.
But not in Brazil. Gisele Bündchen, the blonde, bluish-eyed model, is from Brazil… Then is Pele, who is black. Both types blend in there.
Brazil's is such an piece of cake passport to get because it is the Male monarch of 'flexible' citizenship options– getting married, adopting a kid, hell… even adopting a rainforest, in some cases.
And it tin happen in as little every bit one to three years.
Ane pick is to marry a Brazilian citizen and apply for permanent residency immediately after that. After 1 yr of permanent residency, y'all can use for naturalization and a Brazilian passport. Talk nigh how to get a passport easily!
Some other option is having a babe in Brazil. In our Sovereign Man: Confidential member library, we profiled a couple who moved to Brazil and had their baby there.
The infant automatically became Brazilian. Ten months subsequently, the parents gained permanent residency. A year later – and aye, they lived in Brazil the whole fourth dimension – the couple qualified to apply for naturalization (full citizenship).
What'south more, the "family reunification visa" could allow the couple to bring their parents in also.
You practice need to speak basic Portuguese to get a denizen, but you lot don't need to be fluent.
You'll likely learn the language quickly, though: Brazilians love to talk. I always tell people that you tin testify up in Brazil naked, not knowing a soul, and you'll immediately take twenty new friends willing to give y'all the shirts off their backs. It's a hard place to not like.
2020 UPDATE: Brazil also offers an clearing category specifically for investors. After you bring BRL 600,000 into the country, you can get a 5-twelvemonth residency permit. Given the existent's depreciation, this translates to approximately $130,000 only, which is quite affordable, relatively speaking.
Yous tin invest the coin in annihilation, or just leave information technology sitting in your Brazillian bank account. The program can pb to citizenship through regular naturalization after v years, making it an interesting selection if you're looking to gain a 2nd passport in Latin America.
If yous want to give your future child the invaluable gift of a second citizenship and passport, download our costless report The Four Passports ANYONE Tin can Obtain
Inside we take included a complete listing of countries that give citizenship past birth.
Further Reading A full list of countries that give citizenship by birth inside our free written report The Four Passports ANYONE Can Obtain
8. Caribbean
Cheapest Citizenship-By-Investment Pick For Wealthy Individuals
If money isn't an issue, then you lot could await into acquiring Citizenship By Investment from one of a number of Caribbean nations.
The region is home to five Citizenship Past Investment programs, and is responsible for making the sale of citizenship in commutation for donations mainstream around the globe.
After Hurricane Maria ravaged the region in 2017, several Caribbean nations fabricated their programs even more attractive by literally halving their prices to attract capital.
Virtually of these Caribbean countries rely on tourism every bit their primary economic engine. Therefore tax revenue plummeted in the spring of 2020 every bit coronavirus substantially shut down the tourism industry.
In response, St. Lucia became the first country to offering a COVID-19 discount on its citizenship by investment program. You tin can at present buy a $250,000 bond from St. Lucia which will be paid dorsum (without involvement) afterwards v years.
That means you could buy citizenship for every bit little every bit the toll of the filing fee – about $40,000.
But keep in listen the cost of the value of that money lost to inflation. Then there is the opportunity cost of having $250,000 tied up for five years. Plus the risk of St. Lucia defaulting on its bond obligations.
However, for some people it is an option worth because.
Saint Kitts also offers a disbelieve of $45,000 for families in 2020. More countries will likely follow and offer Covid-related discounts.
Even before the recent changes, the most attractive option for single applicants was St. Lucia. For a $109,550 exclusive of service provider fees) sometime donation to the authorities, you lot can get a passport from St. Lucia, which gives you visa-complimentary admission to 123 countries, including the European union (just excluding the U.s.a. and Canada).
For families, we suggest looking at Antigua & Barbuda, where a family unit of 4 tin go citizenship on the isle for just $147,200.
2020 Plan UPDATE: In May 2020, the Antiguan government announced that they will be slashing the awarding costs for families of six. Whereas previously the total cost of obtaining the state's citizenship would have been $185,000 for a family unit of six, the fee reduction means that y'all will now just take to spend $150,000 all-in.
As an added bonus, one family member can take advantage of a one-year, tuition-only scholarship from the University of the West Indies as part of the deal.
Seventh and subsequent family members tin be added to the application for an additional $15,000 per dependent.
An Antiguan passport is similar to that of St. Lucia in that information technology gives y'all access to 129 countries visa-free, including the EU, but excluding the US and Canada.
In both cases, there are no residency requirements, meaning that you are not required to spend any fourth dimension at all in the country after that. Antigua is the one exception, where you are expected to visit the country for five days inside the commencement five years of gaining their citizenship.
The processing fourth dimension for the entire procedure is around three to 5 months – so if you are looking for an expedited passport in a revenue enhancement haven and you take the means, then a Caribbean area passport could make a lot of sense.
You can learn more nearly this option, and other Carribean passports on "COVID auction" in our in-depth article about citizenship-by-investment.
ix. The Best Value BONUS Option
We promised y'all eight easy citizenship and passport options in this article, just we have one more option up our sleeve: Republic of chile.
It is the best passport and the most valuable 2d citizenship in Southward America. A Chilean passport gives you visa-free access to 147 countries and ranks in 18th identify on our Sovereign Man Passport Ranking Index.
However… please note:
Given the impact of COVID-nineteen on bureaucracies around the world, applying for Chilean citizenship past naturalization has become a LOT more than cumbersome and fourth dimension consuming.
Various members of the Sovereign Man team have been trying to complete a citizenship application in the past couple of years, and accept so far not been successful. A fundamental claiming has been that months pass without much feedback from the local regime.
And the fastest recent successful naturalization that we know of, finished in 2020, took 2 full years.
So if you are in a hurry to obtain a second citizenship, Chile may not be the all-time pick for you.
To acquire more about this option, download our gratis report "Iv Passports ANYONE can Obtain ".
Inside you'll besides learn…
- Iv second passports ANYONE can obtain
- Which country volition requite you a second passport without yous having to spend hardly any time at that place.
- How to get an excellent second passport from Europe.
- Which second passport option is the most affordable and best value.
- Where you can get a valuable second passport in less than One-half the time compared to other countries.
In that location are many means to acquire a 2nd passport– many more than nosotros're able to list in this article. (Luckily, we've written dozens more pieces detailing, step-by-step, how to acquire easy 2d citizenships. Check them out in the Sovereign Man athenaeum.)
We encourage you lot to research your options – and so Accept Activeness.
If you have one nationality, so ane, single regime has full command over your life, your finances, your business, and your personal affairs.
We saw many unlike responses from governments when information technology came to coronavirus lockdowns. And governments also respond differently to civil unrest, riots, and protests. The events of 2020 accept fabricated it obvious that you desire to have more than one option to choose which government's rules you prefer to live under.
Sadly, these days, annihilation is on the table. Tensions between India and Communist china are rise after a June 2020 border disharmonism which killed Indian troops. The The states and Prc are steadily marching into a cold war. And the world is a tinderbox, that would only take a random spark to ignite.
The US government is printing vast amounts of money, which could hands cheapen the currency, lead to extreme economic repercussions, and spark serious internal and external conflict.
At that signal, with just ane citizenship, you have little recourse to go out of harm'southward way.
It means that you're chained to the consequences of that unmarried government'due south decisions, no matter how destructive, no matter whether you agree.
A second passport is an insurance policy. A mode to have your power dorsum.
Hopefully you'll never need information technology. And hopefully, you'll never demand the fire insurance policy that protects your home, either.
But if that day ever comes when y'all olfactory property smoke, you lot'll give thanks your lucky stars y'all're covered.
Getting a 2d passport also means expanding your work, leisure and investment options – both for yourself and for your kids. Many universities in Europe, for example, are low-cost or gratuitous to EU nationals. And another passport can also be great for protecting your assets and even yourself: as far as I tin can tell, terrorists aren't going after Chileans.
Having a second passport merely makes sense. In this article, we've covered just a few of the many easy 2nd citizenships out there.
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