Be it taxes, business opportunities, regime change or even just visa-free access to certain countries, there are a wide variety of reasons a high-net-worth client may want to secure an additional passport or even new citizenship.
One of the simplest ways to achieve these goals is through the various residency and/or citizenship by investment programs that many countries have enacted. The way most of these initiatives work is that by buying a certain amount of real estate or otherwise investing a threshold amount into a country (based on its individual program), a client can receive heavily expedited naturalization.
International real estate expert on residency and citizenship through investment Astons recently released a list of the residency and citizenships that are top of the Christmas lists for global HNW investors looking to obtain a new passport for Christmas.
“2020 has been an incredibly busy year for the residency and citizenship by investment sector and we’ve seen some significant uplifts in demand across a number of programs for a variety of reasons,” said Arthur Sarkisian, managing director of Astons. “Affordability and speed have always been a driving factor. However, with the pandemic bringing both economic uncertainty and restrictions around travel, we’ve seen investors opt for more remote and idyllic destinations such as the Caribbean and Vanuatu where they might not have otherwise.”
Here's a list of 25 attractive destinations for HNW clients seeking new passports, as well as some of the pertinent information about the citizenship or residency-by-investment programs in each: