The Countries That Will Sell You a Passport

For people unhappy with their passport and with the right amount of spare cash hanging around, acquiring a new nationality that – for example – awards visa-free travel to more countries is possible. According to law firm Henley & Partners, a dozen countries around the world offer passports in exchange for investments and the large majority does not require applicants to move or even visit there.

The scheme is a way for small island states – mainly in the Caribbean – to receive some cash injections into their economies while sharing the wide-reaching visa-free travel priviledges their passports hold. A passport from St. Kitts and Nevis, for example, offers relatively hassle-free entry to 154 countries, not far off from the world record held by Singapore at 193. Other so-called golden passport countries follow close behind, including Antigua and Barbuda at 152 countries, Grenada at 147, St. Lucia at 146 and Dominica at 143. Outside the Caribbean, non-EU member North Macedonia has visa-free travel to 130 countries, Turkey to 114 countries and Nauru to 87 (at the lower rate of $130,000).

Larger nations which offer passports for investment, also including Egypt and Jordan, advertise additional benefits their citizenship-for-investment schemes can offer, for example ease of accessing local markets and trade routes. Jordan and Turkey charge more than the $200,000 to $250,000 usual in Caribbean for this priviledge, while the Egypt investment stands at $250,000 also.

Malta, as one of only two EU countries offering citizenship-for-investment, has the most stringent rules, including a three-year residence requirement and a five-year investment period. Austria, the second EU member included on this list, does not have set rules for its scheme, hinting at it being the hardest-to-acquire option. Both nations also have residence-by-investment schemes, a more common occurance in Europe and around the world, where investors are given (permanent) resident status first before later potentially having a path to citizenship. With more countries participating, price ranges for residence-by-investment are wider, while the program is not necessarily cheaper. European Union prices also reach as high as $500,000, while this is around $1 million in the United States (business founders only) and into several millions in the case of Singapore, New Zealand or Hong Kong.