
A New Way for the Wealthy to Shop for Citizenships - lebek
http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/a-new-way-for-the-wealthy-to-shop-for-citizenships?mbid=rss
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liamcardenas
> The U.S. ranks twenty-eighth on the Q.N.I., behind nearly every E.U.
> country. Kalin told me that the U.S.’s rank is partly due to its restrictive
> immigration policy, and partly because “there are so many weapons, and a
> high incarceration rate.”

Why does the fact that there are "so many weapons, and a high incarceration
rate" make the US a bad place to live for millionaires?

There is a lot of subjectivity here. If you want to live in America, then an
American citizenship is the most important one to have. However, if you want
to live abroad, an American citizenship is terrible because you still have to
pay income tax no matter where in the world you are.

(I do like measuring travel freedom though!)

~~~
HillaryBriss
This "QNI" value that law firm invented seems mostly of interest to wealthy
people who want to visit a lot of countries with short visa delays (if any)
and little to no red tape at points of entry.

QNI seems minimally useful/relevant to people who live in a country full time
and rarely if ever leave that country. For them, other indices and statistics
are of greater interest.

~~~
sudhirj
Also taxes. Tax rates and laws differ based on citizenships.

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owenversteeg
Firstly, I think this is a fascinating subject that isn't discussed on HN
enough. A lot of friends of mine have multiple citizenships, so this is an
interesting subject for me personally. I know two people with dual Russian-US
nationalities, which they both loudly proclaim to be the best. I also know a
number of people with dual European-US citizenships, and a handful of people
who have a smaller non-EU country and a US citizenship. I also know some
people who only have just one smaller non-EU country's citizenship.

I've personally had the discussion several times about what the best
citizenships to hold are. Some people I know are wealthy enough that they
could simply afford to purchase additional citizenships; some are undocumented
in their country of residence and holding even dual citizenship is only a
dream.

I'm personally of the opinion that there are a few "classes" of passports:
European, American, Russian, South American, and everyone else. Russian,
because it allows you free travel between the former Soviet states; European
and American for obvious reasons, and South American because most South
American countries permit free travel with citizenship.

Less commonly known passports I have special love for are the Chilean passport
and the Dutch passport (which I have). The Dutch passport because it is very
difficult to obtain (and requires you to give up all other citizenships unless
obtained by birth), and the Chilean one because it is the only passport to
allow free travel to all G8 countries.

It's also interesting to watch how the Syrian passport fell from "medium
quality", relatively close to high quality, to the fourth worst passport
ranked. In the same time, only a few countries fell positions: El Salvador
went from high quality to medium quality, and the Congo went from medium to
low quality.

For those in the thread asking for a copy of the 2016 report:
[https://www.henleyglobal.com/files/download/HP/hvri/HP%20Vis...](https://www.henleyglobal.com/files/download/HP/hvri/HP%20Visa%20Restrictions%20Index%20160223.pdf)

~~~
Teever
I would think that Canadian and German passport would be quite excellent.

Canadian because it gives you access to free healthcare and the United States,
as well as visa free entry to so many countries and the German one gives you
all of the EU.

I knew a person with Canadian, Swiss, and New Zealand -- now that's an awesome
combination.

~~~
sdm
Canadian passport does not give you free healthcare; it is completely
unconnected with citizenship.

Health care, like most thing, is the responsibility of the provincial
governments. You have to be a resident of a province for a period of time,
usually 6 months, to get free healthcare in that province. Provinces do cover
out of province travel and some limited international travel though usually
not the US -- but that all varies by province.

If you are a non-resident Canadian citizen, you will __not __be covered and
have to pay full even if you are treated in Canada. For example, if you move
to the Bay area for work, go home at christmas and break your leg, you will be
out of pocket the total costs.

However, if you a resident non-citizen (i.e., PR, TFW, Student), you will be
covered after your residency is established.

~~~
raverbashing
It's 3 months for Quebec and 153 days for Ontario
[http://www.health.gov.on.ca/en/public/programs/ohip/](http://www.health.gov.on.ca/en/public/programs/ohip/)

~~~
codexjourneys
What happens to you if you move and then get in a terrible accident? Does your
former province cover you during this in-between residency establishment
phase? Do you need to move back to your old province (or be moved back) before
the waiting period expires? Or are you completely SOL?

~~~
raverbashing
I'm not sure, I think that in the specific case of an inter-province move
you're still covered by the older province

Or you get a separate private insurance if you're coming into Canada to stay

I suspect that even without any coverage you're not SOL because of things like
the mandatory insurance that vehicles must have

~~~
codexjourneys
Okay, I figured there must be some provision for movers but was unwilling to
assume - so the old province would cover me if I had some incident in the new
province (car accident, heart attack, mega food poisoning, whatever)...

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emptybits
Referenced but not linked by the article:
[https://www.nationalityindex.com](https://www.nationalityindex.com)

------
Cyph0n
I feel that it's a much more interesting comparison. Other rankings simply
compare the number of countries your passport can enter visa-free, which
obviously ignores many factors.

I'm lucky enough to hold three citizenships (no I'm not rich), so I have no
trouble entering most countries. I just wish one of them was from the EU... it
would make working there much easier.

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projectramo
1\. I wish they had published their list

2\. The simple metric that might help us understand the value of the list:
access to high paying jobs

3\. From #2, you can derive other properties as corollaries (freedom to
travel, settle Etc)

~~~
y4mi
they did publish it. emptybits posted a link to their index

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11886215](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11886215)

------
Brandanna
Yeah, passports.io does a better job than this firm. I incorporated in
Seychelles, have citizenship in antigua. All thanks to them.

Remember, kids: tax evasion is illegal. Tax avoidance is _discouraged_.

~~~
lucaspiller
Where do you usually reside? First of all you've got issues with visas, but
also in a lot of countries you automatically become a tax resident after
staying there for more than ~180 days per year (as in most EU countries).

