
The Passport King - brk
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-11/passport-king-christian-kalin-helps-nations-sell-citizenship
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littletimmy
Poor countries selling citizenship?

Come on. The US has a visa by investment program where you can invest either
$500,000 (high risk) or $1,000,000 (low risk) and get a straight path to
citizenship. The UK has a similar plan for $3,000,000. So do Canada,
Luxembourg, Austria, and dozens of other very well developed nations.

There have never been borders for the rich. No idea why this is being treated
as news.

~~~
mlmonkey
The difference is: the U.S. has a residency requirement. You have to live here
for 5 years to get USC. These countries, on the other hand, have minimal or
none.

~~~
buro9
> the U.S. has a residency requirement

This is fairly loose though.

Just don't leave the country for more than 6 months, and spend at least 6
months and a day in the country in each year.

The rich aren't constrained too much.

~~~
sp332
But you can't do that in 2 countries at once.

~~~
malandrew
What counts as a day? I imagine that a half day in two countries would be
counted as one day towards both since neither is probably splitting hairs over
whether it was 12 hours and one minute. I would imagine that because of this
it is possible to "double spend" a day for every time you fly between the same
two counties.

Obviously this assumes that given a range of dates, the number of days is
calculated as inclusive of the date of ingress and egress.

~~~
refurb
At first I thought you were just being obtuse, but you are correct!

 _USCIS will count the day that an applicant departs from the ​United States​
and the day he or she returns as days of physical presence within the ​United
States​ for naturalization purposes.​[1]_

As long as the other country counts it the same way, you could spend 6 months
in two countries and end up fulfilling the physical presence requirements in
both.

[1][http://www.uscis.gov/policymanual/HTML/PolicyManual-
Volume12...](http://www.uscis.gov/policymanual/HTML/PolicyManual-
Volume12-PartD-Chapter4.html)

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dublinben
These programs might sound unsavory and unfair at the moment, but they just
help highlight the archaic nature of nationality and citizenship. The wealthy
have always been able to cross borders more easily, now the rules are just
being clarified and systematized.

~~~
speeder
I wish I had money to buy a citizenship...

I think it is a great idea.

In my case I want to get rid of mine for war reasons: I don't ant to be called
to a war to fight for "my" country, because I don't think most of the
population here deserve me throwing my life away for them, even if it is
REALLY unlikely (our country is sort of pacifist, even WWII people were
skeptical that we would actually retaliate after we were attacked).

~~~
zimbatm
Now that it's been adopted by multiple countries it's only a matter of time
before some start competing on price. Hopefully it will start to become
affordable soon.

~~~
bradleyjg
Leaving aside the developing and underdeveloped nations discussed in the
article, the two cheapest right now look to be: the US ($500k equity in a job
creating business for four years) and Portugal (€500k in real estate for five
years).

The big disadvantage to the US program is that it has fairly strict residency
requirements and, almost alone, taxes on worldwide income. Portugal appears to
have much looser residency requirements (both to maintain the visa and to
ultimately apply for citizen) but I'm far less familiar with its program and
could be missing some nuance.

Hungary's program is €300k (in special government bonds), but I don't think
they are considered a developed nation yet. (they used to be called 2nd world,
but that category seems to have dropped out in the new
developed/developing/underdeveloped scheme).

~~~
klipt
Hungarian citizenship lets you live and work anywhere in the EU, which is
attractive even if you don't want to live in Hungary.

Kind of like how being born in Wyoming gives you US citizenship, which lets
you live and work anywhere in America, even if you wouldn't want to live in
Wyoming.

~~~
bradleyjg
Right, but as I understand the rules, in order to get citizenship you need
significant Hungarian residency over the course of several years.

~~~
csomar
So? There are no passport checks in EU. You can get a residency in Hungary,
and live somewhere else in the EU.

~~~
bradleyjg
If we are going to include fruad there are lots of things you could do.

~~~
klipt
Not necessarily fraudulent, I think there are some EU rules that permanent
residents of one country can live and work in other countries. I don't know
the specifics though.

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Tunecrew
The critics of these programmes tend to be persons who already hold passports
from developed countries, and who are therefore not subject to the tedious,
arbitrary, expensive and humiliating process of applying for visas anytime
they travel.

More power to St. Kitts, etc.

~~~
emodendroket
The wretched of the Earth are probably not buying quarter-million dollar
passports.

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rooofer
I don't see anything wrong with using it as a way of opening borders. I think,
from an idealistic standpoint, borders should be completely open to everyone
and people should be able to freely move from one country to another.
Economics disparities between countries make that impossible, but people who
can afford these passports aren't going to an economic drain on other
countries.

I'm skeptical on how effective it is as a way of reducing taxes. Don't most
countries tax you on residency anyways? And if you're physically in St. Kitts
for 183 days a year, isn't it fair that you pay St Kitt's tax rates?

~~~
petegrif
Countries vary a good deal on how much they tax you. And as the article says,
St Kitts has no capital gains tax which is by far the most important tax rate
for the wealthy.

~~~
jessaustin
Couldn't a combination of consumption and inheritance taxes perform the same
function? These seem harder to game than capital gains tax.

~~~
dublinben
Consumption (sales tax or VAT) taxes are regressive, so that's a non starter.

Inheritance taxes are trivial to circumvent with careful estate planning and
vehicles such as trusts.

~~~
aianus
They don't have to be regressive. At least here in Ontario, Canada the
government cuts you a check to reimburse you for the sales tax you paid during
the year (if your declared income is low enough).

~~~
prostoalex
In California food and any items bought with food stamps are not taxed. So the
government has more or less complete freedom in reducing the regressive nature
of the tax by expanding the food stamp eligibility.

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vonnik
So basically, these states have built a business off of the money that would
otherwise be paid to governments through taxes. They're like H&R Block on a
national scale. The purchasers of the passport simply reroute money they would
otherwise owe, paying nothing extra and saving a great deal.

I'm skeptical of how much these individuals "contribute to the country," as
Kalin says. Many of these nations, such as Bulgaria, are well known for their
corruption. So in all likelihood, money from the wealthy is being diverted
into the coffers of another elite.

~~~
tomp
> Many of these nations, such as Bulgaria, are well known for their
> corruption. So in all likelihood, money from the wealthy is being diverted
> into the coffers of another elite.

Another way to look at it is that by utilizing another stream of income, these
countries, unable to tap into existing wealth, natural resources or
exploitation/colonization, can reduce corruption and improve the standard of
living for their citizens faster than they would otherwise.

~~~
gwern
> can reduce corruption

So, you think that selling passports - a low-volume, high-profit-margin,
heavily-secret revenue stream handled personally by high-level politicians
favored by questionable characters and which has no relationship to
transparency, good government, good business practices, efficient government
in any sense, or the consent of the governed - might reduce _corruption_?

~~~
tomp
Your reasoning is based on the assumption that selling passports is some kind
of a grey/black business. I see no reason it should be that way, especially
since there are conditions attached to it (e.g. 250K investment).

~~~
gwern
Selling passports lends itself to abuse for at least 8 inherent structural
reasons I outlined. Whether or not one intends it to be a grey/black business,
it still is unlikely to decrease corruption...

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ForHackernews
I'm really surprised the EU lets this fly for Malta, Bulgaria and Cyprus.
They're not just selling their own citizenship, they're selling citizenship in
the rest of the EU.

~~~
retroafroman
I also found that surprising. There are a lot of benefits to having an EU
passport-the biggest being living AND working in any of the EU countries
without a visa. I'm guessing that's why they're also the most expensive.

~~~
njharman
Anyone paying that much for passport doesn't need to work.

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presty
I'd think Nevis' citizenship popularity increase is mainly due to the fact
that it became a tax-haven, more than anything else

check [http://flagtheory.com/the-best-place-for-an-internet-
entrepr...](http://flagtheory.com/the-best-place-for-an-internet-entrepreneur-
to-incorporate/)

~~~
beej1981
Interesting article. Although, I'm pretty sure he's mistaken about Belize
being the farthest South that still speaks English officially. Guyana's
official language is English, and it's on the South American continent.

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tsuyoshi
When I was living in Cambodia, I heard someone talking about how you could buy
citizenship there. I assumed that it would be involve bribing a government
official, since that's the kind of place Cambodia is. But I found out that in
fact, Cambodian nationality law explicitly says you can apply for citizenship
after donating 1 billion riel (about $250 thousand) to the government. But you
still have to pass a Cambodian language test (which I've heard you can bribe
your way around anyway - total cost I've heard is about $500 thousand).

Unfortunately though, a Cambodian passport is almost worthless. You get visa-
free entry to ASEAN (Southeast Asia) countries and that's about it. My
daughter has Cambodian citizenship, but I never bothered to apply for a
Cambodian passport for her, since her US passport is totally sufficient.

That deal on Cypriot citizenship seems like a pretty good deal though. An EU
passport would be more valuble than just about anything else. I imagine it
won't last though; I would bet the other EU members would try to stop it.

[http://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6b5210.html](http://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6b5210.html)

[http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/pros-and-cons-
selling-...](http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/pros-and-cons-selling-
khmer-citizenship)

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NN88
> _In June, Bloomberg News reported that Paul Bilzerian, a former Wall Street
> raider who served two prison terms for fraud, was claiming to be licensed to
> process citizenship applications for St. Kitts, where he now lives.
> Bilzerian helped an entrepreneur named Roger Ver—a provocateur widely known
> as Bitcoin Jesus—to purchase citizenship on the island. The two men then
> launched a website called Passports for Bitcoin to help people in places
> such as China use virtual currency to skirt local laws limiting money
> transfers. Learning of this, the St. Kitts citizenship unit made a hasty
> announcement that it wouldn’t be accepting bitcoins as payment. Bilzerian
> declined to comment for this story._

If you ever are on Instagram, this is Dan Bilzerians Dad

~~~
mikeyouse
And "Served two prison terms for fraud" doesn't quite do justice to the
massive scam he pulled off. He still owes some $60M in restitution but he fled
the country and buried all his assets in related party deals with his wife's
family. The guy is a complete scumbag.

[http://www.wsj.com/articles/for-decades-ex-corporate-
raider-...](http://www.wsj.com/articles/for-decades-ex-corporate-raider-holds-
off-sec-effort-to-collect-62-million-judgment-1410892550)

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emodendroket
Well, if I were an immigration official I might consider not offering visa-
free travel to a country that was outright selling passports to non-residents,
personally.

~~~
Vespasian
Depending on what scale their sales are I thinks its just a matter of time
until at least some of the currently "visa-free" countries change their
policies.

Bureaucracies work slowly. Give them some time ;)

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galuggus
There is an interesting/funny documentary about this.

[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2048877/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2048877/)

The story of a guy trying to buy a diplomatic passport

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cpursley
A second passport is pretty appealing not from a tax, but from an back-up /
insurance perspective. Especially as an American married to a Russian with all
the tension between those nations...

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maljx
Doesn't the US have a similar program if you invest enough money? (~200,000
USD ?)

~~~
kanwisher
He mentions that, most countries its only residency not a passport. For US you
can't get a passport without many years of actual residency in the country,
which is not what most people are looking to do

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bekimdisha
... you can always have more money than sense, you know ...

