Citizenship Programs, How they Work ?

There are only three operational second passport programs in the world. They are the:

• Dominica Citizenship by Investment Programme (1991)
• The St Kitts Citizenship-by-Investment Program (1984)
• Panama Instant Passport Program (PIPP)

All three are regarded as highly successful, well regulated, and controlled passport and/ or citizenship programs.

The St Kitts and Dominica 2nd passport programs offer citizenship for life with full rights as a citizen and optional residency, while the Panama passport program grants residency and a temporary 5-year passport. There is no citizenship, or the right of a citizen.

In each one of these three passport programs, the applicants are subject to a preliminary round of scrupulous due diligence. These requirements are in place to ensure the integrity of the programs as well as that of the persons under the application.

Once an applicant is willing to underscore the distractions of the application process, the benefits of second passports and where applicable citizenship, outweigh the setbacks of a lengthy and grueling process.

Please note the process for application for second passports in each of these options varies greatly in requirements, processing time and cost, and should not be considered one and the same.

Outside of these options for second passports, other countries in the word do offer citizenship and second passport options, but in most, if not all cases, there is a requirements for residency before the application for citizenship or a second passport can even be considered.

This is a lengthy process under which the applicant for second citizenship applies for temporary residency status in the country in which they seek citizenship, and after several years of living (residency) in that country, they may qualify for citizenship. This is how it works in many modern countries including the US, UK and Australia.

There are other viable but timely and costly citizenship options. Some countries will consider offering citizenship to investors who inject substantial amounts of money (minimum investment values exceed US2M) into the country meeting stiff financial and business requirements ( such as creating jobs, building industries).

Other have programs where temporary residency is required, generally a minimum of five years after which they may apply for permanent residency status. Even then, citizenship is not automatically guaranteed.

The programs closest to “instant” second passport programs, that offers dual nationality are programs where the applicant does not have to change residence or fork up unimaginable amounts of money, or wait for years; the Dominica economic citizenship program and the Federation of St Kitts and Nevis Citizenship-by-Investment program, and the Panama Instant Passport Program. Either one of the three 2nd passports programs will provide that option. In fact these programs are intentionally created to compete aggressively with the residency programs and other second passport programs in the world.

Two of the current and very successful 2nd passport programs in place right now are St Kitts Nevis economic citizenship program, and the Dominica Citizenship by Investment Program. Coincidentally, both these countries are located in the warm and tropical Caribbean. The Panama retirement Program (available to applicants of all ages) is a similar program which we consider a viable 2nd passport option as well. We shall discuss all these economic citizenship and 2nd passport programs here.

The most successful citizenship programs take the form of economic citizenship, in which there is no residency requirement. Through economic citizenship some form of investment in the form of cash or long term investment is made to the country in exchange for citizenship. In Dominica and Saint Kitts, the program grants full citizenship and a second passport, however under the Panama Instant Passport Program, no citizenship is granted, just a conditional 5 year passport.

Economic citizenship programs are seen as economic strategies. The programs are criticized by some, and praised by others, but is beneficial to both the country and the beneficiary once implemented in a regulated and safe manner.