Europe’s New Citizenship by Investment Program

it's been in the works for years and now there's serious talk that Europe could have a new Fast citizenship available to almost anyone I'm going to share all the details [Music] a lot of people like the idea of having second citizenship in here but just feels better to them perhaps it feels more romantic that's not why you should get second citizenship in a certain place but some people just want stuck in citizenship in Europe but if you don't want to move to Europe if you don't have a parent or a grandparent or a great grandparent from Europe how do you get that European citizenship well as you can in many places of the world you can get it by investment citizenship by investment is the way that people who don't have other ways to get citizenship or just who are in a hurry and want to protect themselves from The Perils of only having one citizenship can go and make a donation or make some kind of investment and get citizenship in as little as six months we see that most commonly at the lower price points in the Caribbean five countries make a donation here's your passport you don't even need to visit generally speaking okay and so Europe's programs have been more Rocky but now we're seeing the country of Albania talking about rolling at its own citizenship by investment program and I'm going to tell you exactly what I think you should know about that if it's your first time here I'm Andrew Henderson founder of nomad capitalist we're a booty consulting firm that helps seven and eight figure entrepreneurs legally go where you're treated best including having a second citizenship so you're always in control also tax planning and living overseas investing overseas you can learn more at Nomad capitalist.com let's first talk about citizenship in Europe by the way okay some people are lucky enough to get it through a family tree always recommend checking that out if you're looking to relocate somewhere else and you're not in a hurry you're a citizen of Canada and you're like all right Canada is doing terribly but I I can wait five years to get citizenship six seven years whatever all right then maybe you want to move to Europe on a self-sufficient Visa maybe you want to move there in a golden Visa maybe you want to start a company get a residence permit that way right but if you don't have family and if you don't want to live there citizenship by investment can work Europe though programs have come and gone Moldova a couple years ago opened a program 40 to 50 more expensive than the Caribbean options so not terribly more expensive but I never really saw the great value proposition seeing that if you choose somewhere to live I enjoy going to Moldova but the average person would probably rather be on the beaches of St Lucia rather than living in Moldova not saying that where your citizenship is is where you have to live but I'm saying is the some extreme backup you know that citizenship countries where you can always go uh and I think that quite frankly Caribbean citizenship is a little bit better than a moldovan citizenship they opened they quickly suspended and then they closed down uh in 2020 Cyprus closed its long-running program where you could invest for example 2 million euros in real estate and you could eventually get that money back you get citizenship in the EU country no U.S visa free access but it was an EU country so you could become cypriot go and live in France go and live in Ireland go and live in Portugal don't need to ask right that program closed and so it's gone Montenegro has a citizenship program it is dramatically more expensive than a Caribbean program with both a donation and an investment component and the investment component just like the Caribbean real estate options are rather overpriced it's probably not the investment that you would make that program is ending at the end of 2022 after a one-year extension they said please we're not going to extend it anymore uh we're out so Moldova Cyprus Montenegro all out now two of those countries are at the edge of Europe one of those countries is in the European Union uh Malta also in the European Union continues to run not technically a citizenship by investment program but a longer roughly 18-month program they call it the exceptional investor naturalization program that's going to cost you close to a million dollars the Euro being down obviously helps but that's going to cost you a pretty penny by the time you add up all the fees if you get that you can live anywhere in the European Union you can visit the United States you can pretty much go wherever you want in the world that's the gold standard basically but it's expensive and so Albania now is saying all right other countries in our region have not kept their citizenship programs let's roll one out again they've been talking about it since 2019. and so the idea here is you want a country that's a quote unquote real country some people don't say the islands is real country some people complain about hurricanes number one you don't have to live in your citizenship country if this is a backup plan be a citizen of St Lucia get a residence permit in Malaysia get a residence permit in Panama get a residence permit in Portugal and go and live there get multiple residence permits right second citizenship by investment is I need insurance or I actively need to get rid of my current citizenship or I actively need a second passport because I'm investing in something where they don't care if I'm American but they need to see a different passport like in crypto all right and I'm willing to pay for that privilege because I know I'm going to make a better return on investment the investment that I can make are going to pay off and so I don't want to wait five years I don't have the time I don't have the lifestyle I can't change like just where do I send the money okay and so I don't look at it as where you should live citizenship for citizenship's sake living for living's sake and by the way even if your concerns are hurricanes even if you want to live in your citizenship country at some point you've got Grenada for example largely out of the hurricane belt but some folks just like the idea of number one being in Europe and number two being on a continent somewhere so Albania is going to give you that Albania does not have the regulatory issues of the EU now this also doesn't have the visa-free travel to the United States it doesn't have the ability to live in any other country within the block if you have an Albanian citizenship you can travel to Albanian and you can live in Albania so you can get residents permits in other countries again I bet most countries don't care whether you're St Lucian or Albanian right or Antiguan or Albanian nobody cares but if you just like the idea of I want a place that's a little bit larger country yes it has a coast and yes surround in the South really being developed velor is okay I don't find durish in the north to be as interesting but if you want to be kind of down by the Greek side down by Corfu there's some very beautiful prices places down there very affordable property there are some advantages of being a citizen if you want to buy certain kinds of land although property is generally available for foreign investment and so I ask myself what's Albania going to charge for this passport if they're going to do what is Moldova didn't charge substantially more uh 450 I don't entirely see the value for the average person who's not planning on relocating and buying property remember we're not diversifying to Simply trade in everything we have in our current country and move it all to a new country I wouldn't mind having a bank account in Albanian I think you can do that with a relatively nominal amount of money if you if you go to the right bank branch but I'm not going to put the majority of my money there right so that's going to be maybe a banking flag but a small banking flag maybe that's what I call a tunnel I'm going to put 10 grand somewhere just in case and I know it's there but I'm not moving all my money to Albania am I going to personally move to Albania most people aren't by the way it's not a tax Haven it's not like the Caribbean where if you had to live in that country um if you even if you lived on the beach you're not going to pay zero the way you wouldn't send kids in Davis for example so it doesn't have that benefit and so the only benefit that Albania offers is what Montenegro has been pricing its program based on which is the offer of Ascension to the European Union and so will Albania be a country in the EU and so the idea that Montenegro had was initially we'll charge you a hundred thousand Euro donation okay at this point dollar in Euro parity so it's the same as St Lucia for example or Dominica fine but you have to buy some overpriced Real Estate another you know 250 000 in the Hinterlands or 450 000 along the coast so I spend time in Port of Montenegro right 450 000 Euros I wouldn't mind living at Puerto Montenegro um the other Project's not as good uh just not as interesting but you're paying a lot for property that you could buy elsewhere right I mean you're being forced to buy properties somewhere in particular I like the guys at Puerto Montenegro um but I like the the idea of having Choice also and so um the deal for Montenegro pricing was hey you can go and spend 750 000 Euros in Malta and a whole bunch of fees and you can wait 18 months or you can come here and within you know six months I'm including some of the paperwork collection uh you can get citizenship with only a hundred thousand years out of pocket and you're gonna buy some property but you hey you'll enjoy it yeah you'll go to you know you'll go to the yak Club you'll have the time of your life why because the Montenegro is pitching we're going to join the European Union and so don't overpay for Malta and so the question is if you believe that Albania will join the European Union well you should look at what their eu's response is his response is the same thing they said in 2019 we have grave concerns about this you're going to bring in money launderers criminals all the typical nonsense that Europe says about citizenship by investment while they continue to do in many EU countries rather light due diligence and people coming to their countries and getting their citizenship so the EU is already against us and they're already saying we're going to have grave concerns with allowing you to continue your Ascension to the EU if you do this in Albania basically you know stopped that three years ago now they're coming back and say Hey you know maybe we don't care we're putting out a tender we want to roll this out we'll do it ethically is the EU going to listen to that or care no they're just against the concept of you having options and so if you want a citizenship that's in Europe in a country that is willing to do this and says hey please bring us your money then maybe this is an interesting option it's worth paying a little bit more for if you're trying to take a call option on this country could join the EU and I can I can Arbitrage the difference in price between this program and Maltese program or this program in a golden Visa where I spend seven days a year in the country then that seems like a riskier bet to me I'm not opposed to having a t or B passport that's what Albania is you can go to Europe without a Visa I hope they continue that if they wrote this citizenship by investment program I would imagine they probably do as long as the program is in totally run poorly the way Vanna watches program was so you can go to Europe without a Visa so you can travel all throughout Europe the same way in American Canadian Australian code fantastic you can go to a lot of other places Central America South America southeast Asia it's decent t or B coverage so you've got decent travel not as good as an EU studies and not as good as an American or Canadian but decent travel you could live in an Albanian citizenship plenty of people do if you have money you'll be fine you get the occasional Visa no problem what I don't want people to do though is pay more for this citizenship if they roll it out let's say at 200 000 Euros which is what North Macedonia did nearby North Macedonia nobody really talks about because they haven't actually issued any citizenships yet it's a very kind of murky I do believe it's a proper program but there's something going on over there to the best of my knowledge Zero citizenships have been issued but why would you pay double the price even with a year of a parity with a dollar why would you pay double the price in one of these countries that again you're probably not going to want to live in okay if you could choose any Beach on earth right especially one that has that has taxes if you live there six months of the year or longer would you choose to live in surround Albania I'm not saying it's a bad place to go if you're looking to buy some Beach property I've had numerous people in the hotel industry for example say this is the last untouched gem in Europe where you can get cheap property on the beach I believe that's true beginning to be a citizen to do that you just go and buy a bunch of apartments right so I I strongly believe get citizenship for citizenship's sake now is it possible that you know a bank or somewhere would say you know we don't know like antigens we don't really like St lucians yeah you know we know this is a citizenship by investment program maybe they would treat Albania a little bit better but if enough people start getting Albanian citizenship then that may get out there as well they'll probably take a while and Montenegro said they were only going to sell 2 000 passports they're only going to sell a couple hundred I think Albania would probably sell a couple of hundred maybe they'll get up to a thousand at some point if they're going to charge more than a Caribbean program I just don't see the Great Value I love Albania I love the Albanian people but I can tell you I just don't see the value of citizenship for citizenship's sake and residents for residence sake gives citizenship the most affordable Plan B place that you can preferably in a place if you if it's a place you ever think you'll live and that's your reason for wanting a European one if it's a place you have a think you'll live then wouldn't you rather have a country that's tax-free even if you're a citizen of St Lucia which is not a text for you have certain privileges to go and live and Saint Kitts and Nevis for example which is tax free okay so if you get one of the Caribbean ones you have a certain optionality Albania Montenegro you've got one option you've got that country and so I just don't see the reason to pay more for most people surely someone will come across my desk I think we've done one Montenegro case for somebody and I live there right we've done Montenegro residences for people who want to move there but that's the point get something that's affordable maybe it's not even citizenship by investment and if you want to live in Albania buy a property you get a residence permit they're going to make you live there so you're not going to have the optionality of being a citizen but if you're willing to commit the time to being there then you can have the residence permit and potentially you have to pay some tax so I just don't see all around the value I like the fact that more countries are coming out of citizenship by an investment and if they price it at a hundred thousand Euros it will be an interesting competitor but if they price it at you know double and this idea that this is some option to get to the EU if I want to go to the EU I'm either going to get a residence permit and work towards citizenship or I'm just going to go all the way to Malta I'm not going to try and Arbitrage it I'm all for call options I'm a big believer in call options I don't believe that these Balkan countries are necessarily the call options that you think they are and when it comes to bureaucracy I just don't want to wait around so those are my thoughts on Albania's program would be interesting to see what's coming out leave your thoughts below as a comment which programs you like the best would you consider an Albanian program or would you stick with the more tried and true options in the Caribbean

Channel: Nomad Capitalist

Views: 58,233

Keywords: nomad capitalist, go where you're treated best, second passport, dual citizenship, second citizenship, andrew henderson, best places to live, life abroad, Europe’s New Citizenship by Investment Program, moving to another country, travel around the world, europe, moving to europe, cbi, cbi program, taxes, eastern europe, where to live, how to move to europe, move to europe, moving to europe from usa, living in europe, american in europe, life in europe, eu, european citizenship

Id: gYfq8eD-HUc

Length: 13min 19sec (799 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 14 2022