The Ultimate Plan B A Second Residency or Citizenship is the New ‘Must Have’ for the Wealthy Elite

THE ULTIMATE PLAN B

A Second Residency or Citizenship is the New ‘Must Have’ for the Wealthy Elite

Gaining a second residency or citizenship is arguably the most effective way to safeguard your freedom, wealth and family’s future. After a wakeup call in 2020, we saw that having additional options provides you with the peace of mind to maintain your mobility in times of crisis or a pandemic. There are three types of program options: residency by investment, citizenship by investment or tax residency. Depending on your individual needs and goals, Latitude has a team of experts in investment migration, based in over 20 countries worldwide including the USA, who can provide a bespoke solution and a seamless experience to obtain a second residency or citizenship.

By Hillary Latos

Portugal

The Latitude Advantage

With 22 offices around the world, and a six-member Executive Team with a combined industry experience of over 100 years, Latitude’s private client advisors are licensed in each of the jurisdictions that they operate in and can provide expert and comprehensive guidance to their clients from their departure country to their final destination country. With expertise in local immigration laws, customs, languages, and jurisdictions they can identify the programs that best suit their needs. We also advise governments to help them either refine their existing program or we build it from scratch.

Christopher Willis, Latitude’s Managing Director of Government Advisory and Program Delivery, has been helping people immigrate and settle for 27 years, and he shares his insights on why a secondary residency and passport has become the new ‘must have’ tool for the wealthy elite.

IW: What is the fastest second passport to obtain?

CW: The quickest second passport to obtain is from one of the Caribbean programs which can take as little as three months. In St. Kitts and Nevis, they offer an accelerated application process where you spend an additional $25,000 to prioritize your file, and can get a second passport in 60 days, assuming there's no due diligence issues. Prior to the pandemic most applicants for the Caribbean came from countries that had a very weak passport to travel on such as Lebanon, Nigeria, Pakistan, Venezuela, and South Africa. By making an investment in the Caribbean, you will receive economic citizenship, and can travel to Europe visa free without tying up your passport at an embassy. The more options you have the better off you are going to be and the advantages of having another travel document is priceless.

On the flip side, the American passport was always a very strong passport to travel with but during COVID many countries banned Americans from travelling. But if you had, for example, citizenship in St. Kitts and Nevis, which is only 50,000 people and is one of the smallest countries in the Western Hemisphere, you could go to 157 countries visa free. Americans who had this second passport from St. Kitts were able to travel freely to the UK, Europe and Asia.

IW: What are the most popular programs that Americans are applying for?

CW: For Americans, Portugal has been very popular. The lowest investment level for residency is 280,000 Euros and you only have to spend seven days per year in Portugal. After five years and once you’ve learned some basic Portuguese, you can apply to become a naturalized citizen of Portugal. Most people can easily handle a week-long holiday in Portugal for five years. As soon as you are granted a Portuguese passport, you will receive access, settlement rights and European Union status. A Portuguese citizen has the freedom to live, work, study or retire in any of the EU member states. For succession planning, your children will have a full EU passport which is a significant advantage to US citizens.

Many of our clients have moved forward with a combination of a Caribbean and European passport program. The lowest investment amount in the Caribbean is $100,000, which is very reasonable for our UHNW clients. Geographically, it is very close to the US and people are familiar with it. During the pandemic, you couldn’t travel there unless you were a citizen. In certain instances, some of our more private clients don’t want to travel under an American passport and a second passport allows them to travel incognito.

Having a second passport also provides a non-traditional insurance policy in case things change very quickly and those who hold one can relocate at a moment’s notice. It is becoming more of a ‘must have’ for the wealthy elite. It’s not about what watch you’re wearing or what car you’re driving, it’s about what passports are in your pocket. Having these options will enhance your freedoms and ensure you have mobility options, if needed.

IW: What are the advantages of choosing citizenship by real estate investment vs. direct investment?

CW: In the Caribbean, you can make a donation to a National Fund which the government uses to fund certain projects. In exchange for that investment, and subject to due diligence checks, you receive your economic citizenship, which is the quickest and easiest way to do it. This is extremely popular with American clients.

You can also qualify via a real estate purchase. Family offices that want to diversify their portfolio will buy property in the Caribbean instead of in the US and get the double benefit of an economic citizenship as well. St. Lucia is the only country that has a bond option, where you pay into a government back bond with a zero 0% return and you get it back after five years.

When we first meet with a client, we listen to their needs, goals, and motivations to better understand their individual profile and then proceed to advise them on their best residency or citizenship options based on their personal needs, timeline, and budget.

Christopher Willis

IW: Are there any fast tracks to obtaining European citizenship?

CW: The only Citizenship by Investment program available in Europe is offered by Malta, which is very popular and the gold standard in the industry due to their high due

Malta

St Kitts & Nevis

diligence level. The Malta program allows for the granting of citizenship to individuals and their families who contribute to the social and economic development of the country. While the program starts from just under 1 million Euros the overall timeline is approximately 15 to 18 months. The Malta passport affords visa-free travel to over 180 countries and the right to live and work in any other EU country.

IW: How do you work with your clients?

CW: When we first meet with a client, we listen to their needs, goals, and motivations to better understand their individual profile and then proceed to advise them on their best residency or citizenship options based on their personal needs, timeline, and budget.

We focus on countries that have very clear and predictable pathways to get a citizenship or residency. We will also do a comprehensive initial due diligence screening to ensure our clients have a high chance for a successful application, which saves them both time and money.

Once onboarded, we handhold the client through every step of the application process from start to finish and beyond. We have a large, dedicated team handling all the paperwork and ensuring the client is in constant contact about the status of their application until they receive their new second residency or passport. It’s the usual adage, it's better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it. In some ways, a second passport or residency is like a life insurance policy. You hope you never have to use it but should the need ever arise, you will certainly be glad you had the foresight to obtain one and help protect those who are most important in your life.

Christopher Willis is the Managing Director of Latitude Consultancy and is responsible for Government Advisory services and Programme Delivery. He has been involved in the immigration industry since 1995 and is a member of the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants (CICC), the Canadian Association of Professional Immigration Consultants (CAPIC) and the Investment Migration Council (IMC). He sits on the Board of the CAPIC Quebec chapter as well as the National lobbying committee.

His office is the Regional Representative Office (RRO) for the Investment Migration Council in the Caribbean.

He has been educated in the United Kingdom and Canada and has owned and managed immigration firms in London, Montreal and the Caribbean. He is fluent in English and French and is involved in fund raising for philanthropic causes.