Four Ways of Acquiring Dual Citizenship for Your Children

The world is full of opportunities. Those who have dual citizenship enjoy a much wider choice of options. Would you like to give a good present to your child? A second passport could be a valuable present indeed. You children may have to grow up before they can appreciate all the new opportunities that a second passport brings but eventually they will.

Tax advantages, access to new sources of income, simplified transboundary travel, opportunities to invest if foreign markets and open bank accounts all over the world – these are the most prominent advantages of having dual citizenship even though the status gives many other perks as well. One of the advantages of dual citizenship that is often overlooked is the opportunity to make your children citizens of more than one country at a time.

Parents often rely on well-trodden paths when choosing the future for their children. They send the children to the same universities that they used to attend and they want the children to find jobs somewhere close to their hometown. It’s typical of humans to think and act by inertia. However, the world is much wider than the region or the county where you live. The modern world offers much more opportunities to your children than ever before.

Forward-looking parents should definitely consider acquiring second passports for their children. When they grow up, they will be able to freely travel around the world without having to apply for visas. What is more, dual citizenship can be inherited. This means that your grandchildren, your great grandchildren, and so on can also be citizens of more than one country.  

What countries offer dual citizenship that can be handed down to your children?

In total, sixty-four countries on the planet allow dual citizenship. Europe, South America, North America, and some countries in Southeast Asia are the most popular destinations for those who would like to acquire second citizenship.

European passports in particular are in great demand. This is not surprising at all, as a citizen of one EU jurisdiction is free to live and work in any other EU jurisdiction. A citizen of the USA can move across the states without any restrictions. A citizen of the EU can move across the European states in a similar fashion.

Let us assume that you are entitled to apply for citizenship of Slovakia by descent. Even if you do not intend to reside in the country, the Slovakian passport would be of great use to you as well as your children. Citizens of Slovakia can stay in any EU country for as long as they wish because Slovakia is an EU member.

Citizenship of the EU is so popular because the status opens a wide array of possibilities to its holder. Would you like to stay away from cold winters? There is a lot of sunshine in Spain and Portugal, both of them being EU member states. Do you want to live in a country with a stable economy and high living standards? You can move to Germany. Would you like to live in an English-speaking European country? Ireland is at your disposal. If you would like to travel around Europe, you are welcome to do so once you have acquired an EU passport.

Without doubt, there are other attractive second citizenship options in addition to Europe. Many South American countries such as Columbia and Chile, for example, offer dual citizenship opportunities and you can hand down South American citizenship to your children too. The cost of living is considerably lower in South America in comparison to the EU, which makes the option of relocating there worth considering. Besides, the countries that we have mentioned above make it rather simple for a foreign national to acquire their citizenship.

The real estate market is highly stable, which actually translates to ‘the European real estate market is stagnated’. In Latin America, on the contrary, the real property market is highly vibrant, which is normal for developing economies. Some countries in that part of the world offer legal residence and citizenship opportunities to those foreigners who purchase real property on their territories. Thus, you could combine second citizenship with some lucrative investments.

Every dual citizenship opportunity will have both pros and cons. Whatever country you look at, you will find certain advantages and disadvantages.

The knowledge of strong and weak sides of every second citizenship program is at the core of our business. Tell us about the goals that you seek to achieve and about the financial opportunities that you have and we will help you choose the optimal solution. When you have chosen the country whose citizenship you wish to acquire, we are going to support you throughout the process of second citizenship acquisition. 

How can you acquire dual citizenship?

There are several ways of becoming a bipatride (a person with two citizenships) without having to live in the foreign country for years to become a naturalized citizen there. The most popular of them include the following ones:

• Being born to an international family;
• Being born in a foreign country;
• Acquiring citizenship by descent;
• Acquiring citizenship by investment.

Children born to parents of different nationalities

If you marry a foreigner, your children may be entitled to having citizenship of your home country as well as citizenship of your spouse’s home country but not always. Sometimes, your children will have to choose which of the two citizenships they want to keep.

Take Japan for example. Dual citizenship is not allowed there and the half-Japanese child will have to renounce citizenship of one of his/ her parents before he/ she comes of age. If the child does not make a choice before turning 18, he or she may lose citizenship of Japan automatically.

Birth in a foreign country

Sometimes the child can become a citizen of the country where it is born even if its parents are citizens of another country or other countries. Several countries have such regulations. These include most South American countries as well as the USA, Canada, and Mexico. By the way, you can also acquire legal residence in Mexico by investing in real estate there.

The rule applies even if the child is born when its parents are in the country on vacation. Even if the parents are simply transiting the country on their way somewhere else, the child is going to be entitled for citizenship of the country if it is born there during the transit.

You could make life much easier for your future child if you gave birth to it in one of the countries that grant citizenship by birth. If you make your child a citizen of the USA or Canada, for example, you and your spouse are going to have much less trouble acquiring legal residence in any of these countries and their citizenship after a while.

Similarly, if your child is born in one of the South American countries, he or she will be automatically considered its citizen. South American citizens have little trouble crossing national borders on the continent.

Citizenship by descent

This fact is not widely known but many countries actually grant citizenship to those whose ancestors were citizens of these countries. Acquiring citizenship by descent is one of the least expensive ways of becoming a citizen of two countries at a time. What you have to do is study your genealogical tree very carefully and if you find a citizen of a foreign country among your ancestors, you may qualify for citizenship of that country. For example, Italy, Ireland, Slovakia, and a number of other national states offer this opportunity. If you become a citizen of one of these countries, your children will qualify for its citizenship too.

Let us consider Slovakia as an example. You can go back three generations and if you find a Slovakian national among your ancestors, you can qualify for citizenship of the country. That is to say, if one of your parents, grandparents, and even great grandparents were a citizen of Slovakia, you can acquire EU citizenship without too much trouble and without investing a lot of money in the second passport.

The key to success in this endeavor is finding documents that can conclusively prove Slovakian citizenship of one of your ancestors. Our team of experts will gladly provide professional support to those who are looking to acquire citizenship by descent in several jurisdictions. We will help you collect the required documents and apply for citizenship to the immigration authorities of the respective country.

Dozens of countries in Europe and other regions of the world offer citizenship-by-descent opportunities. At the same time, many people do not know that such opportunities exist. You may have no idea that you are actually entitled for citizenship of a foreign country. We will be happy to advise you on acquiring citizenship by descent if you have foreign nationals among your ancestors. The consultation on the matter is free of charge.

Citizenship by investment

Acquiring citizenship by investment is the surest, fastest, and simplest way of obtaining a second passport. If you acquire citizenship of a foreign country by investment, your children will also obtain the status and they will be able to pass it on to their children.

The two most popular routes to foreign citizenship by investment is purchasing some real property in the host country or making a donation to the state fund. The donation amount is going to be smaller than the investment amount but a donation is something that you cannot return while you can return your investment after some time and maybe even make a profit. Besides, when acquiring foreign citizenship by investment into property, you are not buying only passports of the foreign country for all members of your family but you are also buying a place to stay in the country. And if it’s a nice and warm country, why not visit it often?

For instance, several citizenship-by-investment options are available in the Caribbean. In particular, St Lucia, St Kitts and Nevis, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, and Grenada administer the corresponding Government programs. The minimum amount of donation that can make you qualified for citizenship of a paradise island is US$ 100,000 (you have to add the application processing fee and the immigration agent’s fee to the sum). A Caribbean passport will give you visa-free access to a great number of jurisdictions including the EU, Great Britain, and many other states. You can acquire Caribbean citizenship remotely within a few months.

If you feel that the Caribbean is a faraway place, there is an alternative in Europe even though this second citizenship option is more costly. If you are prepared to invest at least 715,000 euros, you can become a citizen of the paradise island in Malta in the Mediterranean. Malta is an EU member state but you have to bear in mind that acquiring its citizenship is a lengthier process too: it takes from one to three years depending on the investment amount.   

Expert assistance in acquiring dual citizenship

Dual citizenship can bring myriads of new opportunities to your children and other members of your family. Even if you do not plan to relocate to the country of your second citizenship, you can at least increase your freedom of movement. When your children and grandchildren have two passports each, they can choose where they want to live, study, and work.

Acquiring second citizenship by naturalization is possible but this option takes a long time. However, there are alternative faster ways of becoming a citizen of a foreign country. A large number of countries offer exciting opportunities to those foreigners who wish to obtain dual citizenship. Because the number of options is so great, choosing the best one may be a challenging task. Besides, the formalities involved in acquiring foreign citizenship may also be overwhelming.

Our team of experts has been helping customers apply for second citizenship for many years now. Please let us assist you in obtaining second passports for yourself, your children, and other members of your family. If you have been thinking of applying for foreign citizenship but you do not know where to start, you are welcome to contact us straight away! We can make the process fast and simple. You will not have to spend much of your own time and energy on becoming a person with dual citizenship.