A second passport is the ultimate backup plan: another country you can live in, another consulate to call, another set of visa-free doors. It’s also the flag that takes longest to plant. Residence permits come in months, companies in days – citizenship takes years, unless you were lucky with your grandparents.
Here’s how the main routes work in 2026, what they cost, and what a passport does not do for you.
Why a second passport at all
- Plan B: a right to live somewhere else if things change at home.
- Mobility: more visa-free travel, or EU freedom of movement if the new passport is from an EU country.
- Family: citizenship you can pass on to your children.
- Banking and business: some doors open more easily with certain nationalities. Some close, too (see the US section).
What it doesn’t do on its own: lower your taxes. We’ll come back to that.
Route 1: citizenship by descent
If a parent, grandparent or sometimes an earlier ancestor held a certain citizenship, you may already be a citizen – you just need it recognized. This is often the cheapest and fastest route. Each country writes its own rules, and they change.
Ireland
If one of your grandparents was born on the island of Ireland, you can become an Irish citizen by registering your birth in the Foreign Births Register. If a parent was born there, you’re usually already a citizen. The Department of Foreign Affairs states processing times in months, not weeks. An Irish passport is an EU passport.
Italy
Italy used to have no generational limit: an Italian ancestor from generations back could be enough. That changed with Decree-Law 36/2025, converted into Law 74/2025. For applications filed after 27 March 2025, descent citizenship is generally limited to people with a parent or grandparent who held only Italian citizenship (with some further conditions). Italy’s Constitutional Court upheld the core of the reform in March 2026; a separate referral to the EU Court of Justice was reported in mid-2026. If you’re relying on an Italian great-grandparent, check the current state with an Italian lawyer before paying for document hunts.
Poland
Polish citizenship can pass down through generations if the ancestor held Polish citizenship after the modern state was re-established and didn’t lose it under the rules in force at the time (for example through foreign military service or certain naturalizations). The result is a “confirmation” of citizenship, not a new grant. Records from archives are usually the hard part.
Germany
German citizenship generally passes from a German parent (§ 4 StAG). Two special routes matter for descendants:
- Declaration under § 5 StAG for descendants who missed out because of old gender-discriminatory rules (for example, children of German mothers and foreign fathers born before 1975).
- Restoration under Article 116(2) Basic Law and § 15 StAG for people deprived of citizenship on political, racial or religious grounds between 1933 and 1945, and their descendants.
These applications go through the Federal Office of Administration (BVA).
Route 2: citizenship by naturalization
The classic route: live somewhere legally for a number of years, integrate, pass a language (and sometimes a civics) test, then apply. Slow, but the most robust passport you can get – nobody questions a citizenship you earned by living there.
Typical residence requirements as of 2026 (general rules; shorter routes exist for spouses and special cases):
| Country | Typical years of legal residence | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Germany | 5 | Dual citizenship allowed since June 2024; the 3-year fast track was abolished in October 2025 |
| Ireland | 5 years of reckonable residence | Within the last 9 years, including 1 continuous year before applying |
| Spain | 10 | 2 years for nationals of Ibero-American countries, Andorra, the Philippines, Equatorial Guinea and Portugal |
| Switzerland | 10 | Plus a permanent residence (C) permit; cantons and municipalities add their own rules |
| Austria | Generally 10 | Shorter in special cases; dual citizenship generally not allowed |
| Portugal | 5 under the long-standing rule | Parliament voted in 2025 to lengthen it; check the current law before planning around it |
Remember what “residence” means: the years usually count only with a valid residence permit, and long absences can reset the clock. A digital nomad visa may or may not count – many don’t.
Route 3: citizenship by investment
Pay a set amount, pass due diligence, get a passport within months. It’s the fastest route and the one under the heaviest political pressure.
EU programmes: closed
- Cyprus ended its investor citizenship programme in November 2020 after a corruption scandal. Cyprus still offers permanent residence by investment, which is a different thing.
- Malta: on 29 April 2025, the EU Court of Justice ruled in Commission v Malta (C-181/23) that Malta’s investor citizenship scheme – nationality in exchange for predetermined payments or investments – breached EU law. The Court’s reasoning makes it very hard for any EU country to sell citizenship. Malta continues to offer residence programmes.
- Bulgaria ended its programme in 2022.
In short: as of 2026 there’s no EU passport for sale. Anyone offering one is either describing a long naturalization route or selling you something you shouldn’t buy.
The Caribbean: open, but under pressure
Five Eastern Caribbean states run citizenship-by-investment programmes: Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Saint Lucia. In 2024 they agreed on a common minimum investment of $200,000 and tighter common due diligence.
The pressure keeps rising:
- The EU’s revised visa suspension mechanism, in force since late 2025, allows the EU to suspend visa-free travel for countries that run investor citizenship schemes. The Commission has repeatedly named these five countries as a concern.
- In December 2025, the US added Dominica and Antigua and Barbuda to its list of countries subject to partial entry restrictions.
The value of these passports is mostly their visa-free access. If that access shrinks, so does the value – and you’ve paid anyway.
Other programmes
Countries such as Türkiye and Vanuatu also sell citizenship. Vanuatu’s visa-free access to the Schengen area was suspended by the EU in 2024–2025 over its programme – a live example of the risk above.
Dual citizenship: can you keep your first passport?
Before you apply anywhere, check both sides: does your new country let you keep your old passport, and does your old country let you keep its citizenship?
- Germany: since 27 June 2024, Germans no longer lose German citizenship when they voluntarily acquire another one, and people naturalizing in Germany can generally keep their previous citizenship.
- Austria: acquiring a foreign citizenship generally means losing Austrian citizenship unless you obtained a retention permit (Beibehaltungsbewilligung) beforehand.
- Switzerland: allows dual citizenship.
- Some countries don’t allow dual citizenship at all or only in special cases. Check the nationality law of every country involved – the new one and the old one.
Costs and due diligence
What you actually pay depends on the route:
| Route | Main costs |
|---|---|
| Descent | Archive searches, certified translations and apostilles, application fees, possibly a lawyer |
| Naturalization | Years of living costs in the country, language courses, application fees |
| Investment | The investment or donation itself (Caribbean minimum $200,000 as of 2026), due diligence fees per applicant, government and agent fees |
For investment programmes, expect background checks on you and every adult family member, source-of-wealth documentation and in some cases interviews. That’s a good sign: a programme with no due diligence is a programme whose passports banks and border officers distrust.
Red flags when choosing a provider:
- Promises of an EU passport by investment.
- “Guaranteed approval”.
- Pressure to pay before the official requirements are clear.
- Agents who aren’t listed as licensed by the programme’s official unit.
A passport is not a tax residency
This is the most common misconception we hear: “I’ll get a Caribbean passport and stop paying tax.” It doesn’t work like that.
Almost every country taxes based on residence, not nationality. Your tax bill depends on where you live, where your home is, where your centre of vital interests is – read our tax residency guide. A German with a Grenadian passport who still lives in Hamburg is a German taxpayer. A German with only a German passport who moves properly to the UAE may not be.
Moving is what changes your taxes. For Germans, start with leaving Germany and, if you hold significant company shares, the German exit tax.
The American exception
The United States taxes its citizens on their worldwide income wherever they live. A US citizen in Portugal files a US return every year, even if foreign tax credits or the foreign earned income exclusion bring the US tax to zero.
Two consequences:
- Getting US citizenship (including by birth in the US or through a US parent) brings lifelong US filing duties. Consider that before you celebrate an American passport for your child.
- Giving it up requires a formal renunciation at a US consulate. If you’re a “covered expatriate” (for example because of high net worth or high average tax liability, or not being tax-compliant for the previous five years), an exit tax under IRC § 877A can apply.
For Americans, a second passport is a travel and residence tool. It changes nothing about US tax until the US one is gone.
Where to start
- Check descent routes first. They cost the least and your family tree might already hold the answer.
- If you’re moving anyway, pick a country where naturalization is realistic, and make sure the residence permit you get counts toward it.
- Treat investment citizenship as an insurance policy with a political risk premium, not a tax plan.
- Combine it with residence and banking that make sense – the move abroad and protect your wealth pages show how the pieces fit.
This guide is general information, not legal or tax advice. Nationality law changes more often than you’d think, so check the official sources below before you act.
Sources
- Germany – Nationality Act (StAG)
- Federal Office of Administration (BVA) – Citizenship
- Irish Department of Foreign Affairs – Foreign Births Register
- Irish Immigration Service Delivery – Becoming an Irish citizen
- Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Citizenship
- Gazzetta Ufficiale – Law 74/2025
- Spanish Ministry of Justice – Nationality
- Swiss State Secretariat for Migration – Naturalization
- Austria – oesterreich.gv.at, citizenship
- Court of Justice of the EU – Case C-181/23, Commission v Malta
- European Commission – Investor citizenship schemes
- European Commission – Reports under the visa suspension mechanism
- European Parliament – More flexible visa suspension mechanism
- IRS – US citizens and resident aliens abroad
- IRS – Expatriation tax
- US Department of State – Renunciation of US citizenship
Want to map which passport, residence and structure fit together for you? Book a strategy session.
