Best Second Citizenship for Every Income Level (2026 Update)

Episode Transcript
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(00:36):
Not everyone's sitting on$2million in assets, but everyone
can still play the secondcitizenship game.
Whether you're earning$5,000 amonth from your laptop or
looking for global mobility withreal estate holdings in a high
net worth, there is a path foryou.
In this video, I'm breaking downthe best second passport or
residency options by financialtier, budget, mid-range and high

(01:00):
net worth, using real numbersand real requirements as of 2025
going into 2026.
I'm Justin Keltner, and on thischannel Entrepreneur Expat, we
talk about global mobility,Second passports and
citizenships and being able tolive and work and invest
anywhere in the world.

(01:20):
If that's something you'reinterested in, don't forget to
subscribe to this channel.
Hit that notification bell andgive this video a like as well,
so that you don't miss any ofthe latest content and you help
us reach more of our communityas well.
We really.
Appreciate it.
If you're interested in gettingone-on-one personalized support
from our team, then book a callbelow@entrepreneurexpat.com
slash consult if you have amillion dollars or more in net

(01:43):
worth.
And if not, then feel free tocheck out the free resources as
well as some of the courses wehave available for you in the
description of this video.
Let's jump in now to tier three,which is under$50,000 of income
per year, which is is typicallythe long term game that you're
playing to have residency, andyou're staying in a country for
a while on a path to citizenshipin that country.

(02:06):
You're typically not buying apassport at this level, like
perhaps you would at some of thehigher tiers, but you can
absolutely get on the path tothis one, and in fact.
This is exactly what my wife andI did.
Even though our income iscertainly higher than that
$50,000 Mark Mexico was veryeasy for us because it's a soft
landing for expats.
There's a lot of opportunityhere for us as business owners,

(02:27):
especially since we're talkingso much about Mexico and helping
people move here.
And it was just very easy.
We're close to family.
Uh, there isn't that long of aflight to go back to the us.
It's very accessible and it's.
Are still really the, theprimary go-to for Americans and
Canadians at many differentincome and.
Investment savings levels.

(02:47):
So currently Mexican consulateswanna see about$4,200 per month
in income, or around$70,000 insavings per person to get
temporary residence.
And once you've got thattemporary residence, you can
renew it or convert it topermanent residence depending on
how many years they give you.
And after five years of totalresidence here in the country,

(03:07):
you can apply for citizenship inMexico, which we're planning on
doing here in just the nextcouple years.
No major roadblocks.
Now Argentina is also a hiddengem here.
You can apply for citizenshipafter just two years of physical
presence in the country, andthey don't even require you to
hold permanent residency.
There's no formal incomethreshold As long as you can

(03:28):
prove self-sufficiency and livethere consistently.
Now, of course, you do have tospend over six months per year
in Argentina placing you intheir tax net, which they do
have moderately high taxes, butit is one of the fastest legit
timelines to citizenship in theentire world.
One small downside that I'lljust say from my research in
Argentina was that.

(03:49):
There isn't currently a way toactually renounce Argentinian
citizenship, so if you diddecide to get that passport and
later decided for whateverreason you didn't want it, that
is something certainly to bearin mind.
Uruguay is also for folks whowant stability and are ready to
commit.
You can apply for citizenshipthere after just three years if
you're married and have a familythere, or five years if you are

(04:11):
flying solo.
But it's not actually acitizenship, you know, paper
game, like a back pocketcitizenship that you can do,
let's say in Mexico where youdon't have to spend too much
time in Mexico.
You do actually need to liveregularly in Uruguay to be able
to qualify for that.
Expect to also show around$1,500per month in income, and you've

(04:32):
gotta spend at least 183 daysper year in the country under
most circumstances.
Columbia now offers a digitalnomad visa as well.
It's quite affordable, so if youshow around a thousand dollars
per month in foreign income, youcan get a Visa for up to two
years and live there legally.
It's not a direct path tocitizenship, but there are
transition options available.

(04:54):
You wanna be careful though,because they do have different
categories of visas, some ofwhich will allow you to convert
to citizenship after a certainamount of time on that visa and
some of which won't.
So you wanna make sure that youconsult with a professional.
And if you're interested inone-on-one support for Columbia
or Mexico or Oguire or any ofthese countries, just book that
call below@entrepreneurexpat.comslash consult if you're in this

(05:16):
bracket, in this tier threebracket in terms of income.
And assets.
You maybe don't have too manyassets under 50 K per year, 60,
70 K per year in that range ofincome, then you're pretty much
playing the residency long game.
First, you've gotta bephysically present in that
country.
You gotta show up, showfinancial solvency, and start
that clock on citizenship.

(05:37):
These countries are still fairlyopen, but they are tightening
up.
For example, Mexico just shutdown earlier this year.
One of the most common paths tocitizenship here, which was the
regularization program.
So you do want to absolutely dothis quickly if you are serious
about it.
Now in tier two, which is 50,000to about$150,000 per year us of

(05:58):
income.
Or around a hundred K to aquarter of a million dollars in
assets.
You have some slightly more fasttrack passport possibilities at
this level.
You're no longer stuck waitingfive to 10 years for
citizenship.
You can start skipping the line.
So in the Caribbean, Dominicaand St.
Lucia both offer citizenship byinvestment at a hundred thousand

(06:20):
dollars plus around$10,000roughly in legal fees and
government fees.
That's for a single applicantvia their donation.
Two.
Those countries, nationalDevelopment Funds, no residency
is required.
No language tests are required.
You'll have a passport from oneof those countries in about
three to six months.

(06:40):
With Visa free access to 140plus countries.
Granada, which is also in thatregion, is a little pricier.
That requires$150,000 donation,but you unlock something cool if
perhaps you're not from the USalready, which is access to the
US E two Visa, and that lets youstart a business and live in the
US as a non-immigrant.

(07:02):
So perhaps you do want to spendsome time in the us you're
looking at taking advantage ofsome opportunities there because
of course there still are a tonof opportunities in the us.
I just would much rather live inother countries personally.
But if you are a non-US citizen.
Having that Granada citizenshipdoes give you a quicker path to
that E two investment visa, sothat is a plus for some non-US

(07:24):
entrepreneurs.
Now, ST.
Kits and Nevus, they recentlyupped their minimum donation to
$250,000, but it is still afast.
Visa free way to get into the UKor the eu, at least for now, if
you want the ability to visitthose countries on their
passport, and there's nophysical presence requirement.
Now, I did say that this tierwas for people with up to

(07:46):
$250,000 of assets.
I'll put a caveat there, whichis that if you've got$250,000 in
assets, you probably don't wantto invest all 250,000 in getting
a second passport.
No matter how bad you thinkthings might be in the US or
Canada.
It's just.
If it's a hedge and it's a goodhedge, and I think it's really
solid insurance policy, but Iprobably would not invest any

(08:08):
more than about 10 to maybe 20%of my assets in a second
passport unless the situation inmy country was really so dire
that I absolutely had to get outand get my family out.
Fortunately, we're not quitethere in the US or Canada.
But if you do have maybe closerto half a million or a million
dollars, at least one of the ahundred thousand dollars options

(08:29):
or$150,000 options might makesense depending on your risk
tolerance and how badly youreally want that second
passport, and how much you viewit as a solid hedge to some of
the political and economicinstability in your country
that's currently happening.
And if you prefer Europe, thenthere's Portugal's D seven Visa,
which lets you live in the eu.
If you can show only about 820Euros per month per person in

(08:53):
passive income, it's roughly$870us.
In passive income per month,you'll need to rent or own a
place in Portugal, you also dohave to spend significant time
there In Portugal, it's not likea set it and forget it thing.
Like a lot of the Caribbeanprograms you've gotta be
spending not necessarily themajority of the time, but at
least a few months consistentlyevery single year in the

(09:14):
country.
And that's really subject totheir discretion.
The Portuguese government wantsto know that you're serious
about getting your citizenshipthere and actually integrating
in society, not just gettingsome sort of paper passport that
you're not really going to livein that country with.
And it used to be the best pathto an EU citizenship because in
just five years you could getthat Portuguese passport.

(09:35):
But in 2025, just this year,Portugal proposed increasing the
timeline.
To 10 years for most applicants.
So if you haven't started thatprocess already and you think
Portugal might be the way to go,then we highly, highly recommend
that you do get started on thatprocess.
Don't forget to book that callwith our team if you do have a
million dollars or more in netassets because we can help you

(09:58):
create a personalized plan,avoid a lot of mistakes, and
uncover perhaps.
New ways of doing things thatyou hadn't thought of before.
As a recent example, we helpedJohn and David who are YouTubers
and financial consultants.
Move from the US and,, get theirresidency in Mexico in just a

(10:18):
few short weeks because theyrealized their retirement
accounts did not have enoughmoney, even with over a million
dollars in their retirementaccounts for them to be able to
comfortably retire in the us.
And they also didn't realizethat there were easy ways.
For them to tap into thatretirement.
Of course, consult yourfinancial advisor, but we can
also help and we can helpstreamline the process.
So entrepreneur x bed.com iswhere you will find a link to

(10:42):
join us and, and book a callwith our team.
Turkey is another veryunderrated option.
Where you can purchase just$400,000 in real estate held for
at least three years, andthat'll get you a passport in
just about six months.
No need to even live there.
You've got Visa free access to110 plus countries, including
Japan, South Korea, and a lot ofLatin America.

(11:05):
So this tier two is where thingsreally start to get interesting.
This is kind of the sweet spot.
You've got the options of theCaribbean CBI.
Where you have that speed.
Portugal and Turkey give you alot of structure and of course
access to Europe and Asia closeby as well.
And if you've got six figures toplay with, then you definitely
have got some options.
Now we're gonna shift up onemore gear and talk about the

(11:28):
best.
Tier here in all of them.
If, if you are able to get intothis tier, you've got half a
million dollars or more ofincome, or$2 million or more in
assets, then there are manypremium passport strategies
available to you.
And these are typically whereour clients fall.
Some of them would like to moveto Mexico and that's just their
plan B, if they, uh, areinterested in Mexico, if they

(11:51):
really like it.
But a lot of them are alsoasking about these more premium
options, and we are helping themget these options as well.
So at this level, you're notjust buying a passport, you're
buying access, you're buyingmobility, and you're buying
leverage because there's, theseare some really solid options
that just give you freedom andflexibility that perhaps some of
the other tiers do not.
So Malta used to offer EUcitizenship through a structured

(12:14):
donation and residencycombination around a hundred
million euros, all in as oflate.
2025, the program has shut downdue to EU pressure, but there is
speculation that it might reopenin 2026.
Just, of course, expect a higherprice tag, stricter vetting, and
perhaps some more residencyrequirements spending time in

(12:35):
country.
So that's one to keep your eyeon for sure.
Austria is another Europeancountry that offers a rare
discretionary naturalizationroute.
You're looking at about three to5 million or more euros, as well
as a direct benefit to theAustrian state, for example, job
creation or tech innovation.
This is perhaps businessleaders.
That have got, uh, very wellrunning businesses.

(12:59):
They've got employees.
They might be creating more jobsin Austria if they move there.
It's not just for casualinvestors.
It's for ultra high net worthindividuals and people with very
serious connections.
There are some ancestry programshere as well.
Of course, if you've got Irish,Italian, Polish, Lithuanian, or
even Hungarian citizenship.

(13:19):
Then you may qualify forcitizenship at a fraction of the
cost of some of these otherprograms, whether you're in that
tier one or not.
Typically they can be as low asseveral thousand dollars in
legal fees.
Uh, we also help people withsome of those passports, so we
can get you set up, you justhave to book that consult below
this video and we could chatabout the best way for you to do

(13:40):
it.
Some of those citizenship byancestry programs are a little
slower than perhaps citizenshipby investment in Europe or in
the Caribbean, but they are alot cheaper.
So as my Jewish Ukrainiangrandmother would always say, A
penny saved is a penny earned.
So why not put that half amillion dollars in your pocket

(14:01):
or invest it somewhere whereit's going to make even more
money and get a relatively easy,maybe not as fast.
That's still relatively easycitizenship.
By dissent.
We can help you do that as wellAround all of this, the main
theme that I always like to.
Bring home is that everythingshould be holistic, right?
You're not just looking atwhat's a cheap citizenship by

(14:23):
investment program that we canjoin.
You're thinking about thingslike, where do I actually wanna
live long term?
You wanna look at what countriesare in on the up and up.
You see economies like the USand the UK and Australia.
In many cases suffering a lot.
You see political instability.
You see a lot ofauthoritarianism in those
nations.

(14:44):
Where do you fit in long term?
What sort of country?
What?
What sort of values do you likein a country?
What makes the most sense foryou, for your family, for your
assets, and also of course foryour taxes.
That's where second citizenshipbecomes part of a broader wealth
strategy, not just a passport.
In your drawer, and if you'reserious about taking things to

(15:05):
the next level, if you are ahigh net worth individual with a
million dollars or more inassets, definitely book that
call.
You could chat with myself or myteam, and we can help make your
relocation and foreigninvestment dreams come true.
We'd love to chat, and we thankyou again for all of the time
you've spent today with us andfor watching our channel.
Don't forget to subscribe.

(15:25):
Give this video a big thumbs up,and I'll catch you again very
soon.

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