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The Golden Passport: Global Mobility for Millionaires
"[A] fascinating study of how people―and their capital―seek to move around a world that is at once hugely interconnected and driven by inequities…definitive, detailed, and unusually nuanced.”
―Atossa Araxia Abrahamian, Foreign Affairs
The first comprehensive on-the-ground investigation of the global market for citizenship, examining the wealthy elites who buy passports, the states and brokers who sell them, and the normalization of a once shadowy practice.
Our lives are in countless ways defined by our citizenship. The country we belong to affects our rights, our travel possibilities, and ultimately our chances in life. Obtaining a new citizenship is rarely easy. But for those with the means—billionaires like Peter Thiel and Jho Low, but also countless unknown multimillionaires—it’s just a question of price.
More than a dozen countries, many of them small islands in the Mediterranean, Caribbean, and South Pacific, sell citizenship to 50,000 people annually. Through six years of fieldwork on four continents, Kristin Surak discovered how the initially dubious sale of passports has transformed into a full-blown citizenship industry that thrives on global inequalities. Some “investor citizens” hope to parlay their new passport into visa-free travel—or use it as a stepping stone to residence in countries like the United States. Other buyers take out a new citizenship as an insurance policy or to escape state control at home. Almost none, though, intend to move to their selected country and live among their new compatriots, whose relationship with these global elites is complex.
A groundbreaking study of a contentious practice that has become popular among the nouveaux riches, The Golden Passport takes readers from the details of the application process to the geopolitical hydraulics of the citizenship industry. It’s a business that thrives on uncertainty and imbalances of power between big, globalized economies and tiny states desperate for investment. In between are the fascinating stories of buyers, brokers, and sellers, all ready to profit from the citizenship trade.
―Atossa Araxia Abrahamian, Foreign Affairs
The first comprehensive on-the-ground investigation of the global market for citizenship, examining the wealthy elites who buy passports, the states and brokers who sell them, and the normalization of a once shadowy practice.
Our lives are in countless ways defined by our citizenship. The country we belong to affects our rights, our travel possibilities, and ultimately our chances in life. Obtaining a new citizenship is rarely easy. But for those with the means—billionaires like Peter Thiel and Jho Low, but also countless unknown multimillionaires—it’s just a question of price.
More than a dozen countries, many of them small islands in the Mediterranean, Caribbean, and South Pacific, sell citizenship to 50,000 people annually. Through six years of fieldwork on four continents, Kristin Surak discovered how the initially dubious sale of passports has transformed into a full-blown citizenship industry that thrives on global inequalities. Some “investor citizens” hope to parlay their new passport into visa-free travel—or use it as a stepping stone to residence in countries like the United States. Other buyers take out a new citizenship as an insurance policy or to escape state control at home. Almost none, though, intend to move to their selected country and live among their new compatriots, whose relationship with these global elites is complex.
A groundbreaking study of a contentious practice that has become popular among the nouveaux riches, The Golden Passport takes readers from the details of the application process to the geopolitical hydraulics of the citizenship industry. It’s a business that thrives on uncertainty and imbalances of power between big, globalized economies and tiny states desperate for investment. In between are the fascinating stories of buyers, brokers, and sellers, all ready to profit from the citizenship trade.
326 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 19, 2023
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October 21, 2023
the tiny country of Montenegro. If the country is known at all, it’s perhaps through the film Casino Royale, in which it served as the stage for James Bond’s highstakes poker game. the scene was actually shot in the Czech Republic.
a mix of goodies under the gavel
citizenship by investment (CBI) program
exploring ways to build a business environment that would attract foreign capital, and saw citizenship by investment as a means to develop competitiveness.
The event’s host, Armand Arton, a successful businessman who made his money helping people move across borders
“The place I was born, I decided, will not dictate who I am, where I can go, and who I can become.”
for those who can afford it, citizenship by investment supplies an inroad.
An Iranian ex-pat professional in the United Arab Emirates may have problems opening a bank account in Dubai due to sanctions against her home government. A wealthy Chinese national may be unsure of what Beijing will do next and seek out an insurance policy against political change
the sale of citizenship.
critics termed a land grab.
Citizenship is often more about keeping people out rather than inviting them in.
For many, the citizenship that they were assigned at birth is more of a liability than an asset.
Marriage, military service, ancestry, scientific achievement, and service in the public interest are common as well.
China and the United Arab Emirates, naturalize virtually no one at all, even people resident in the country for generations.
New Zealand naturalized PayPal billionaire Peter Thiel after he spent twelve days in the country, purchased a few luxury properties, and donated to an earthquake relief fund. In exchange for the anytime-access to his escape villa on the South Island, he promised to promote the country internationally.35 France has done the same for Snapchat billionaire Evan Spiegel
“pay to play.”
small island countries in the Caribbean, may expect as little as $100,000 to grant membership.
Portugal, Canada, Spain, Australia, and the United States are among the fifty or so countries that supply an easy route to a visa in exchange for an investment.38 But these residence by investment (RBI) programs are fundamentally different from their citizenship counterparts
If an applicant fails to maintain the investment, she can expect to lose her visa. Citizenship, by contrast, is far harder to revoke: denaturalization is rare and subject to court challenges. Citizenship, too, is inheritable, whereas residence is not, raising the stakes of its acquisition for future generations.
Several countries with popular golden visa schemes, like Thailand and the United Arab Emirates, do not allow their investor residents to naturalize.
to safeguard your deserved piece of paradise.
For Saint Kitts, the promise of new sales is critical. Citizenship by investment accounts for over 40 percent of GDP by most estimates. The government receives more from the application fees than it does from all tax revenue. This is big business.
In comparison to civil law, common law typically specifies what is prohibited, rather than what is permitted, and it places great importance on judicial precedent.
An old hand in the field described how he would fill out the forms for his clients: “Profession? Investor. Source of funds? Investment. And that was enough.
At the time, demand was surging, and many potential buyers had greater worries than the Western retirees trying to escape taxes.26 In the 1980s and 1990s, Hong Kong was the center of the action. The British had a ninety-nine-year lease on the New Territories that abutted the mainland, but the heart of Hong Kong—the island and the peninsula—was theirs in perpetuity.
Hong Kong and was offering a special package: anyone who purchased $100,000 worth of land would get a passport.
a mix of goodies under the gavel
citizenship by investment (CBI) program
exploring ways to build a business environment that would attract foreign capital, and saw citizenship by investment as a means to develop competitiveness.
The event’s host, Armand Arton, a successful businessman who made his money helping people move across borders
“The place I was born, I decided, will not dictate who I am, where I can go, and who I can become.”
for those who can afford it, citizenship by investment supplies an inroad.
An Iranian ex-pat professional in the United Arab Emirates may have problems opening a bank account in Dubai due to sanctions against her home government. A wealthy Chinese national may be unsure of what Beijing will do next and seek out an insurance policy against political change
the sale of citizenship.
critics termed a land grab.
Citizenship is often more about keeping people out rather than inviting them in.
For many, the citizenship that they were assigned at birth is more of a liability than an asset.
Marriage, military service, ancestry, scientific achievement, and service in the public interest are common as well.
China and the United Arab Emirates, naturalize virtually no one at all, even people resident in the country for generations.
New Zealand naturalized PayPal billionaire Peter Thiel after he spent twelve days in the country, purchased a few luxury properties, and donated to an earthquake relief fund. In exchange for the anytime-access to his escape villa on the South Island, he promised to promote the country internationally.35 France has done the same for Snapchat billionaire Evan Spiegel
“pay to play.”
small island countries in the Caribbean, may expect as little as $100,000 to grant membership.
Portugal, Canada, Spain, Australia, and the United States are among the fifty or so countries that supply an easy route to a visa in exchange for an investment.38 But these residence by investment (RBI) programs are fundamentally different from their citizenship counterparts
If an applicant fails to maintain the investment, she can expect to lose her visa. Citizenship, by contrast, is far harder to revoke: denaturalization is rare and subject to court challenges. Citizenship, too, is inheritable, whereas residence is not, raising the stakes of its acquisition for future generations.
Several countries with popular golden visa schemes, like Thailand and the United Arab Emirates, do not allow their investor residents to naturalize.
to safeguard your deserved piece of paradise.
For Saint Kitts, the promise of new sales is critical. Citizenship by investment accounts for over 40 percent of GDP by most estimates. The government receives more from the application fees than it does from all tax revenue. This is big business.
In comparison to civil law, common law typically specifies what is prohibited, rather than what is permitted, and it places great importance on judicial precedent.
An old hand in the field described how he would fill out the forms for his clients: “Profession? Investor. Source of funds? Investment. And that was enough.
At the time, demand was surging, and many potential buyers had greater worries than the Western retirees trying to escape taxes.26 In the 1980s and 1990s, Hong Kong was the center of the action. The British had a ninety-nine-year lease on the New Territories that abutted the mainland, but the heart of Hong Kong—the island and the peninsula—was theirs in perpetuity.
Hong Kong and was offering a special package: anyone who purchased $100,000 worth of land would get a passport.
November 24, 2025
Dust Jacket Hardcover
Honestly, it was the strongest in the chapter about Who Wants to Buy a Passport? since it turns sociological and captures the voices of the people who try to buy Golden Passports. Reasons include:
Freedom of mobility
Cut down on airport time by preventing people from looking at passports from predominantly Muslim countries
Investors don't want to leave assets but need to travel to do business
Backup options for if life goes bonkers in your home countries
Access to Western schools
Open up opportunities that the parents were denied
Sometimes wages are tied to country of origin when calculating cost-of-living-adjustments
International arbitration, like the Vietnamese businessmen who want strong investor protections. They get Cambodian citizenship by using real estate purchases and then access international arbitration courts... which was then banned by Vietnam in 202 for fear of undercutting its national power
Honestly, it was the strongest in the chapter about Who Wants to Buy a Passport? since it turns sociological and captures the voices of the people who try to buy Golden Passports. Reasons include:
Freedom of mobility
Cut down on airport time by preventing people from looking at passports from predominantly Muslim countries
Investors don't want to leave assets but need to travel to do business
Backup options for if life goes bonkers in your home countries
Access to Western schools
Open up opportunities that the parents were denied
Sometimes wages are tied to country of origin when calculating cost-of-living-adjustments
International arbitration, like the Vietnamese businessmen who want strong investor protections. They get Cambodian citizenship by using real estate purchases and then access international arbitration courts... which was then banned by Vietnam in 202 for fear of undercutting its national power
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews