Ever wish you could be like those spies in the movies with multiple passports? Or, perhaps your escape to Canada hasn’t worked out quite the way you planned?
A tiny island nation in the South Pacific has you covered, for a price.
Vanuatu, the island that counts equally tiny nation Fiji as a neighbor — though it’s 700 miles away — is now granting full citizenship in exchange for $200,000.
The country is also accepting payments in Bitcoin, becoming the first country to accept payment in cryptocurrency for citizenship. With Bitcoin currently trading at $4,581, the program would cost you just shy of 44 bitcoin.
Vanuatu is a member of the Commonwealth, an intergovernmental organization of 52 member states, most of which are former British colonies. And as Business Insider points out, citizenship allows visa-free travel to 113 other countries. Those who buy citizenship face low taxes and are not required to pay capital gain or income taxes.
Chairman of the Vanuatu Information Centre Geoffrey Bond noted that “the Government of Vanuatu has explicitly expressed a desire to be at the forefront of adopting new technologies, officially encouraging the VIC to receive payments in Bitcoin.” However, he also offered reassurances that the nation would undertake normal “due diligence probity checks” as well as running Bitcoin transactions through the Australian Exchange to ensure they meet the Australian Financial Regulator’s compliance requirements.
Vanuatu isn’t the only country that offers citizenship in exchange for investment. The cheapest option of all is Dominica, where citizenship will only cost you $100,000. Meanwhile, citizenship in St. Kitts and Nevis will cost you about $250,000. Or if you have your eye on an EU passport, a 650,000 euro ($766,967) investment will get you a Maltese passport.
