Does dual citizenship have benefits for you?

 

Some people have dual citizenship by birth. For others, it is a choice. In the first case, any consequence of duality is part of your birthright. In the second, you must decide whether the consequences of seeking dual citizenship will provide you with additional life benefits or will just create headaches.

If you are in the second group, you must decide whether the advantages of such status outweigh the disadvantages. This will depend on each individual case.

The first consideration is whether your home country allows dual citizenship. If so, move on to the next consideration, why do you want dual citizenship and where? If your country does not allow dual citizenship or strongly discourages it, as is the case in the United States, you have an entirely different set of considerations and obstacles to overcome. A country can actively discourage, ignore or prohibit its citizens from being citizens of another country. The degree of acceptance of dual citizenship status will largely determine your Portugal residency by investment.

Why you want to have citizenship in two or more countries is the next consideration. Below are some of the most common reasons.

Tax Considerations: (some tax only income earned at home; others, like the US, also tax income earned abroad)

Political Considerations: Being a citizen of two or more countries gives you more freedom of movement and a ready option to withdraw from one of the countries and move to the other if the need arises.

Military Considerations - This could be because you want to enlist or avoid enlisting in the military of a specific country.

Ease of travel: having a second passport from one European Union country, for example, facilitates movement and the ability to work in other EU countries. countries. In the case of a US citizen, you could make it easier to travel to a country that is on the US banned list by having and being able to use an additional passport.

Labor benefits: Being a citizen of a country includes the right to work and earn an income in that country. Having citizenship in more than one country expands your income possibilities in each one.

Finally, once you decide that dual citizenship is desirable for you, you must follow the legal steps of your second country to obtain it. All countries have specific legal and residential requirements that must be met. Some require that you first spend time living in their country on a temporary visa before you can apply for citizenship. Part of this requirement may be to demonstrate that you have the financial capacity to support yourself during this period of time.

A few have a second passport program that is based primarily on financial considerations. These require some economic investment in the country and little else. If your only objective is to have a second passport that allows you to travel more freely to certain countries and to have the financial capacity to participate in the programs of these countries; you can get dual citizenship and the accompanying second passport fairly quickly.