Second Passports

After discussing our meeting with a St. Kitts solicitor in my last post, I thought it might be helpful to discuss the purposes and benefits of a second passport, as well as try to answer some questions you might have about a second passport.

1. Second Passports don't require you to give up your primary citizenship. You can be a dual citizen of the United States and another country (unless that country's laws state to the contrary). If you were, say, to obtain a Panamanian passport, you'd still be a citizen of the United States as before. You've not had to give up your rights as a U.S. Citizen. You've just now obtained the rights of citizenship in a second country.

2. Conversely, Second Passports don't let you escape United States obligations. As a U.S. citizen, you're obligated to pay federal income tax on income earned anywhere in the world. Though there are some credits you'd be entitled to receive, this is the general rule. Just as your second passport doesn't strip you of your U.S. rights, it also doesn't alleviate any of your obligations in the U.S. If you truly wanted to escape those obligations (such as high taxation), you'd have to renounce your U.S. citizenship. Before you do that, you should talk to a legal specialist.

3. Second Passports allow you to travel more anonymously. One of the biggest benefits touted of second passports is that they would allow you to travel under a different nationality, when that would be to your advantage. Specifically, for U.S. citizens, this would allow you to go to places where being an American might carry a stigma, and represent yourself as a citizen instead of, say, St. Kitts. This is similar to what many backpackers in Europe had done for years when they would purport to be Canadian so that they wouldn't carry the "American" stigma. Though this has some validity, this alone shouldn't be your motivation for a second passport. Ask yourself: is it worth paying thousands (or hundreds of thousands) of dollars just to make a Frenchman be your buddy? If you're a white man with a Christian name who travels to Pakistan, would they care that you claim to be from Grenada rather than the U.S.? Would it not be simply easier and cheaper not to travel to those types of places?

4. Second Passports give you traveling privileges of your second country. This reason has more advantages. In many countries, you must have not only your country's passport, but a Visa from the host country. However, the host country often waives the visa requirement to some of its closest allies. Also, even entry, duty and residency requirements are lessened among some allied countries. For example, if you had a St. Kitts passport, you'd be given easier travel all around the Caribbean, since most of the Caribbean countries are part of a cooperative known as Caricom (sort of a Caribbean Union), which means that when you went through Customs and Immigration, you'd be going through the shorter line designated for the "locals." Though this, in itself, might not justify purchasing a second passport, it would sure be a nice perk.

5. Second Passports can make you more "anonymous." Though there are many dubious reasons why someone would want to become anonymous (e.g., running from a crime), many folks, especially those who are paranoid of our government, like the idea of giving themselves a lower profile with a second passport. This would, theoretically, occur in two ways. The first would be that you'd be less likely to register if using a second passport. For example, if the airport authorities were looking for U.S. Citizen Wesley Deaton, I could pass through with my St. Kitts passport in my name. With computer sophistication being as high is it is, I don't know if that's realistic.

The second way would be by using a different name on your second passport--I'm told, for example, that individuals will often use their mother's maiden name as their own on the passport. So in the example above, if the airport authorities had U.S. Citizen Wesley Deaton on some sort of "list," when Panamanian Citizen Wesley Dycus appeared, he'd pass through undetected. Two caveats about this: first, I can't tell you in what countries this would be legal and in which countries this would be illegal. More importantly, I can't advise you (because I don't know) which passport programs allow assumed or changed names. If this is something that interests you, you'd need to contact an attorney or solicitor specializing in obtaining second passports.

6. A Second Passport gives you the right to live and have citizenship rights in another country. The most basic, yet most important, aspect of a second passport is that it allows you to live in the country of the passport. This, for many people, is what makes the passport so important. Perhaps the individual simply wants to try life in another locale (if you've endured decades of cold winters, moving to Panama or St. Kitts sounds pretty inviting, doesn't it?). In other cases, individuals want to escape persecution--or at least be able to escape, if need be. In countries offering second passport programs, for example, many of the applicants are wealthy former citizens of either Hong Kong or Taiwan, who fear the impending power of the Chinese state. In addition, many Americans--often who have financial wealth--also fear our government's increasing sue of coercive power, surveillance and taxation, and want a "Plan B," in case things get bad enough.

Simply moving and living in another country legally is not always simple. Often, countries require visas of anyone wanting to live there for more than 30 days. Furthermore, as an outsider, it's not always easy--or legal--to obtain gainful employment. In Belize, for example, newcomers are not legally allowed to obtain jobs for one year after moving there.

In short, a second passport allows the holder to move, without barriers, inside the adopted country, without all of the barriers often placed on outsiders.