Prompted by the GQ thread on statelessness. And this is purely hypothetical, if not up to Skald’s level of hypothetical-fu.
Say I’ve got a big stash of cash, and am utterly fed up with North America. I don’t have any recent ancestors that would get me citizenship elsewhere (well, a great-grandmother was of Irish descent but it’s tough to prove it as she died 125 years ago).
The cash is relevant primarily because it means I could go elsewhere and not have to worry about jumping through hoops to get a job. I just want to go there and live out my days. It might also be relevant if some bureaucratic wheels needed greasing - think “don’t lose my files”, not “break the law for me”.
So I wanna go somewhere and actually gain citizenship, not the local equivalent of a Green Card / Permanent Resident or retiree visa.
Second option: I have enough cash that I will be OK for a year or so but will need to look for a job. What countries make it easiest to get permanent resident status with rights to work assuming one has basic job skills that let you get by just fine here in the US. Let’s assume language isn’t an issue - either I speak it already or can learn enough to get by.
And in both cases, are they countries I’d want to go to?
For a $200,000 investment you can gain economic citizenship in the Caribbean island nations of Dominica or Grenada. Those are technically grouped in with North American countries.
If you want to go further afield then Malta has an economic citizenship program. That would get you a passport in an EU member country.
Citizenship in any of these could be secured in about 90 days. Having been to all three, my choice would be Malta. Malta is much more developed and modern though Dominica does have a sort of primitive eco-friendly vibe which is a bit rare in the other cruise ship afflicted islands of the Caribbean.
I hear that Spain is being very generous with citizenship for people who are willing to bring money into the country. I did a quick check for specifics and they seemed to be mostly written for British expats looking to land on a foreign shore following Brexit.
First ask yourself why do you want to gain citizenship? I doubt if it is really necessary.
A standard way to gain citizenship is to marry an existing citizen. Since you have money you should be able to find someone poor enough to be interested in lots of countries.
Svalbard. It’s not citizenship as such, but there is no immigration control, you just arrive there and stay as long as you like, no questions asked.
Maldives and Seychelles have economic citizenship, but I think the price tag is more like a million invested. Take moe than a million, though, the cost of living is so high, a million won’t last long.
I haven’t seen your references, but they probably were written at least in part for the slews of Brits we already have on our shores. A lot of them would be eligible for citizenship based on length of residency (over 10 years).