(Idea inspired by a Barbecue Pit thread on how people in other countries get shafted for shipping charges when they buy from the US.)
Suppose they passed a law that anyone could immigrate and become a citizen of your native country IF they could convince an existing citizen to move to their own country and become a native of it. In essence, you and the other person would swap citizenships – and either side could pay the others whatever amount they agree on to sweeten the deal for the side ‘stepping down.’
Double barreled question: Would you do it at all?
If so, what country/countries would you agree to swap with, and how much, if anything, would you demand in payment?
Be sure to specify your current country in your answer. Something like, oh,
US citizen. I’d swap for Sweden plus $100,000 USD, Germany plus $1 million USD, and Haiti plus $200 million.
If you’re including millions of pounds, then there are tons of places I’d move. Not because I dislike the UK, but because I’d really like a few million quid.
However, I don’t think the UK is actually so wonderful that anyone who had a couple of hundred million spare would actually want or need to buy citizenship.
Yeah. US Citizen-- For $1M+ I’d go live anywhere in Western Europe or Australia/New Zealand. I’d move to Canada for a lot cheaper, probably. Same timezones, similar culture, in better financial shape than us, and I won’t have to pay $900/m for health insurance. I just really hate snow.
I’d go anywhere on the US visa waver list for some value north of $5M, depending on country. I don’t hate the US, but that’s more cash than I’ll ever get doing anything else, so why not?
Of course, people who live in those countries don’t need to pay that kind of money, and people from the countries that do. . . not for all the money in the world would I give up my ability to come home on a days notice because, say, my Mom is dying.
I mean, there are lots of ‘alien’ residents, yes? I imagine they have to pay US taxes on money earned here, but if you make a lucrative enough swap, it’s not like you’d have to worry about holding a job.
Hmmm… I plan to retire in Mexico one day – barring governments by idiots like Andrés Manuel López Obrador being in charge – so I’d do it fairly cheap. Say, one million, so that I could retire comfortably now rather than another 20 to 30 years. Of course the Mexican that could pay the million dollars could either already get the visa, or bribe someone for it, so I’m thinking it’s not likely to happen.
I’d make an even trade. I almost stayed the few times I lived overseas, so I’m not defined by my passport.
In fact, I think the “most patriotic” people of all nations are simply the least educated, fearful of the unknown, still living in the womb as it were.
We are all citizens of the world whether we recognize it or not.
US citizen.
For the right price - maybe a million $ or so, I’d readily sell my citizenship to someone from any number of western developed nations - provided I would be able to be gainfully employed there and would keep my retirement benefits. England, Sweden, Denmark, Netherlands, Germany, Ireland, Canada. Probably quite a few more.
I once read a poll in a Men’s magazine that gave different scenarios that you would willing to go through for money. Giving up U.S. citizenship was at the bottom of this poll and abandoning friends and family was much more preferable to many. I have no idea how accurate that is but it does fit for many people I have known.
Probably not. I’d like to live in other countries, but like being an American citizen just fine, and anyone that has the money to pay how much I’d ask them for my citizenship could already immigrate in the first place.
I would sell mine for about $10,000,000 but I would be very picky about where I went. I can’t learn foreign languages worth a damn but the U.K. is right out because of the weather. Australia would probably be my first choice but the British Virgin Islands might be paradise as long as I could find a decent job there. Belize and Costa Rica would be the runners up. (I know that Costa Rica is technically a Spanish speaking country but most people speak some English and there is a large ex-pat community not to mention the swarms of American tourists).
US citizen, somewhere in the ballpark of one million, assuming it’s for citizenship in another first world country. I don’t dislike the US, relative to other countries that is, but I don’t really have any particular loyalty to it. As far as I’m concerned, countries and governments should exist solely for the benefit of its people, so if I can get a better deal going elsewhere I should jump on it. Now, if upon accepting that deal I were forever banned from returning, even for a visit, then that would change things, since I would want to see my friends and family again. For me to accept a deal like that, I would have to be offered enough money to be able to fly them all to me whenever I wish.
Really, though, if you have money life is pretty much the same in any wealthy nation. There’s nothing hugely special about a particular citizenship.
I’d sell it for whatever the market rate is (which wouldn’t be anywhere near the millions y’all seem to want. Probably in the few thousands for a trade with another first-world nation), probably many times (back and forth). I’d like to spend some time living in other countries, and lots of things about that would be much easier if I were a citizen. Presumably, if there was a market in citizenship, it would lead to much more open borders and it would be easy to buy your way back into whichever country you want to be in at the time.
I’m 44, a U.S. citizen, and have traveled a few times to other countries. I wouldn’t sell my citizenship for anything. It’s my birthright. The U.S. isn’t perfect by far, but it’s a great country of which I’m very proud and to which I’m fiercely loyal.
I’d go British for a house in Belgrave Square and enough money to live there comfortably for the rest of my life (with the occasional vacation in France or Italy and periodic visits to the U.S.)