A passport from a European Union country is one of the most desirable travel documents you can possess. Most EU members have extensive network of countries to which passport-holders can travel without a visa. Equally important, a person holding a passport from one EU country can generally travel to, reside in, and work in another EU country, with few formalities necessary.
Unfortunately, few shortcuts are available to obtain a passport from a EU country. Almost without exception, you must apply for residence in your selected EU country, and live there for an extended period--generally 5-10 years--before you're eligible to apply for passport and citizenship.
It certain cases, you may qualify for citizenship in a EU country by virtue of your ancestry, marital status, or residence in a dependency of that country. For instance, if you can prove that you have at least one Irish-born grandparent, you can apply for Irish citizenship and passport. There may also be a shortened period of residence to qualify for citizenship if you're married to a citizen of a EU country. Finally, if you're a resident of a dependency of a EU country, it may be possible to make expedited application for citizenship in the parent country.
Since it's difficult to obtain citizenship from a EU country, it's not surprising that some shady promoters offer fraudulent shortcuts through this process. Last May, I exposed one program that that was selling passports from unnamed EU countries for prices as low as US$9,900.
Now, I've discovered a Web site offering economic citizenship from the EU country of Lithuania. The Web site claims that:
"The Republic of Lithuania has a specific Citizenship- by-Investment Programme, its legislation provides for the possibility of granting citizenship be [sic] means of naturalisation to people who have achieved particularly good results for the country in their work in science, economics, arts, culture, and sport in the Republic of Lithuania, or who have invested a large sum of money in the Republic of Lithuania which benefited the economy and created jobs in the country. There is no set amount of money that needs to be invested, so success depends upon the economic result and the number of jobs created. The normal requirements, including the renunciation of the applicant's existing citizenship, are not applied."
According to this Web site, prices for Lithuanian citizenship and passport start from EUR 25,000.
This would be a great deal, but the company behind the Web site didn't answer my inquiries about the legal basis of this program. So, I inquired about it to the Lithuanian embassy in Washington, D.C. I received the following response from the embassy:
"There is no such law permitting an individual to purchase Lithuanian citizenship and passport for such items are not goods to be sold or bought. We believe the service that company provides does not have legal basis.. On rare occasions, persons who by some act contributed to the well-being of Lithuania and its citizens can get Lithuanian citizenship by a special presidential decree."
How often does this occur? Apparently, no such honorary passports have been issued since 2004. Not exactly a reliable way to obtain a Lithuanian passport!
A company that sells you a passport from a country where there's no legal provision for such sale is likely offering stolen, counterfeited, or illegally issued documents. In all cases, such illegally-obtained passports are subject to cancellation and confiscation. Worse, anyone using them may face fines and even imprisonment for possession of illegal travel documents. Avoid such passports at all costs!
Fortunately, there are economic citizenship programs that do have a basis in law, and provide a legitimate means to obtain a second passport. I'll be discussing these programs at the upcoming Sovereign Society Offshore Advantage Academy in the Bahamas Nov. 7-11, 2007. For more information, click here.
Tomorrow, I'll give you a "sneak peak" at my presentation...until then.
Copyright © 2007 by Mark Nestmann
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