In yesterday's blog entry, I described Internet scams offering allegedly legitimate "instant passports" from nearly a dozen countries, including members of the European Union and Switzerland.
These documents are all fakes. And if you get caught with a fake passport, you'll have serious problems!
The world's governments don't like it when scammers sell stolen or otherwise fraudulent passports. This practice cheapens the value of legitimate documents, and often leads to retaliatory measures by other countries, primarily in beefed-up visa requirements.
For instance, it was once possible for passport-holders from the Dominican Republic to travel to Italy without obtaining a visa. No longer. And once one country begins requiring visas, others rapidly follow. As a result, most European governments now require that Dominican Republic passport-holders obtain a visa as a condition to entry.
As a result, efforts continue in many countries to crack down on passport fraud. The government of Guyana has issued warnings against Web sites issuing fraudulent Guayanese passports. Suriname recently initiated a registration requirement for as many as 15,000 "illegal foreigners," many of whom entered the country using false Suriname passports.
However, my all-time favorite passport scheme is still up and running: the Dominion of Melchizedek. This is a completely non-existent country existing only on the Internet. Melchizedek also charters banks, registers companies, and offers offshore trust. The price is right, too: you can obtain a passport from the Dominion of Melchizedek for a mere donation of your choice. Just don't try to use this "travel document" for anything other than a coffee table ornament.
How to Obtain a Legitimate Second Citizenship and Passport
The most important precaution to take if you purchase a second passport is to make certain that the document you receive is officially sanctioned in law. Currently, the only countries with officially sanctioned economic citizenship programs are Austria, the Commonwealth of Dominica, and the Federation of St. Kitts/Nevis. (It's easy to confuse the Dominican Republic with the Commonwealth of Dominica, but they are two separate countries.
Of these, only the Dominican and St. Kitts/Nevis programs offer a realistic path to a second passport and citizenship. The Austrian program requires investing millions of euros in an Austrian business, with no guarantee that a passport will be forthcoming. It's also politically controversial.
In contrast, when you apply for a second passport in either Dominica or St. Kitts/Nevis, you make the necessary investment only after you receive approval for your application.
That means anyone offering you an instant passport from The Bahamas, Belize, Burkino Faso, the Cayman Islands, the Dominican Republic, Guyana, Lithuania, Nicaragua, Panama, Switzerland, or any other country is selling fraudulent documents. Avoid them all!
For more information on legitimate economic citizenship programs, see http://nestmann.com/passport.html, or contact The Nestmann Group at info@nestmann.com.
Copyright © 2008 by Mark Nestmann
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