A diplomatic passport is the "Nirvana" of international travel.
Once you receive diplomatic status from a recognized government, you'll enjoy the privileges granted diplomats under international treaty. One of the most significant of these privileges is "diplomatic immunity."
This policy, agreed to under a 1961 treaty, guarantees accredited diplomats safe passage across international borders without being subject to visa formalities, or (in most cases) a search of their luggage. Diplomatic immunity also insures that a host country may not subject accredited diplomats to local taxation or prosecution for any crime. A diplomat may not be sued under the laws of the host country. What's more, the home or office of a diplomat is inviolate from search or seizure. (However, diplomats may be expelled from the host country and prosecuted in their "home" nation.)
Why do otherwise bickering nation-states uphold a system in which they cannot prosecute a criminal inside their own borders? Essentially, it's because they recognize that their own diplomats may need to carry out activities in their official capacity that may violate local law. They expect other countries to honor their own diplomats' immunity.
Given the enormous tax, privacy, and legal advantages that diplomatic immunity provides, it's not surprising a cottage industry has developed that claims to provide a "diplomatic passport" in exchange for a fee. A colleague recently sent me a link to a Web site selling such passports for only US$10,000 each (naturally, from an unnamed country).
For total immunity from taxation, search, seizure, and prosecution in whatever country you decide to reside in with your diplomatic passport, that price would appear to be the bargain of the century.
Alas, the real story is not so glittering. No country in the world sells diplomatic status on an official basis. The only way to obtain a diplomatic passport is to become a diplomat in a country's foreign service. There are very few shortcuts, and you certainly can't buy diplomatic status for a mere US$10,000, at least not without dealing in lost or stolen documents, or by bribing corrupt officials.
Otherwise, the only way to obtain a passport through an investment—sadly, without diplomatic immunity—is to purchase one from the handful of countries offer "instant" citizenship in return for an economic contribution. The Commonwealth of Dominica, the Federation of St. Kitts & Nevis, and Austria are the only countries with an official, legally mandated, citizenship-through-investment program.
The Nestmann Group can provide assistance in all three programs, although the Austrian passport is available only after you make a multi-million dollar investment in Austria, and subsequently apply for citizenship. In Dominica and St. Kitts/Nevis, the costs are much lower, and you incur most of the fees only after your application is provisionally approved.
For more information on these programs, click here, or send an email to info@nestmann.com.
Copyright © 2008 by Mark Nestmann
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