This second passport comes with free university tuition

I’ve written a lot in the past that there are two lifelong benefits that parents can provide their children, practically from birth.

The first is the gift of a foreign language. Every kid is going to learn his/her parents’ native tongue. 

But giving a child constant exposure to a foreign language from a very young age will help them develop an additional native fluency that will last a lifetime.

It makes an enormous difference. My own Spanish fluency, for example, is quite strong. But there’s no mistaking that I’m a gringo who learned the language later in life. 

My friend Jim Rogers understands this very well. So when he moved to Singapore several years ago, he hired a Chinese governess whose sole responsibility was to speak Mandarin Chinese to his kids. 

They grew up speaking Chinese (and English too), and they’ll have that native fluency for the rest of their lives. It’s a huge advantage for them.

Another gift you can give your child is a second citizenship.

A second citizenship and passport gives them the ultimate insurance policy. At any point in their lives, they will always have an alternative place to live, work, study, and invest outside of their home country. It opens all sorts of doors, opportunities, and Plan Bs.

If you’re thinking about having children, you might want to consider going overseas to any number of countries that grant citizenship to any child born in their territory.

The legal concept is known as jus soli, or ‘right of the soil’. And this includes most of the western hemisphere.

So if you give birth in Canada, the US, Mexico, and pretty much the entirety of Latin America (including Chile, Brazil, Panama, Ecuador, Argentina, etc.) your kid under most circumstances will automatically have citizenship in that country. 

And that’s a citizenship they’ll have for life.

Another way to obtain citizenship for your kids, of course, is through ancestry. 

Your ancestors may have already given you this gift without you even knowing; citizenship through ancestry allows you to claim citizenship if you have ancestors from a wide range of places like Italy, Ireland, Poland, Spain, or Greece.

But if you’re not part of the lucky bloodline club, there is another way to give the gift of a second citizenship to your whole family… even if your kids are already grown.

Simply buy it.

These are called ‘Citizenship-by-Investment’ programs. And for larger families looking to acquire a second passport, the country of Antigua and Barbuda offers an amazing deal.

(Technical point: despite the way it sounds, ‘Antigua and Barbuda’ is one country, not two. It consists of two primary islands which are named… wait for it… Antigua, and Barbuda.)

As we have discussed recently, countries that depend on tourism are in rough shape from Covid-19. And they need ways to boost their tax revenue.

So a few months ago, Antigua and Barbuda introduced a program where an entire family of six can purchase citizenship for just $150,000.

Technically this is really a ‘citizenship by donation’. You’re not making a traditional investment where you fund a business or buy stock, generate a return, and recoup your capital down the road.

In this case, your donation goes to the country’s “University of the West Indies Fund”.

One really convenient aspect about Antigua and Barbuda’s Citizenship by Investment program is that the legislation is quite lenient regarding family members.

Under the program’s official rules, you can include children up to the age of 28 (as long as they are enrolled in university). You can also include dependent parents as young as 58 years old. 

With fees included, it comes to about $168,000 for a typical family. That breaks down to just $28,000 per person, which is peanuts for a second passport.

One added benefit: Antigua and Barbuda’s Citizenship-by-Investment passport comes with one year of free tuition for a member of the family at the University of the West Indies. 

You might be surprised to find out that UWI has attracted some incredibly prominent minds. Notable alumni include 1992 Nobel Prize laureate Derek Walcott, and 23 current and former prime ministers from around the region.

UWI’s alumni website also lists 71 Rhodes scholars who graduated from the university. And UWI consistently beats many larger, more prominent schools in the Times Higher Education’s annual world university rankings.

So, overall this is a highly competitive Citizenship-by-Investment program. And if you have a large family, including dependent parents and adult children, it’s definitely worth considering.

[Members of Total Access: remember, your Total Access membership makes you eligible to acquire this passport at an even bigger discount that can easily amount to $15,000 to $20,000 or more.]

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