40% Of Americans Might Be Eligible For Dual Citizenship

For many years, U.S. citizenship and an American passport were the gold standard around the world. The pandemic and the recent election changed all that, resulting in a surge in demand for Americans seeking second passports and wanting to buy citizenship—especially in Europe.

“Americans want freedom, and many are starting to realize how restrictive U.S. citizenship can be,” says Rogelio Caceres, CEO and founder of Global RCG, a global mobility firm that helps people secure residency, employment and citizenship rights in other countries.

The desire to retire in places like Europe and more flexibility in banking were the main drivers for second passports before the pandemic. Since then, political instability and possible tax hikes have left a lot of wealthy Americans considering the idea of renouncing U.S. citizenship in the hope of never having to pay taxes. But this requires a lot of financial planning.

Turns out there’s an easier way. “Americans can save a sizable amount on taxation by retaining their U.S. citizenship and getting a second passport that allows them to relocate abroad,”

According to Global RCG—which has done a demographic analysis on U.S. ancestry and a deep legal study of nationality laws of European Union countries—it might be easier than you think. “Through our research, we estimated that roughly 40% of all Americans could be eligible for citizenship by ancestry in the EU,” says Caceres. “This is a big deal for Americans, as EU passports are the most valuable on the planet.”