Traveling from nation to nation with out restrictions. Shorter traces on the border. The proper to dwell and work in your dream vacation spot, or to reconnect with household roots. All that, and extra, is the dream of those that search dual citizenship. And that features monsieur George Clooney, who celebrated the top of 2025 by acquiring French citizenship for himself and his household.
Dual citizenship — the power to be a citizen of two (or extra) international locations — has lengthy been standard with vacationers, expats and dreamers. In a world of accelerating crimson tape, who wouldn’t need to skip the lengthy traces at passport management and breeze via with the locals? For those that, like Clooney, dream of dwelling and dealing overseas, however don’t have an employer to sponsor them, buying one other citizenship could be the important thing that unlocks that door. Even for these with no plans to transfer, it may be transformative.
But in Twenty first-century politics, the tide could also be turning in opposition to dual citizenship. In 2025, a number of European international locations tightened necessities for citizenship by descent and so-called “golden passport” packages, which grant citizenship to massive spenders. And within the US, Ohio’s Republican senator Bernie Moreno has mooted an “Exclusive Citizenship Act” that will ban Americans from holding every other citizenships.
Here’s every part you need to know:
There’s no method to know the exact numbers, says Peter Spiro, professor of regulation at Temple University. That’s as a result of most international locations don’t require residents to declare whether or not they maintain a number of nationalities.
One factor appears clear, nevertheless: dual citizenship is turning into more and more standard. In the 2021 census of the UK’s inhabitants, 2.1% of UK residents held multiple passports — round double the results of the 2011 census, by which 1.1% of the inhabitants self-declared as dual residents. And in a current YouGov ballot of Americans, 6% self-declared as dual residents.
For so long as migration has existed, many immigrants who naturalize in a brand new nation have wished to retain their citizenship of origin. In current a long time, the rich have additionally embraced dual citizenship as a way to expand global mobility.
Now, because the world will get more and more unstable, curiosity is broadening. A November Gallup poll discovered that one in 5 Americans would really like to to migrate, together with 40% of ladies aged 15-44 — a 400% enhance on the same ballot taken in 2014.
That urge for food for a brand new begin overseas is mirrored in an rising variety of candidates for second passports, says Dominic Volek, group head of personal purchasers for Henley & Partners, which assists high-net-worth people achieve dual citizenship across the globe. In 2025, they assisted purchasers of 91 nationalities, however Americans had been prime of the checklist.
“Three or four years ago we didn’t have a US office and now we have nine,” he says, including that there’s been a “huge uplift” within the variety of Americans searching for dual citizenship. They embrace these sad with US politics (from either side of the political divide), and ultra-wealthy people who realized throughout Covid journey restrictions {that a} US passport couldn’t open as many doorways as they’d thought. American purchasers now characterize 30% of the agency’s enterprise, he says.
British residents have additionally surged into Henley’s prime 5, Volek says, after Brexit stripped them of freedom of motion throughout the European Union. He provides that harder tax insurance policies proposed by the present Labour authorities have prompted some rich Britons to look overseas.
These shifts marks a reversal of pre-pandemic patterns, when demand was pushed by residents of rising international locations going through political or financial instability, says Volek. Today, Henley’s prime 5 markets are the US, India, Turkey, China and the UK.
Volek says the pattern is now not predominantly about relocation. In turbulent occasions, having a second (or third, or fourth) passport turns into an “insurance policy.”
“There’s a lot of upsides and no downside,” says Spiro, who has written a number of books about citizenship. “And the upsides have certainly become better understood in the wake of political turbulence in the US.”
What are the principle routes to citizenship of one other nation?
Most individuals qualify via one in every of three routes: descent, funding or naturalization. Citizenship by descent sometimes requires displaying that your ancestors got here from a selected nation, with guidelines various by nation on what number of generations again can qualify, and whether or not an ancestor naturalizing overseas severs the road.
Citizenship by naturalization includes legally residing in a rustic for a set interval — often between 5 and 10 years — earlier than making use of. Requirements typically contain prison background checks, language proficiency, exams on historical past and tradition, or proof of excellent character. Even after assembly the standards, approval isn’t assured and the method can take years. It’s not low cost, both — there’s a $2,335 price to naturalize as a British citizen, for instance.
Citizenship by funding is a special beast, created for high-net-worth people who can inject cash into the native economic system. Applicants put money into the nation and both obtain a passport or residency that may ultimately lead to citizenship.
They’re myriad. Dual citizenship can permit individuals to relocate to one other nation, open the door to work alternatives and unlock new instructional alternatives for his or her youngsters. “If your kids are interested in working or studying in the EU, you can do it hassle-free,” says Spiro of the ever-popular European citizenships.
Depending on the passport, it might probably additionally open up visa-free journey or the power to purchase property or begin a enterprise overseas. “It’s a no-brainer for those who are eligible,” says Spiro.
On an emotional stage, buying a second citizenship can strengthen ties to ancestral homelands, or providing a connection to a long-admired nation. Some diasporas, comparable to these of Ireland and Italy, have helped burnish the reputations of their mom international locations across the globe. “It has fostered a transnational Italian cultural identity and reinforced the enduring value Italy places on familial connection,” lawyer Adriana Coco Ruggeri, who makes a speciality of Italian citizenship instances, says of Italy’s diaspora.
Surprisingly few, though they are often main. The US and Eritrea tax residents regardless of the place they dwell, which means dual nationals face obligations even after shifting overseas. Other international locations depend on residence-based taxation, which may nonetheless lead to larger total tax payments.
The dangers don’t finish there. Italy, which sharply restricted citizenship by descent in 2025, has proposed charging Italians dwelling overseas an annual price of two,000 euros ($2,350) to entry the nation’s healthcare system. Citizens may decide out, however anybody searching for healthcare later would need to backpay unused years. The proposal mirrors a 2024 coverage requiring non-EU residents in Italy to pay the same annual fee.
Military service may current issues. When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Volek says he had purchasers of each international locations dwelling overseas. “If their passport expired, they’d be asked to return home to renew it,” he says. That, after all, ran the chance of being referred to as up to battle.
“But if you had a Caribbean passport, you could let your Russian or Ukrainian passport expire, and you could still travel and do business and do what you need with your second citizenship.”
Another danger is the power to surrender citizenship. Some international locations, together with Argentina and Iran, don’t acknowledge renunciation. Turkey permits renunciation however, for males, solely after completion of army service or cost of an exemption price. Men below 45 who fail to meet these necessities are criminalized as draft evaders and can’t hand over citizenship.
Finally, the worth of a second passport isn’t fastened. Grenada’s citizenship by funding program has lengthy been standard as Grenada residents can purchase an E-2 investor visa to the United States, which permits residency. But in 2025, Washington tightened the foundations, requiring candidates to have lived in Grenada for 3 years. “The receiving countries are getting wise to these calculated uses of citizenship,” warns Spiro.
In December, Senator Bernie Moreno, a Republican from Ohio, floated the Exclusive Citizenship Act of 2025. Moreno, who was born in Colombia and naturalized as a US citizen at age 18, has argued that Americans ought to owe “sole and exclusive allegiance to the United States.”
“If you want to be an American, it’s all or nothing,” he mentioned in an announcement saying the invoice.
Spiro dismisses the proposal as largely symbolic. “This is a non-starter for all kinds of reasons,” he says, predicting “vigorous” opposition from each political events. “Lots of people have dual citizenship, including Donald Trump’s wife and child. It’s never going to come to pass,” he says. And even when it did? “It’s pretty clearly unconstitutional.”
Spiro says that probably the most attention-grabbing factor about Moreno’s proposal is the eye it has acquired — which he believes is partly down to the variety of Americans with dual citizenship. “It isn’t a fringe thing anymore,” he says.
The response has been blended. A YouGov poll performed after Moreno’s announcement discovered that 45% of respondents believed individuals shouldn’t have to hand over their authentic citizenship when naturalizing as Americans, whereas 31% agreed with the senator. Yet attitudes shifted when respondents thought-about their very own standing — 56% mentioned Americans who purchase one other citizenship shouldn’t be pressured to surrender their US passport, and 65% mentioned they wouldn’t surrender US citizenship in the event that they themselves acquired one other nationality.
Dual nationals sometimes use the passport of the nation they’re getting into or leaving. George Clooney, for instance, would exit the United States on a US passport, enter the European Union on a French one, then reverse the method on returning.
Yes. Were Moreno’s invoice ever enacted, the US would be part of a small group of nations that prohibit dual citizenship outright, together with Iran, Cuba and North Korea. More than a dozen others comply with related insurance policies, together with Singapore, which Henley ranks as having the world’s most powerful passport.
China, India and Japan don’t acknowledge dual citizenship, though India permits residents who purchase one other nationality to retain a restricted standing often known as Overseas Citizenship of India.
Other international locations prohibit dual citizenship. Spain requires foreigners to relinquish their present nationality — except they’re from a former Spanish colony or a handful of different nations, comparable to Portugal or France. Spanish nationals who purchase a second citizenship (which isn’t from the checklist above) will see their Spanish nationality canceled.
The Netherlands additionally discourages dual citizenship, typically requiring renunciation and, in some instances, routinely revoking Dutch citizenship when one other is acquired.
Yes, for all three routes to citizenship. “The demand is unstoppable, it just grows,” says Volek. “But on the supply side there’s a definite tightening.”
Several international locations, notably in Europe, tightened their standards in 2025.
Italy issued an emergency decree in 2025 limiting citizenship by descent to two generations, requiring the newest ancestor within the line to have been born in Italy and to have died as an Italian citizen. Several judges have already referred the regulation to Italy’s Constitutional Court, which has scheduled a listening to for March 2026.
“The Court will likely strike it down or amend it, as it effectively constitutes a general revocation of citizenship acquired at birth, something only permitted under specific conditions (as confirmed by EU Court rulings), which are not present in this case,” predicts lawyer Adriana Coco Ruggeri.
“It violates constitutional principles by retroactively revoking rights already acquired and safeguarded by the Italian Constitution, such as citizenship, family unity, and both individual and collective identity, lacks proportionality, and was enacted through an emergency decree lacking urgency, bypassing proper legislative scrutiny.”
Portugal has additionally sought to tighten its guidelines, proposing to enhance the residency requirement for naturalization from 5 years to 10. The measure was blocked by the nation’s Constitutional Court, which flagged unconstitutional components and despatched the regulation again for revision. Sweden has introduced plans to elevate its residency requirement from 5 to seven years, whereas Poland has proposed rising its threshold from three to eight.
Some longstanding pathways are closing. Portugal’s fast-track route for descendants of Sephardic Jews expelled within the fifteenth century has been shut down, whereas Spain’s related program has expired. Spain nonetheless provides a shortened naturalization route — two years as an alternative of 10 — for candidates ready to show Sephardic ancestry.
For these affected by the Holocaust and Fascism, Germany has a separate pathway for many who misplaced their citizenship below Nazi rule. Italy, which stripped Jews of civil rights in 1938, doesn’t have something related for many who fled Fascism.
European authorities have moved aggressively to curb so-called golden passport packages, arguing that they cut back citizenship to a business transaction. Malta abolished its program in 2025 following a ruling by the European Union’s prime court docket. Cyprus and Bulgaria had already finished so, and Spain ended its golden visa scheme the identical 12 months, following within the footsteps of Ireland and the UK.
But different international locations proceed. Several Caribbean nations, together with Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, St. Lucia, Grenada and St. Kitts and Nevis, supply citizenship in return for funding, granting visa-free entry to a lot of Europe and the United States. Volek says that many buyers are Americans searching for to purchase a politically impartial journey doc.
As George and Amal Clooney would know, it helps to have associates in excessive locations. The couple and their youngsters had been awarded French citizenship on the request of the nation’s overseas affairs minister below a “distinguished citizen” allowance. It occurred late in 2025, days earlier than language and civic necessities had been tightened.
Tom Hanks, Rita Wilson and their youngsters had been awarded Greek citizenship in 2020. The actors personal property within the nation and publicized devastating wildfires in 2018, Greece’s inside minister beforehand told NCS.
Such instances can draw criticism, however Volek says governments are more and more formalizing pathways for distinctive candidates as conventional funding packages disappear. “The programs are falling away but being replaced by merit frameworks,” he says.
There’s a distinction between what the foundations say and what individuals can do in observe. Some individuals handle to maintain a number of citizenships, even in circumstances that shouldn’t be allowed — maybe as a result of one nation acknowledges it and one doesn’t. Enforcement may also be inconsistent.
Governments might not promote each obtainable pathway. In Italy, for instance, official steering lengthy acknowledged that citizenship couldn’t be transmitted via moms earlier than 1948 — a place that Italian courts have repeatedly overturned since 2009.
For that purpose, if you have any sort of tie to one other nation, it’s all the time value consulting with a specialist to consider your choices.
Governments cite completely different motivations. Italy has pointed to the political affect of its huge diaspora, whereas Spain cited housing pressures when ending its golden visa program. Others emphasize financial or demographic advantages.
Small or susceptible states are experimenting with focused funding fashions. Nauru, the world’s third-smallest republic in Micronesia, launched its Economic and Climate Resilience Citizenship Program in 2024, requiring a minimal contribution of $105,000 to the island’s local weather resilience fund. A Nauruan passport permits visa-free journey to 85 states, together with Hong Kong, Singapore and the UAE.
Volek, whose firm labored on the mission, predicts that new Nauruan residents will elevate round $50 million to “literally save the country… moving people into the middle of the island and putting climate change mechanisms in place.”
Some nations are refining citizenship-by-investment schemes quite than abandoning them. Argentina is anticipated to launch a program requiring a minimum $500,000 investment this 12 months, whereas El Salvador has launched a citizenship pathway tied to Bitcoin funding. Neither require residency and an Argentinian passport achieves entry to the highly effective Mercosur bloc of South American international locations.
Volek predicts that governments will proceed narrowing eligibility whereas designing packages that direct cash towards precedence sectors.
And whereas Spiro says that EU, US, Australia and New Zealand passports are sometimes coveted, his present tip for dual citizenship can be a Gulf state.
Absolutely, in accordance to these within the know. Spiro has German citizenship via descent, which means that despite the fact that he doesn’t plan to to migrate, his son was ready to research in Berlin. “If he wants to work anywhere in the EU, he’ll be able to do so,” he says.
For Volek, it’s about having a “plan B” in an more and more unsure world. A local South African, he additionally has a Montenegrin passport via funding (which ought to make him an EU citizen in 2028), a golden visa for Dubai, and residency in Singapore.
“Just look at the news — it’s a volatile time and not really going to change,” says Volek.
And the earlier the higher, they are saying.
“The rules will change and the programs get more expensive and become a bit more onerous,” Volek says. “Regardless of financial capacity, if you can do it through descent or you have the money and you can do it, you should 100% go for it.”
Spiro agrees. “The Italy transfer has lent a brand new sense of urgency. There’s an understanding that even when you’re eligible at present, you will not be tomorrow. Eligibility just isn’t set in stone.
“Grab what you can.”