Why and Where I’m Pursuing a Second Passport
A few weeks back, I told my landlord, Peter, that I’m moving out.
I had a wonderful 2.5 years living in his apartment in the center of one of Prague’s nicest neighborhoods. But the time has come to move on.
This year, my wife, Yulia, and I decided to move to Portugal.
During my time in Europe, the world has changed. Countries closed borders. Tens of millions of Americans lost jobs, many of which are not coming back. Others took the opportunity to redefine where a job happens by either working from home, or like me working abroad. Government debt has exploded beyond any level of sanity…or insanity.
And amid it all, we’ve seen political and social unrest erupt across the U.S. not seen in generations.
All of it got me thinking about the idea of a Plan B…
Frankly, a big reason Yulia and I are decamping to Portugal is specifically to implement a Plan B. I feel uncertain about where the world is heading, particularly the U.S. I see a Plan B—a second passport—as a means to living a richer and safer life abroad.
For me, that’s a primary driver of our move to Portugal—one of Europe’s loveliest countries.
Why Portugal for a Second Passport?
Upon arriving in Portugal, I will immediately begin the five-year process for obtaining Portuguese citizenship. At the end of that period, I’ll be able to claim a Portuguese passport. The five-year requirement is among the shortest in Europe, which is why Portugal is an appealing Plan B destination.
That will then open up the entirety of the European Union to me in retirement, since a Portuguese passport is an EU passpor that will allow me to move about the 27-member bloc as easily as moving from New Hampshire to Wyoming.
I’ve long wanted a second passport. I grew up traveling the world with my mom, who worked for a string of international airlines in the 1970s and ’80s. As such, I’ve always seen myself as a citizen of the world, comfortable no matter where I land.
But life got in the way and I never had the opportunity to pursue a second passport. And when I started rooting through my ancestry, I found all kinds of familial connections to Old World Europe, particularly England, Ireland, Scotland, and Germany (my 23rd great-grandfather was Robert, King of Scots, the ruler of Scotland in the 14th century).
Fat lot of good any of that did me, though. All my European relatives moved to the New World in the 17th and 18th centuries, meaning I don’t have any grandparents or great-grandparents who were born in Europe. Thus, I have no way to claim citizenship through ancestry. (I’m certain I must own a castle somewhere in Scotland… I’m sure of it.)
Nevertheless, now that I’m living and working in Europe, I have revived and supercharged my Plan B pursuit.
The Benefits of Plan B
The way I see it, the upheaval in America makes Plan B and the pursuit of a second passport all the more beneficial—maybe even necessary—for several reasons.
Travel Freedom: I have an American friend I met in Prague when I first moved here some years ago. She returned to the U.S. just as COVID began its assault on humanity and got stuck on the East Coast. She longed to return to Prague, where she felt happier and safer, but it took her a long time to return (nearly a year) because of travel restrictions related to the pandemic.
If, however, she had a Czech passport, she could have returned to Prague as a citizen.
Thus, in the midst of a crisis, a second passport is a portal offering passage away from danger, stress, and unhappiness.
Security: Along similar lines, Plan B built on a second passport offers a sense of security, which can be emotionally soothing.
I can think of too many reasons why social unrest could accelerate in the U.S. And I can think of several reasons why a monetary crisis could collapse the U.S. economy and the U.S. dollar.
We’re already seeing scores of countries begin to pull away from today’s dollar-centric world, and that will have big negative effects on the U.S. economy, currency, and households in the years to come.
Having a second passport for a country such as Portugal gives me a place to call home where I feel safe and comfortable.
Opportunity: So many opportunities exist these days to earn an income online from anywhere you want to be. So, why tie yourself to a single country when pretty much the entire world is on offer?
And many parts of the world are not just beautiful, they’re beautifully inexpensive—so my earnings provide me with a richer life.
True, you don’t necessarily need a second passport to earn a living overseas. But at the very least you do need a long-term residence visa, unless you want to bounce around from country to country as a digital nomad. And once you have a long-term residence visa, then in many countries it’s often just a hop, skip, and a five-year jump to a passport as a naturalized citizen.
Certainly, there’s nothing inherently wrong with a totally nomadic approach. I hope to be a nomadic writer until my fingers can no longer type. But at some point, I know I’ll want a permanent base. And, sure, that might be back in the U.S. for all I know. Nevertheless, a well-designed Plan B is about contingencies.
I want options.
I want flexibility.
And I want to know for my own peace of mind that if what’s likely, possible, or probable does come to pass one day, I have different paths I can pursue.
Frankly, I don’t know what’s going to come of America… or Europe, for that matter. The West is lurching through a socio-economic, cultural crisis that’s decades in the making. Maybe life returns to normal. Maybe all the anger boils over. Who knows?
I just know that the events of the past several years tell me that assuming every tomorrow will look like every yesterday is not a wise path forward.
Preparing a Plan B with a second passport… that’s just sensible.