It’s no secret that some countries make it especially lucrative to invest by offering fast tracks to citizenship either through buying property or living in the country for a minimal amount of time. One of the countries that consistently ranks near the top when it comes to easy citizenship is Dominica (not to be confused with the Dominican Republic), located in the Lesser Antilles.
Want easy citizenship that will get you visa free entry to 120+ countries around the world? There’s a Marriott family property you can invest in that will get you this citizenship. Specifically, you can invest in Anichi Resort & Spa, which is an Autograph Collection property that’s under construction (Autograph Collection is one of Marriott’s higher end brands). A Dominica passport ranks as number 38 on the list of passports that allow the most freedom to travel.
The development’s website even has a section dedicated to the citizenship aspect of buying a property there. For $220,000 you can buy a “preferred share” in the development, which gets you the right to reside in the resort for up to two weeks annually. Perhaps most importantly, it also gives you the right to Dominica citizenship.
Within a few months you can have citizenship, and the process isn’t even especially involved. For example, take the FAQs:
Does Dominican Citizenship Programme carry any residency, language, or interview requirements?
No. Applicants are not required to speak English, attend an interview, or live in Dominica to attain citizenship.
There are some additional government fees involved, though in the grand scheme of things they’re fairly minor:
Now, I’m not in the market for additional citizenship, though I know some other Marriott timeshares come with the ability to earn Marriott Rewards points. I don’t see anything indicating that’s the case here, but that could also be an interesting angle here…
(Tip of the hat to Dennis)
@schar, not quite immediate, but if you have at least a million dollars, you can apply for EB-5 investor visa (green card). It requires five years residency before you can apply for US citizenship.
if only the US did this too.....
‘-Cum-stein’....really ?
‘-Cumstein’....really ?
OK Then......
‘-Cumstein’....really ?
Why aren't all sexual relations between consenting adults allowed.
If gays are ok why is incest bad? Why is polygamy bad?
Like most people gays are liberal in matters that concern them and become conservative in other matters.
There is no place for politics on this blog, except for trump bashing. Because that is entertainment and not politics.
For you folks writing that it’s about passports and not rights, let’s do a lil thought exercise...would you write the same thing if, instead of gay rights, it was about hair color, or skin color, or tallness (ie, something that directly affects *you*)? Because all of those traits are genetic just like sexual orientation. And, btw, I’m not gay. It’s just that stupid and intolerant people really annoy me.
Wow, based on the reponses here, don't ever, ever say anything about LGBTQ that might be misconstrued. Stay silent--no dissent is allowed! You will be made to care!
I agree with jfhscott. Forget about the damn gays for a second.
@carswell
Not everything need be measured in terms of LGBT acceptance. After all, the world does not revolve around you.
@Hal
Malta offers a similar proposition as Austria, but it is much cheaper. And while Henly ranks Austria's passport as tied for #4 (visa-free access to 177 countries), Malta is ranked #7 (173 countries). For the prices being offered, Malta is a much better EU passport to get, as far as value for your money goes.
Stop this LGBT discussion, the article is about PASSPORTS.
for those talking about anti LGBT conditions in Dominica, let's not forget that anti LGBT laws are very much alive in Singapore, yet many of you enjoy SQ and visit Singapore regularely
@Ryaies
You are correct in pointing out that "Lucky saw something he found interesting and shared it. " And Carswell has every right to share additional relevant information about the interesting info that Lucky found. I found Carswell's contribution to be important and very helpful.
@Mitch
Did you get caught night putting with the dean’s daughter? I’m serious putting at night? My college roommate did.
@debit your name should be debit dumb....I think you should research a bit before making stupid comments. Indian constitution doesnt allow polygamy.
I was told If you get an Indian passport you can have multiple wives legally. Hallelujah!
I'm surprised I'm the first to call out the title of this post as click-bait.
lucky, you are better than this.
I wonder if they cancel your citizenship if you resell the timeshare later?
That would be a lot of Marriott points, if they'd give you the points.
A bit disgusted you would promote citizenship in a country with such hateful and discriminatory laws targeting the LGBT community. Agree with carswell, this post should have a massive disclaimer.
@ carswell: as you said this is not a country you would want to go there and live or associate yourself with. However, their citizenship may help people from some countries that have repressive regime. They can get Dominica's passport and freely travel.
@carswell, let me share a post from Lucky a few years ago - https://onemileatatime.com/countries-gay-illegal/
Looks like a US passport is ranked #5, and the cost to buy citizenship in Dominica without involving Marriott is only $100,000.
I'll take a hard pass on this one. But keep me updated if you find a way to buy citizenship within the top 3 rated passport countries.
Just to be clear about what I wrote above, the residency requirement is just 1 week the first year and 2 weeks the following years.
@carlswell
"Hate speech against LGBT people is allowed."
Well, to be clear, this is the way it is in the USA (at least, currently). And the way it should be. Speech shouldn't be criminalized unless it literally incites violence. 99% of "hate speech" doesn't. It'd rude, sure, but it shouldn't be illegal.
I was thinking of trying my luck with the Swedish woman i know.
I think there will be additional side benefits going that route
I believe a lot of the other ones do have a residency requirement.
Portugal has a program called Golden Visa that gives residency permit with Acquisition of property above € 350,000. After 5 years the investor and family obtain Permanent Residency and after 6 years the investor and family obtain Portuguese Citizenship.
It's not a straight buy out but it's a EU country with one of the most valuable passports out there. 5th if I'm not mistaken.
@Boco
Singapore and S. Korea passports are considered the best passports to hold. Passports of the world ranked by their total visa-free score.
https://www.passportindex.org/byRank.php
Maltese passports are really good for US/Canadian citizens looking for additional citizenship benefits, since Malta is an EU country, citizenship comes with EU benefits, meaning you can live and work in the EU freely.
@carlswell
Not everyone likes gay people
just offering a spell check
"Now, I’m not in the market for additional citizenship, though I know some other Marriott timeshares come with the ability to earn Marriott Rewards points."
I'm assuming you meant "No"
For a US citizen, this passport allows visa-free travel to Brazil, Cuba, Iran, and Venezuela.
@JamesK compared to the $1million or $500k you'd have to pay for an investment visa in the US, which doesn't include fees and comes with pesky requirement of having to create a certain number of jobs, this is pretty reasonable.
I can guarantee you there are many people that hold passports from some countries that are basically useless for travel. Thus, this seems a cheap option for people looking to “clean” their citizenship. I knew a guy who had a passport from a ME country that made his business travels so painful he decided to move his family to Canada until they got Canadian citizenship. This option is much easier.
The best passport you can buy is an Austrian one since it gets you EU citizenship You can donate to their arts for about 3 million euros. I looked into doing this or their investment one, but that requires 10 million euros, but at least you can maybe get your money back and even a return on it.
This is much cheaper, and its pretty good for EU access. It sucks for Asia and North America though.
@carswell because this is a personal travel blog, with anything of interest related to travels. Lucky saw something he found interesting and shared it. He's not a journalist, so he has no obligations on researching the political background of the country. Not everything needs to be politicised. Purchasing citizenship through timeshare is interesting, which has nothing to do with LGBT community; a large part of the world still rejects LGBT, is Lucky supposed to never...
@carswell because this is a personal travel blog, with anything of interest related to travels. Lucky saw something he found interesting and shared it. He's not a journalist, so he has no obligations on researching the political background of the country. Not everything needs to be politicised. Purchasing citizenship through timeshare is interesting, which has nothing to do with LGBT community; a large part of the world still rejects LGBT, is Lucky supposed to never travel to any of those countries?
@carswell +1
Same-sex activity is illegal in Dominica, punishable by imprisonment (reportedly not enforced these days but government officials have made it clear they have no intention of repealing sodomy laws). LGBT people have no protection from discrimination under the law. Hate speech against LGBT people is allowed. Out people are routinely harassed and sometimes attacked and their property vandalized. Reports of such behaviour to the police are ignored, except when the police join in the harassment....
Same-sex activity is illegal in Dominica, punishable by imprisonment (reportedly not enforced these days but government officials have made it clear they have no intention of repealing sodomy laws). LGBT people have no protection from discrimination under the law. Hate speech against LGBT people is allowed. Out people are routinely harassed and sometimes attacked and their property vandalized. Reports of such behaviour to the police are ignored, except when the police join in the harassment. Religious figures have publicly said that gay tourists are not welcome, that gay cruises should not be allowed, and the government has contradicted them. Travellers warn that gay couples visiting the island should book hotel rooms with two beds to avoid detection. Comments on Dominica news sites overwhelmingly state that gays should be interned, stoned, executed, etc., that the problem with the Pulse massacre is that there were only 50 victims.
How can any person except a rampant homophobe want to associate themselves with such a country? And how can this supposedly LGBT-friendly site promote doing without so much as a disclaimer?
For US citizens the only attractive citizenships would be EU, Canada or Australia/NZ.
Cheapest I've seen for those cases are about 500k euro investments in Malta or Portugal (likely increased since I last checked). If there is a better way, I'm all ears since this country is going insane.
I wonder what’s the best passport someone could get, theoretically, to complement a USA one? One of the EU ones I assume.
Our definitions of "fairly minor" fees differ...