A Guide To Becoming A Global Citizen with Dominic Volek – EP 187

Justin Donald: Hey, Dominic, welcome to the show.

Dominic Volek: Thank you, Justin. Thank you for having me.

Justin Donald: Yeah, glad to have you. I think, this is an important topic, what we’re going to get into today with being a global citizen and really, the optionality that exists. We are talking a little bit off camera. And it’s interesting because you were mentioning how, really, in a lot of the underdeveloped countries in the world and a lot of the– it’s called third-world countries, being a global citizen, having some sort of a plan B is a must. It’s part of the regular toolkit. I think some people here in the US are so used to feeling like, hey, this is the land of the free, this is the best place in the world, that they haven’t considered long term the optionality that it creates, that third-world countries basically have to plan for being a global citizen having residency or citizenship in other countries, but with kind of what we’ve been seeing from global market crisis, the financial crisis specifically here, with COVID, with a number of different things, you’re starting to see an uptick of people in first-world countries kind of adding this to the toolkit, like any other insurance policy that they may have. And I’d love to hear you speak on that.

Dominic Volek: Yeah, it’s certainly been the biggest trend that we’ve seen over the last, I would say, three or four years particularly. As you said, historically, the real demand for high-net-worth individuals, successful entrepreneurs looking to have an alternative or second or sometimes even a third citizenship or residence through one of these investment programs has always been driven from, as you said, more developing markets, those where there’s a certain level of economic or political or even environmental risks. And therefore, if you’re a successful individual and you’ve built an interesting career or business in those markets, you’re looking for your plan B, right? Potentially, there’s some risks that the only way to hedge against that is to actually exit and either move to another jurisdiction, whether it’s short or medium term. And you can only really do that if you have residence or citizenship in another country or countries because a lot of people in these emerging markets are also, it’s very difficult just to get a visa to travel for business or lifestyle purposes.

So, we’ve seen a lot of demand historically from those markets. And of course, that continues to this day. Places like China, the Philippines, Bangladesh, India, South Africa, where I’m from, Nigeria, we see demand coming out of South America as well. So, that’s been the story in the past. But as I said, probably from about the pandemic years was we had really started to take off, particularly in the US. So, in that initial lockdown period, although as an American, you have an amazing passport from a travel perspective, in a pandemic lockdown scenario, you cannot leave the US, right? Europe said, if you have an American citizenship, you cannot enter Europe. And so, if you are a financially independent individual and you can’t land your private jet where you want to, you can’t retreat to your holiday home, that’s not something that they were used to. And so, that’s I think we saw the increase there.

And of course, back then, we also had an election year as we do again this year, which creates more uncertainty. And so, what do wealthy people like to have when in times of uncertainty? It’s options, right? It’s optionality. And that’s really what’s driven things in the US particularly, is the idea that if I have the financial capacity, it makes no sense to limit myself to the US when I can actually acquire citizenship or residence in another country through one of these investment migration programs.

Justin Donald: Yeah, that’s so interesting. And by the way, we have people from across the world that listen to this podcast. But I would say the vast majority are here in the United States. And so, that is probably a good frame to look through. But it’s interesting when you think of an election year, everyone wants their person to win. And if their person doesn’t win, it’s like the worst thing in the world. And so, it’s interesting for you because you see this trend every election year, there’s an uptick because regardless of who wins, actually, for you guys, it’s like you’re agnostic to who wins because whatever happens, the person who loses feels like they have to plan B and make sure that they have other residencies in place or citizenship in place. Isn’t that right?

Dominic Volek: Exactly. And of course, whatever happens this year, things can change again in four years’ time, right? So, we always say, you fix the roof when the sun is shining, not when it’s raining. And so, I guess, the other point where we see a bit more sort of a higher demand is that the programs that are available in Europe and in other jurisdictions where you can acquire residence and citizenship, they also change, right? They’re not always going to be available. Some of them, particularly the more attractive ones, like Malta, where you can acquire citizenship of EU member states and get a very good travel document and settlement rights across Europe and you can send your kids to study anywhere in Europe and they can work anywhere, it really does open a lot of doors.

But the program has a quota, it’s only going to accept 1,500 families. So, this could potentially be a once in a lifetime opportunity where you can acquire citizenship of an EU member state through making significant investments, and of course, jumping through a lot of hoops in terms of due diligence and proving that you’re a clean individual. But there may not be another chance to acquire citizenship in the European Union without really having to physically move there for extensive period of time or learn a new language, as is often the case.

Justin Donald: Yeah. And I think that’s a really good point because when you think about these programs, the EU actually hates citizenship by investment and they’re always trying to shut it down. And so, in some cases, it’s like countries have a certain leash. At a certain period of time, they can no longer offer what they’re originally offering. The terms change. And then eventually, it just phases out.

And so, you brought up a really important point earlier, which is in the US, you saw the greatest uptick of people looking for second citizenships and second residencies during COVID. And for me, that’s exactly what happened. When I felt like my freedom was taken away, where I wasn’t able to travel in a completely autonomous way with total agency, that was very disturbing to me. We saw that in Canada. We saw that in Australia. We saw that in New Zealand. But even in the US, where a lot of us, we call it the land of the free, I was really disturbed by some jurisdictions making it tougher to get in the country, get out of the country, or for Europe, letting Americans come in. And so, that’s when I got really serious and I said, “Okay, I also need this.” Not that I think I’m going to live any place indefinitely, but I want the optionality, I want a plan B.

And so, we pursued two different options. We got citizenship with Antigua and Barbuda. So, that’s close and that’s easy. And then we went the golden visa route in Portugal because that seemed like the best quality product, best quality citizenship or highest rated citizenship for the investment in. And by the way, they’ve already changed the terms from back when I did it, a couple of times, actually two times. And I think they’re about to change it a third time. And to me, so we have residence in Portugal, and I also think we’ll use it because we want to be able to do extended stay in Europe beyond maybe just what a simple travel visa would allow. But now, we have the optionality to live anywhere in the Schengen region because of having that residency and in time and what, a year and a half to two more years, having the full citizenship.

Dominic Volek: Yeah. And that is, I would say, the most common combination that we see for our clients in the US is a Caribbean citizenship by investment program because as you would have experienced, it’s relatively quick, it probably takes on average about six months from start to finish. You have a very good second citizenship, which you’re allowed as an American. It gives you visa-free access to Europe and the UK. And what we see with a lot of our clients, particularly in the US, is they actually prefer to travel to certain regions like the Middle East and certain countries in Africa on a more politically benign passport, right? Because of course, Americans are maybe not welcome everywhere they go. So, there’s that aspect from a security perspective, but also the fact that just having a second citizenship and then, as I said, what’s very common is we do see the Caribbean citizenship with usually Portugal, but at least one of the European golden visas. And it is interesting options, in Greece and Spain and Italy, we assist our clients with all of these, but that is very common.

And just coming back to your other point when you were speaking about how certain nationals were treated during the pandemic, another big one, which is almost the reverse was in Australia, right? So, again, it’s a great country. It’s a very strong passport. But we saw a spike coming out of Australia because it was the only country in the world that, at a certain point, did not allow its citizens back in, which is, it’s against your fundamental rights in terms of international law. So, these things, I think, things that we never thought would be factors to consider all came about because of the pandemic. Let’s hope we don’t have another one in our lives. But of course, if wealthy people don’t plan for two, three, or four years’ time, they plan for generations. And if I can make a move now and I can invest into something that I can hand down to future generations now that protects them or at least gives them another layer of protection against whatever unforeseen future event, then that’s what they’re doing.

Justin Donald: Yeah, I love it. And the firm that you’re the head of private clients at with Henley & Partners, you guys have been at a lot of events or part of sponsorship programs and partnerships with a lot of the groups that I’m part of. And so, I know you have a very strong partnership with Tiger 21, which I’ve been in for several years, and with R360 and with YPO. And likely, there’s some sort of partnership that we can have with Lifestyle Investor as well, which I’m excited about. But I think it’s interesting to recognize that the groups that you’re working with, you’ve got a good number of high-net-worth individuals in these groups that are all really seriously considering this.

So, for the people that haven’t started considering it, I think it would be just good to note that you have a large contingent of the ultra-wealthy who are doing this. This is not a hope. This is not maybe when I have time, I’ll do it. You have a large percentage of the ultra-wealthy that are securing second residency, second passport or citizenship. And maybe this would be a good time to talk about from the standpoint of being a global citizen. And you’re, by the way, a great example because you were born in South Africa, you live in Dubai, but you travel and roam the globe. You spend time in L.A., you spend time in Hong Kong, you spend time in Africa, you spend time in all over the place.

So, I’d love to hear your definition of like what a true global citizen is, and then maybe even break down investment migration 101 for those that don’t understand the difference between a visa and a green card and residency and citizenship and having that extra passport, a.k.a. meaning you’re a citizen, right? And some of these times, it’s like tax havens and you’re tax resident. Other times, you’re actually a resident based on being able to live there, like, you can live there for extended periods of time.

Dominic Volek: Yeah, exactly. So, the back of our business card, it says The Firm of Global Citizens. And so, for us, it’s the optionality, it’s the freedom of movement. And if you look at certain citizenships and residence, it’s the freedom of settlement as well, right? So, I have my South African citizenship, which unfortunately is not the best travel documents. I mean, it’s a case in point as well. We did a pretty significant expansion in terms of our offices across the US over the course of the last 12 or 18 months. And in order for myself as the head of private clients and I sit on the board there, to go to the US for the first time, it took me 11 months to get my visa, so I literally just couldn’t enter for a year. We were trying to start our business or at least grow our business there.

So, this is the challenge that South Africans, but anyone, usually from Africa, Asia, South America face in terms of, if you’re an international entrepreneur or business person, this is just a challenge we face. So, I’ve actively gone out and I have a golden visa in Dubai. I still have my residence in Singapore. I was there for six and a half years. And that’s just me having my own sort of hedging strategy. If something happens, I have multiple jurisdictions to go to. And this is how these ultra-high-net-worth families that we work with are thinking now. They know very well the concept of diversification in terms of assets.

I invest into bonds and equity in real estate and alternatives like crypto and arts and fine wine and whatever it might be. So, wealthy people know very well I need to diversify across asset classes and ideally across geographies. But if that’s the strategy you use, it makes no sense to then be limited to one country where you can live, right? So, now, comes in this concept of domicile diversification. And so, how do I really hedge against whatever the future holds? It’s that I have a geographical dispersion of jurisdictions where I can spend time in and enter freely. And I do that by building, as I said, a portfolio of residence and citizenship around the world. And this is what we see the bigger families we work within the US, this is exactly what they do, right? They’ll get, as you said earlier, the typical combination is something in the Caribbean and these five of these islands that have CBI options and they’re always getting a footprint in Europe. And so, there, you’ve got the golden visas that we’ve spoken about. If they’re ultra-high net worth, we can assist them to acquire direct citizenship in Malta and Austria which are direct to European Union citizenship and the actual settlement rights across all 27 member states as well as Switzerland.

And they then throw in a golden visa here in Dubai or one of the other Emirates, so having something here in the Middle East, real estate to business and a 10-year residence permit to go with that, and then those that are truly trying to hedge against the doomsday scenario will then get permanent residence done in Australia and New Zealand. For a very long time, those were regarded as places that were not as attractive because they were so far from everything. But when you have potential nuclear events in Europe, then going as far away from all the action done in New Zealand on a farm is actually quite attractive. And so, that’s very much become the billionaire’s bolt-hole solution amongst all these other options that we assist with.

Justin Donald: Yeah. And so, let’s dig in to– actually, before we even get more granular there, I think it’s important to note that if you have the funds, when you’re talking about Austria, when you’re talking about Malta, those are the easy ones. So, for me, being on the golden visa, I’ve got to be a resident for a period of time, and the same is true with all the countries, before I can actually apply for citizenship. And there’s some hoops that I have to jump through. I need to go there so much. I need to be able to speak at a basic level. And so, those things exist versus like Malta, if you have $1 million, you can just buy a passport there, get your citizenship. And I don’t know what it costs in Austria. I would imagine it’s probably similar price point. But those are the easy ones where as long as you’re clean, you don’t have a background, you don’t have a checkered past, you just automatically become a citizen. Once accepted, you don’t have this time horizon of three or five years or anything like that.

And there were other countries that did that, that those were eliminated, right? I think Cyprus was doing something like that. It was eliminated. I think there are a handful of other countries over time that did that, that no longer are doing it. They got pressure from the EU to back down that they didn’t want. The EU worries that bad actors are going to get in that way. And so, they want to limit how many people can actually become citizens in any of the countries that are part of it or next to it.

Dominic Volek: Yeah. So, there’s two broad categories. And so, when we sit down with clients, these direct to citizenship by investment, so as you said, as long as you have the financial capacity and you pass the stringent due diligence checks that are performed on you, so as long as you’re a clean individual, you have a clean source of funds, and you’re a person that won’t bring that country in disrepute, you will become a citizen. You’ll go through a process, and in Malta, it’s an extensive process. But as long as you’re comfortable declaring everything and playing open cards and letting them go through the due diligence process, if you’re a clean individual and you have the money, you will become a citizen, right?

And so, in that category of direct to citizenship by investment, you’ve pretty much got the five options in the Caribbean. You’ve got Antigua and Barbuda, St. Kitts and Nevis, Dominica, St. Lucia, and Grenada. The model there is all relatively the same. You’re going to donate anywhere from $100,000 to $250,000 or you’re going to invest $200,000 to $400,000 and you will become a citizen. And there’s various reasons why people do it.

Then you come across to Europe. And what I refer to as the top shelf is Malta and Austria because this is now EU members. And so, not only a good passport from a travel perspective, but actual settlement rights across the whole of Europe. So, that’s the ultimate optionality for an ultra-high-net-worth family that has the money for that. You’ve got Turkey, which also has a CBI program. It’s not the EU. Well, it’s Europe and Asia, but it’s not an EU member and not a Schengen member, but also very popular. And then you’ve also got Jordan and Egypt that have citizenship by investment programs but are less attractive, and therefore, not particularly of interest for most clients.

And then everything else in the world is residence by investment. So, these are all the golden visas in Europe, the US EB-5, the Canada’s Start-up Visa, Dubai, Australia, New Zealand investor visa, Singapore, Hong Kong, they all have them nowadays. We offer about 40 different countries in total. And so, the bulk of these residence by investment with the idea is I invest into the country, again, there’s a due diligence process. So, it’s not for criminals and this type of thing.

But with the investment, I get residence of the specific country and in most cases, but the rules differ per country and put on a pathway to being eligible to apply for citizenship later on. And it’s usually requiring some level of physical presence and a language test. And so, the reason why you probably did Portugal, and why Portugal has been the most popular over the last few years, is if you’re not interested in going to Malta or Austria, but Europe is what you want, Portugal is the least onerous process to being eligible to apply for citizenship because you really just need to spend effectively seven days a year in each of the five years of the golden visa process to be deemed a legal resident, and then the language requirement is sort of an elementary A2 level. All the other countries like Spain and Italy and Greece, it’s a longer period, it’s more physical presence, and the language requirements are a bit more difficult.

Justin Donald: Yeah, that’s exactly why I picked Portugal for that reason. And what’s interesting is I got caught in a little bit of a loophole, and the loophole is that they kind of changed their program while I was part of it. And so, approximately seven days per year has been really shrunk down because you couldn’t go until you had your residency, but the residency took longer than planned. And so, the new SEF rules and laws around it basically grandfathered, you ended not having to be there. So, you only had to go once you had your residency. So, for a lot of people and I’ve got a bunch of friends that did this at the same time, we have several Lifestyle Investor Mastermind members that did this together and then a bunch of other people, where we may only have to put in 7 to 14 days total over that five-year period of time to actually comply with what we need to and comply with being able to move that next step into citizenship. But I would like to point out, part of the reason I also did it is, if I had gone the Malta route or Austria route, and I can’t remember what Austria is, but I’m imagining it’s closer to that million dollars, right?

Dominic Volek: Entry level is three times Malta. So, it’s about €3.5 million.

Justin Donald: Okay, 3.5 million. So, you’ve got– let’s just call Malta a million, but Portugal at different times was €250,000, €300,000, €400,000 depending on when you got in and what your investment was, but it was a true investment. So, with Malta, you’re just giving that money to them. With Portugal, you are actually investing it into something that’s government-approved, whether it be a fund, whether it be real estate, and you should likely get a return on those dollars. So, to me, I thought, okay, well, let’s say that these investments do horribly, well, I’m happy to pay this amount for citizenship, ultimately citizenship. But the likelihood, based on what I’ve invested in and things are going really well in the funds that I’m in is that not only am I going to get my money back, I’m actually going to get a return, and therefore, I’m going to get citizenship for free.

Dominic Volek: Yeah, correct. I mean, the return on the investment can often offset whatever application or sort of legal fees you’d paid to get it. So, that’s 100% right. I mean, Portugal now, I’m sure you know, went through a bit of a roller coaster in 2023 and they were going to close it, then they weren’t. And then what happened in the end is by October, they effectively just removed what was by far the most popular real estate investment option. So, now, you’ve got really two options, €250,000, which would be a donation into a project for local good or what we see most of the interest now is €500,000 into a venture capital fund in Portugal. So, there is a sunk cost option if you want to go to the low end. But most clients, again, are going investing into these funds and hopefully get a return over the period that they’re invested and a European Portuguese citizenship at the end of it.

On the real estate side, most of our American clients always like real estate, most high-net-worth individuals do around the world. And so, now that that’s not possible in Portugal, if the citizenship sort of conversion at the end is not really a priority, then a lot of the demand is shifted to Spain and Greece, which still have very interesting real estate options for golden visas, no physical presence requirements to maintain the golden visa. But as I said, the only factor is the citizenship conversion is not that practical unless you really move there, which the vast majority of our clients don’t.

Justin Donald: Yeah. And for me, I want the optionality to be able to move there any time I want permanently, have access free rein to the Schengen region. I think it’s 27 or 28 countries. I think it’s 27, that are all borderless access, they’re in the EU or most of them in the EU. And then, so if I ever wanted to stay for a year or two or whatever, we have the ability, which is nice, but I just want the optionality should the US not remain the superpower that it is, and I’m hopeful that it will, but we don’t know that. And with the debt piling up here, I just want the insurance policy to say, “Hey, you can live somewhere else and you’ve got 27 or 28 countries you can pick from that you have access to.”

Dominic Volek: Yeah, exactly. A lot of our clients want to also just give their kids two or three years of living in Europe. And so, if you’ve got residence or citizenship, how great is it that you can go and move to Portugal and put your kids into school and give them a completely different lifestyle, right? And this, again, only builds them into these global citizens and internationally informed individuals, which will only help them later on in life.

Justin Donald: 100%. And additionally, if you become a citizen, you can pass this down to your kids, your grandkids. I mean, this is something that I think the benefits far surpass what you are going to have in your lifetime. To me, it’s a gift that my daughter can have this and that her kids, if she chooses to have kids, can have this. And I just think it’s incredible.

Dominic Volek: Yeah. And that’s a point I often raise and especially, even in terms of Malta, right? So, $1 million of course is a significant number, but when you’re talking to someone that is a centimillionaire or a billionaire, I ask the question, what’s better to leave your kids? Another million dollars in the bank or another million dollars in real estate or investing it into citizenship, which will benefit the family for the rest of the generations to come? I mean, it’s pretty much a no-brainer if you have the money.

Justin Donald: That’s right. That’s right. So, let’s talk about the Caribbean here for a second because there are a number of countries that offer this citizenship by investment or donation like you talked about. But what’s cool is five of them that are doing this all have kind of a treaty with each other that if you have citizenship in one, you could actually live on the other islands that you have access. So, for me, even if I didn’t want to go to Antigua or Barbuda, which is where my citizenship is for, I could actually live on St. Kitts. I can actually live in Grenada or in many of these other countries, right?

Dominic Volek: Yeah. And it’s a really key factor, particularly in the America because for most of our clients based out in Asia and that for them, it’s the travel document, right? It’s the fact that my Filipino passport doesn’t get me access anywhere in Europe. And if I’m successful, I can acquire citizenship in one of these Caribbean islands and I get access to Europe and the UK and other jurisdictions. But from a US perspective and in terms of a place that you might actually also go and spend some months at a time, it’s almost like the European Union, where if you have a Malta or a Portuguese passport, you can go and live and you have settlement rights in the other countries is a similar arrangement in the Caribbean as well, which is another great benefit of having those citizenships.

Justin Donald: And also, for people that found that during COVID, during these lockdowns, they couldn’t leave their country, they couldn’t get back into their country, they couldn’t get into other countries, they may have been able to with that other passport. So, it really does unlock a lot of doors. So, for example, Americans weren’t allowed into Europe for some stretch of time. But if you had used one of these Caribbean passports, you could get in, no problem. And so, I think that that optionality and having that as an insurance policy and a plan B is very practical.

Dominic Volek: Yeah. And it was a further motivating factor why we also saw an uptick from Europe itself because in the initial sort of COVID outbreak days, it was uncontrollable, right? And Spain and Italy, they all suffered significantly. But if I had a St. Kitts and Nevis citizenship, the idea that I can fly myself to an island of only 45,000 people that can lock down and control the situation, much better than an interconnected Schengen zone where people are coming and going and spreading. This was another reason why we saw the Caribbean, which historically has not been interesting for Europeans, now becomes another interesting tool to have.

Justin Donald: Yeah, 100%. And by the way, also, for people trying to get into the US, they may have had a hard time because the US was blocking a lot of different countries. And so, if you have one of these other passports, you could get in the US. So, it worked on both sides of the aisle.

Dominic Volek: And also, get a visa a bit easier. I’ve had a few clients, some were born in a high-risk jurisdiction, like Nigeria, like Myanmar, but had exited for a very long time and built successful careers in Dubai or Singapore or elsewhere. But because they had this passport from a higher jurisdiction, even if they were completely legitimate business people, they just would not get a visa to the US. And so, the Caribbean citizenship and they go through the process, they get a 10-year visa and they can come and grow their business and take their kids to Disneyland as one of our families in Nigeria, we’re very happy about. It’s simple things like that.

Justin Donald: Oh, it’s amazing. All right. So, let’s get more granular. We talked about this a little bit, but I would love to just clarify even more. And that is this, there are different types of residencies. I’d love to tackle each of the two or three major types of residencies. Obviously, we’ve talked a little bit about that distinction between resident and citizen. But then also, you’ve got visas for many different countries around the world. You’ve got green cards in other countries equivalent of green cards. So, I’d love if you could kind of break those down so that people understand.

I’ve got a bunch of friends, some from South Africa, some from Australia, and some just different places in EU that are having the hardest time getting any sort of access to the US, beyond just a travel visa. So, yeah, it’d be cool to have you unlock it. And for those of you that live in the US, I don’t know if you understand how difficult it is to get into the US. I mean, the irony is that the people we want in the US are having the hardest time getting into the US, and people that probably we don’t want in the US are really having an easy time getting into the US. And this isn’t political. This is just from the standpoint of access. I think it’s important to understand the hoops people have to jump through to get here, but also, those hoops exist in other countries as well that you may go visit.

Dominic Volek: Yeah. So, if you look at the sort of different terminologies that we use, so we speak about residence and citizenship. So, citizenship, of course, gives you protection of the states, important for a lot of clients. If you’re a citizen, you have the right to get a passport, which is crucial in terms of your travel freedom. And of course, citizenship for what intents and purposes is not subject to any conditions, right? Residence, when we talk about residence by investments, and this is where the golden visa sits, this is a residence permit. And it can be temporary or permanent, or it can be temporary that leads to permanent. But this just gives you the right to reside in a single country.

In the Schengen, there are also travel benefits with residence. So, as a South African, I need to get a Schengen visa. But if I’m a South African with a Portugal resident card or a Spain resident card, that gives me my Schengen access already. So, there might be some travel benefits linked to residence where it’s in a common travel area like the Schengen.

And what I think a lot of people confuse this, particularly the residents, with is tax residence, right? And I mean, this is a huge topic in the US because, of course, the US is one of very few countries that tax is you based on your citizenship, where the rest of the world is more based on your tax residence and that is where you physically spend six months or at least 183 days a year. That’s not normally, the rest of the world are tax based and where you physically spend the majority of your time. That’s why you’re a tax resident and you’re subject to those tax rules. But of course, as an American, it doesn’t matter where you live. You can live in Dubai where there is no income tax. You don’t pay zero taxes like I do. And so, that’s one thing to consider for the US side. And so, when we talk about…

Justin Donald: By the way, speaking of that, I think there are only two countries in the world that have a global tax that follow you wherever you go, right? The US is the biggest. I think Andorra is the other one. Other than that, they only tax you if you spend a majority of your time there.

Dominic Volek: Correct. The other one is also Eritrea in Africa, but they certainly don’t have something like FATCA or any type of infrastructure to implement it. But the US is known as citizenship-based taxation where everyone else is based on where do you actually live your tax data. But the key thing is by partaking in a residence by investment program, by getting a golden visa in Europe, that is the right to reside. It’s got nothing to do with tax residence.

So, I think, probably the two biggest misconceptions in terms of the investment migration industry is, one, it’s all about relocation, which it really isn’t. The vast majority of our clients are not physically relocating, but they have the option if they need to. And the second one is that it’s all about tax because it really isn’t, right? The only way, if you’re not an American, that you can become more tax efficient or better tax planning may be to acquire residence, so citizenship of a more favorable jurisdiction, but only if you physically relocate and spend 183 days a year will you actually start to benefit from that from a tax perspective. So, that’s also a common misconception.

Justin Donald: Yeah. And as an American, by the way, the only way that you can have some sort of a tax benefit based on residency is Puerto Rico, which is a US property. But other than that, you really don’t. I mean, you can have creditor protection by having international trusts and international LLCs, but that doesn’t impact the tax portion of it. Really, only Puerto Rico does.

Dominic Volek: Yeah, correct. And we do not really, sort of Americans in the US, but we do have US clients that are based out in Asia and have been out there for 20 years and maybe, you’re coming to some sort of exit strategy, liquidity event. And we do have, it’s not a big proportion, but there are certainly those Americans outside the US that get an alternative, usually European, and then actually go through the process of expatriating and renouncing, which is probably another whole podcast on its own, but that’s a very expensive and a complicated process. But in order to do that, if that was something you were considering, you need the alternative first.

Justin Donald: That’s right. I have friends that have done this. They have expatriated and part of it is due to not having friendly relationships with other countries because of, I guess, many industries turn their nose down on US companies. And so, in order to actually have international business, they needed to be located somewhere else. And then I’ve had other people that were going to have a big exit and expatriated that way. But there’s also some loopholes where you can have a spouse that remains a citizen, but you don’t. And the company is only in your name, not in your spouse’s name. And so, there are definitely loopholes around that that, like you said, we could do a whole podcast episode on just that. I was actually traveling with a buddy who expatriated while we were on our trip. And the process to leave is actually pretty onerous. And they definitely kind of bully you while you’re doing it, that I’ve heard this from several people, which is very interesting.

Dominic Volek: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Justin Donald: So, I love all this information. We’ve covered a ton here. I’m curious, in your eyes, what’s the best way for someone to really take the next step in learning about this or figuring out what’s best for them? How can they learn more?

Dominic Volek: So, in terms of our business, just reach out, right? I mean, we’re available everywhere and we don’t charge for consultations. We’re happy to have this discussion with anyone that’s interested to understand the markets and what the options are. And of course, if someone is interested in proceeding with something, we’d love to help them with that. And if not, at least they know, they’re informed now, and they have all the facts. I would say one of the risks of looking at these options is that the industry at large is not regulated, which means unfortunately, there are providers in the industry that are not necessarily working in your best interests. And so, they might be providers that are not in your best interests, not all programs are designed the same as well, right?

So, if you look globally, at least 100 countries have some form of regulation or legislation in place for investment migration, but there are some that are not really designed very well. The due diligence is not at the level it should be, and so, that of course, brings into question the integrity and sustainability of the program and maybe even the value of the citizenship and residence that you get. So, you need to be a little bit careful, get proper advice, independent advice. And on our side, of course, in the US, we’re not pretty much in all the major cities, but we’ve got 55 offices around the world. You can quite easily find us on all these sort of social platforms and we’ve got a very good website that, of course, has a lot of information, but then you can also reach out to us, and we’ll be happy to talk through all these elements.

I think the key thing is there’s also a lot of options, right? So, just on our side, we can help with 40 different countries, but it really depends on the family profile, number one, who’s looking to apply? You always got a main applicant. Is there a spouse, children, adult children? In the Caribbean, you can include siblings, depending on certain factors. You can include parents or both the main applicant and the spouse. So, number one, we always want to understand who’s considering being included in application. And then of course, what exactly is the objective because a lot of people will inquire about a country that they’ve heard from a friend or read something on Google. But when you really start to unpack the process and the benefits, then maybe something else actually makes more sense. So, get the right advice and then make your decision from there.

Justin Donald: Yeah. And to second your point here and just double down on it, there are a lot of providers out here that (a) will take your money and not get you the result, and (b) charge excessive fees above industry standards and norms. So, you got to do your homework. You’ve got to pick a group that really knows what they’re doing and has a great track record and ideally, a place like Henley & Partners that they’re international, 55 offices around the world.

And by the way, I’ve spoken to your team, I don’t know, probably five years in a row at the Tiger 21 events. And everyone’s great, knowledgeable, easy to talk to, is like, I mean, they know their stuff. And so, I just want to commend your team and your company and I’m hopeful and eager that we can do some additional work together with your company and with our community.

Dominic Volek: I’m very happy to hear that.

Justin Donald: Yeah. And one other thing I’ll mention. So, I just want to make sure that everyone understands this because someone said to me the other day, well, I would never get additional citizenship or another citizenship because I don’t want to have to renounce. Most citizenships are dual citizenships, so you don’t have to renounce, right? And so, there are some where you would if you were a citizen. If you’re a U.S. citizen and you wanted a Canadian passport, I do believe you’ve got to renounce or other countries like that, but for most of them, that’s not the case that you can have dual citizenship. So, I just want to make sure that’s clear for anyone that’s watching this or listening.

Dominic Volek: Yeah. I mean, all the countries that offer a citizenship by investment program from their perspective, dual or multi-citizenship is completely fine. And most of the Western world, most of Europe and the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa allows dual citizenship or multi-citizenship. In Asia, it’s a lot more restrictive. Major markets, Singapore, Japan, Korea, China, they don’t allow dual citizenship. So, it depends. Of course, there’s lots of wealthy people in these jurisdictions. So, either they look at an alternative and renounce, but by far and large, they look at the residence by investment options. So, Singapore’s a classic example. It’s an amazing country. It’s got one of the strongest passports in the world from a travel perspective. It’s tax efficient. There’s no reason why anyone would want to consider something else. And they don’t allow dual citizenship.

But there are still some significant families there that still say, “Well, what’s my plan B?” Because Singapore’s still a very small island. And 50 years ago, it was a very different place. And who knows what it looks like in 50 years’ time? And so, we assist with some of the big families there. Again, just getting that option in New Zealand because New Zealand is the only country in the world where you can acquire permanent residence, and it is truly permanent. Once you have it, you never have to set foot there again. Of course, most people do and end up settling there. But all the other permanent residence, green cards around the world, there’s always some type of a requirement of physical presence or visits in order to maintain the permanent residence. And that’s another reason why New Zealand is so popular, particularly with big families in the US, because once they’ve got it, it’s there and they don’t have to worry too much about it afterwards.

Justin Donald: Yeah. This is awesome, Dominic. I really appreciate you sharing everything today. Where can we find out more about you and more about your company, Henley & Partners?

Dominic Volek: So, on the website, HenleyGlobal.com, everything’s on there. I’m very active on LinkedIn. I’m very passionate about the industry and what we’re doing in it, so you can definitely find me on LinkedIn. I am on Twitter and a couple of the other platforms as well, but LinkedIn from a professional perspective is where I’m most active.

Justin Donald: Wonderful. Well, this was just a great call. I had so much fun on this episode. And I appreciate it. And I loved it. And every episode with a question for our audience, and that question is, what is one step that you can take today to move towards financial freedom, to move towards living a life by your terms, one that you desire, not by default, but by design? And what is one step you can take in implementing something that you learn from Dominic today to get you closer to the financial freedom and just autonomous freedom that you desire, global citizenship freedom? Thanks for joining us. And we’ll catch you next week.