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a second nationality which allows you the greatest international flexibility--whether for work, business, family, travel, or security reasons--with minimal interruption to your current, preferred life-style.
In this case, the requirement of most countries that you emigrate--that they will only grant you national status because you can "prove," by a period of residence, that you really want to live in (and "contribute to") that country rather than just achieve freedom in a world of autarchic states--becomes a price you may not be willing or able to pay. This might be the case if your sources of income effectively tie you to where you live now, and any movement would seriously effect your earning power, both short and long term.
The purpose of this mongraph is to analyse the requirements of different countries for residency and citizenship, and to identify one particular country that in my opinion offers the best combination of freedom of movement, simplicity in qualifying for citizenship, but which currently does not require you to phy- sically live in that country for any period of time.
First of all, we will consider the various catergories under which all applications for residency and citizenship fall.
The two-stage process
The gaining of a new nationality almost always involves two steps:
First, gaining of the right to reside in the country; and,
Second, qualifying, by a period of residency, for citizenship.
Normally the qualification for citizenship is a period of residence, which can be up 5 to 6 years depending on the country. The important step is gaining the right of residency.
Once you have that right, provided you maintain it for the required number of years, the naturalisation process is then effectively automa- tic.
But not all rights to reside can result in citizenship. This is true of the United States: of its many "alphabet soup" visa classifications, only a couple give the right to citizenship after a certain period of time. And it can be difficult, if not impossible, to change from one US visa classification to a