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cost be money outlay or inconvenience (i.e., residency for several years).
I have mentioned a number of countries where you can "buy" a passport. But these countries do not provide many options-- unless you actually wish to live in the Dominican Republic, Mauritius, Costa Rica, Paraguay (which I'm told is much better than expected) or Tonga. The passports of these countries,
although readily available, do not give you any rights beyond residence in those particular countries combined with whatever travel benefits those passports provide. But with minimal excep- tions, none of those passports give you any greater benefits than being a tourist in the rest of the world.
I have discovered one country where you can achieve residency --and later citizenship--via a simple real estate investment. You do not have to live in the country during the period in which you have the right to reside there. This country is Portugal, and the remainder of this Special Report will outline the present requirements of gaining residency and citizenship in Portugal; the benefits of so doing; the costs thereof, and the reasons why you should seriously consider this option of being greater bene- fit to you than any other.
"A man of means'
Under Roman law, from which Portuguese law is derived, a prospective resident is required to be "a man of means".
What is "a man of means"? "A man of means" is defined, inter alia, as the owner of real property.
A fundamental difference between Roman law--the law of Portugal and the few other European countries unsullied by the Napoleonic code--and British common law is that "what is written must be so". Under Roman law, if you meet the requirements of the law in whatever respect you must be granted every privilege that thereby results.
Similarly, to gain the protection of Roman law, you must comply precisely with the law in every respect.
While there remains latitude for discretion, there is little if any scope for interpretation--a significant difference from countries like Britain or the United States where, following the practice of British common law, a court's interpretation of what the law means can override the law itself.
2.