Reports suggest that there’s been a significant increase in South Africans looking for second passports during the lockdown.
While these trends were evident late last year already, the search for second passports seems to have persisted during South Africa’s national lockdown period.
For those who can afford it, investing in property overseas can be a quicker way to acquire secondary passports and visas via residency investment programmes.
This is beneficial to South Africans who want to invest in foreign properties to ensure more financial stability. Having the right secondary passport, however, can also lessen the burden of travel admin and visa costs South Africans face. This is a very attractive position to be in if you are a keen and frequent traveller, and wish to minimise costs and hassle.
Image supplied
Certain citizenship or residency investment programmes are processed a lot quicker and offer access to living and working in the USA and some sought-after EU countries. This is to say that if you struggle to acquire a visa directly from your country of choice, there may be other options to get around that and reap multiple benefits from taxes, to healthcare, education and economic security.
These ‘golden visa’ programmes include countries with highly desirable visa perks such as such as Cyprus, Malta, Portugal and Grenada.
According to the most recent statistics from the Henley & Partners Passport Index, a South African passport ranks 56th in the world and allows passport-holders to travel to 101 countries without a visa. In comparison, Japan’s all-powerful passport allows its citizens to travel to 191 countries sans a visa. Compared to SA and Japan, humble Grenada in the Caribbean is ranked 35th, yet passport-holders enjoy visa-free access to 143 countries, including the United Kingdom and opportunities to eventually apply to work and live in the USA.
Acquiring a second passport is hopefully just a measure for ensuring financial stability and keeping options open for easier travel and work benefits. Despite the visa perks for jetsetters, local travel should still be prioritised, especially when lockdown travel restrictions eventually peter out.
Sources: Business Tech, The South African
