Citizenship is for sale to the world’s globe-trotting elite
购买第二本护照成精英新时尚
广州护照翻译公司：第二本护照以往是间谍小说才有的情节。如今富人把购买国籍视为改善国际迁移能力、税务安排和家庭保障的途径。
When Younghee Wait, a New Yorker and US citizen, took her family to Malta in November, they were enchanted by the Mediterranean archipelago’s beauty and culture. “My whole family fell in love with what Malta has to offer,” she says. But the visit was more than a holiday. It was a step towards buying Maltese citizenship for her family, which would allow them to live and work in any part of the EU.
去年11月，纽约人、美国公民Younghee Wait带着家人抵达马耳他时，一家人被这个地中海岛国的美景和文化迷住了。“我们全家都爱上了马耳他所展现出的一切，”她说。但此次马耳他之行不仅是为了度假。这是为全家购买马耳他国籍过程的一个步骤，有了马耳他国籍，他们将可以在欧盟(EU)任何成员国生活和工作。广州护照翻译公司。
Ms Wait exemplifies a new and fast-growing class of “economic citizens”. At one time, second passports were — like suitcases of cash — the preserve of spy novels. Now they are becoming increasingly common, according to the International Monetary Fund.
Wait女士代表着一个新的、快速壮大的“经济公民”阶层。曾几何时，第二本护照——就像装满钞票的手提箱一样——是间谍小说才有的情节。但据国际货币基金组织(IMF)介绍，如今第二本护照开始变得日益普遍。
The fund has reported a surge in the number of economic citizenship programmes. Wealthy individuals see buying citizenship or residency rights “as a means to improving international mobility, tax planning, and family security”, the IMF said in a report last year.
IMF报告称，投资移民项目(economic citizenship programme)的数量出现了猛增。IMF去年发表报告称，富裕个人把购买国籍或居留权“视为改善国际迁移能力、税务安排和家庭保障的一条途径”。
There are no tax advantages for Ms Wait’s family in acquiring Maltese passports, but it would open the door to a job in Europe. She says: “Some people say you can travel everywhere with an American passport but it does not give you the flexibility to live and work in other countries. If one wishes to work abroad and live life as a productive, engaged individual, one has to consider acquiring a citizenship or arranging for a work permit.”
对于Wait家族而言，获得马耳他护照并无税收方面的好处，但将为他们到欧洲就业打开大门。她说：“有些人说，你带着一本美国护照可以到世界各地旅行，但美国护照并不给你在其他国家生活和工作的灵活性。如果你想到国外工作，并过上富有成效、充实的生活，那就必须考虑获得国籍或者办理工作签证。” 广州护照翻译公司。
While she and her husband relied on the banks they worked for to arrange visas, she believes today’s more entrepreneurial companies are not geared to helping employees work abroad.
尽管她和丈夫依靠他们效力的银行办理签证，她认为，当今创业特征更浓厚的公司无意帮助雇员到国外工作。
Ms Wait, who expects to complete the process for gaining “citizenship by investment” this year, describes it as rigorous and time-consuming, involving extensive background checks. The required investment is significant: the main applicant pays €650,000 with additional investments in property and bonds and further contributions for spouses and dependants.
Wait期待今年完成通过投资获得国籍的过程。她形容这个过程严谨、耗时，涉及广泛的背景核查。要求的投资额很高：主申请人需要支付65万欧元，此外还需投资房产和债券，还要为配偶和受扶养人缴纳更多款项。
Malta’s citizenship-by-investment programme is controversial. In 2014, Members of the European Parliament voted overwhelmingly in favour of a non-binding resolution criticising the scheme, saying an EU passport should not carry a “price tag”. In April this year, a report by Maltese MPs cast fresh criticism on the way the contract for the citizenship programme was awarded.
马耳他的投资移民项目是有争议的。2014年，欧洲议会(European Parliament)议员们高票赞成一份批评该计划的不具约束力的决议。决议称，欧盟护照不应带有“价签”。今年4月，马耳他议员们发表的一份报告对投资移民项目的合同授予方式提出了新批评。广州护照翻译公司。
Despite such reservations, the EU has boosted the sale of citizenships by offering a number of Caribbean countries visa-free travel in Europe, starting in 2009. The move injected life into one of the oldest — but largely moribund — citizenship programmes, which had been run by St Kitts and Nevis since 1984.
尽管有这些保留意见，从2009年开始，欧盟向多个加勒比国家提供免签证欧洲游待遇，助推了国籍销售。此举为实行最久——但基本上没什么人气的——投资移民项目之一注入了活力。圣基茨和尼维斯(St Kitts and Nevis)自1984年就开始实施此类项目。
The two Caribbean islands promise “intoxicating natural beauty, sunny skies, warm waters, and white sandy beaches” but its new citizens are not required to live there or even visit them. For an investment of as little as $250,000, investors have been able to secure visa-free travel to dozens of countries in a matter of months.
这两个加勒比岛屿提供“令人陶醉的自然美景、明媚的天空、温暖的海水以及白色的沙滩”，但新公民不必居住在那里，甚至不必前往那里。仅仅投资25万美元，投资者就能在几个月里获得免签证到数十个国家旅行的权利。
Take-up quickly soared, pushing receipts to 13 per cent of the islands’ $787m national income in 2013. With the minimal regulations and tax burdens, libertarians were among early enthusiasts. One such was Roger Ver, an early investor in bitcoin-related start-ups, who was often pictured wearing a T-shirt featuring the slogan “borders are imaginary lines”. Another, Pavel Durov, a peripatetic Russian-born technology entrepreneur, says he does not like the concept of countries.
购买国籍者迅速飙升，此项收入占到2013年这两个岛屿7.87亿美元国民收入的13%。鉴于那里最低限度的监管和税负，自由意志主义者跻身于最初的热心者行列。比特币相关初创企业的早期投资者之一罗杰•维尔(Roger Ver)就是其中之一。他经常被拍到身穿一件T恤衫，上面印着“边界是想象出来的界线”字样。另一位是出生于俄罗斯、到处游走的科技创业者帕韦尔•杜罗夫(Pavel Durov)。他说他不喜欢国家的概念。广州护照翻译公司。
Accurate statistics are in short supply, but the IMF has suggested that demand for citizenship-by-investment programmes is led by clients from China, followed by Russia, and to a lesser extent from the Middle East. It says the surge in demand “may reflect a combination of growing wealth in emerging markets and an increase in global uncertainties and security issues”.
缺少精确的统计数据，但IMF提出，对投资移民项目需求最大的客户来自中国，其次是俄罗斯以及（在较低程度上）中东。IMF表示，需求猛增“或许反映出两个因素的结合：新兴市场财富不断增长，以及全球不确定性和安全问题增加”。
Views differ on the implications for such programmes of the UK’s vote to leave the EU. Nuri Katz, president of Apex Capital Partners, a citizenship consultancy, predicts the result will have a “huge impact” on European programmes that have been marketed as a cheaper, faster back door into the UK. But Christian Kalin of Henley & Partners, a Jersey-based consultancy, believes Brexit will have “little if any effect on our business”. He thinks British citizens will continue to have access to the EU in a relationship similar to that of the Norwegians and Swiss.
至于英国脱欧公投会对这些项目产生何种影响，各方存在不同的意见。移民咨询机构Apex Capital Partners总裁努里•卡茨(Nuri Katz)预测，公投结果将对欧洲那些被推销为进入英国的更便捷后门的投资移民项目产生“巨大冲击”。但泽西岛咨询机构Henley & Partners的克里斯蒂安•卡林(Christian Kalin)认为，英国退欧“对我们业务的影响将是微乎其微的”。他认为，英国将采取类似于挪威和瑞士与欧盟之间的安排，让英国公民得以进入欧盟。
Insecurity fuels demand, says Mr Kalin. Some purchasers of second passports are wary of revealing their nationality on passenger lists or hotel registers, in the wake of the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks, in which US and UK passport holders were singled out.
卡林说，不安全感助长了需求。在2008年的孟买恐怖袭击中，英美护照的持有者被挑出来作为杀戮对象。后来，有些买了第二本护照的人担心在乘客名单或酒店客人登记簿上泄露自己的国籍。广州护照翻译公司。
Tax is another incentive. Henley says that moving “to a country with a milder tax regime is an attractive option for many who feel they have to pay more than a fair share, and who in particular do not like the divisive politics and constant erosion of their privacy”.
税收是另一个激励因素。Henley & Partners表示，迁往“一个税制较宽松的国家，对于许多认为自己被迫缴纳高于公平比例的税额、尤其是不喜欢引发分裂的政治和个人隐私不断遭到侵蚀的人来说，是一个有吸引力的选择”。
Residency — not citizenship — usually determines where people pay tax, except for US citizens who pay federal taxes wherever they live. But Henley says citizenship may be a tiebreaker when more than one country may have taxing rights and “is therefore increasingly important as an effective tool for international tax planning”.
决定人们在哪里纳税的，通常是居留权，而不是国籍（无论居住在哪里都要缴纳联邦税的美国公民除外）。但Henley & Partners表示，当一个以上国家可能拥有收税权时，国籍或许就成为一个决定性因素，因此“作为一件有效的国际税务筹划工具，变得越来越重要”。
Acquiring a new passport can also be valuable for the small but growing number of US citizens who are relinquishing their US citizenship because of the compliance burden and increased enforcement of US tax rules.
由于合规负担以及税收执法趋严，人数不多但不断增加的美国公民开始放弃美国国籍。对这类人而言，获取一份新护照也可能是有价值的。
Greater visa-free travel is another big selling point for the super-rich, according to Mr Katz. He cites an example of a South African wanting to have dinner in Paris without impediment, but who would need a visa to travel to many places. Only a second passport can bestow certain freedoms that westerners take for granted, he says. “Psychologically, for a high-net-worth person [to] have to ask someone to let [them] go somewhere is very upsetting.”
Apex Capital Partners的卡茨表示，范围更大的免签证旅行对超级富豪是另一个大卖点。他举了一个南非人的例子，此人想毫无障碍地到巴黎吃晚餐，但他需要一份签证到许多地方旅行。他说，唯有第二本护照才能提供西方人想当然的某些自由。“在心理上讲，不得不请求某人允许他们去某地，会让一位高净值人士感到非常不爽。” 广州护照翻译公司。
Increasingly, additional passports are seen as a status symbol. Mr Katz cites what he describes as “the black American Express syndrome”, a steel invitation-only card which conveys membership of a club of big spenders. He says: “For some people having another citizenship is prestigious.”
额外的护照日益被视为一种身份象征。卡茨提到了他所称的“美国运通黑卡综合征”——这种钢质黑卡实行“邀请制”，凸显持卡人是一个大腕俱乐部的成员。他说：“对于一些人，拥有另一个国籍是很有面子的事情。”
Atossa Araxia Abrahamian, a journalist at Al Jazeera and author of The Cosmopolites, a book about the sale of citizenships, thinks that effective marketing accounts for much of its rise in popularity. She says it is partly down to the “leveraging of paranoia” and partly the skilful framing of the transaction as in Henley’s description of its clients as a “privileged new class of global citizens”.
半岛电视台(Al Jazeera)记者、揭密国籍销售的《Cosmopolites》一书的作者帕托萨•阿拉希亚•阿布拉哈米扬(Atossa Araxia Abrahamian)认为，有效的营销是第二本护照日益受到欢迎的很大一部分原因。她表示，这其中的秘诀部分在于“放大无端恐惧”，部分在于巧妙地框定交易，就像Henley & Partners把自己的客户称为一个“全球公民的新特权阶层”。
The reputation of some schemes has been tarnished by lax controls (see left). The IMF says: “preserving the credibility” of programmes is perhaps the most critical challenge they face.
控制较松已经玷污了一些移民计划的名声。IMF表示：“维护项目的可信度”或许是它们面临的最严峻挑战。
Ms Abrahamian, who has three citizenships through family or birth, says she sees nothing wrong with the investment programmes. “If you are wealthy and want to take matters into your own hands, more power to you.”
出于家庭或出生等原因拥有3个国籍的阿布拉哈米扬说，她认为这些投资项目没有什么不好。“如果你是富人，并想自己让局面掌握在自己手中时，你需要更多权力。”
Ms Wait views her family’s passports acquisition as a transaction needing as much careful analysis as any other decision regarding her family’s wealth. “For me, citizenship is a category of alternative asset investment such as an insurance or options trading.”
Wait认为，她的家人购买护照是一笔交易，跟涉及家庭财富的其他任何决定一样，需要仔细分析。“对我而言，国籍是一种另类资产投资，就像保险或期权交易那样。”
