Demand for second citizenship: who is buying, and why now

The buyer base for second citizenship has changed twice in a decade, and knowing who is in the market explains both the pricing and the political response.

Who is buying

• Holders of restricted passports — the original and still the largest group. For them the purchase solves a daily problem: a business trip that requires six weeks of visa planning.
• Families building optionality, particularly around children's education and future mobility.
• People exposed to political or currency risk in their home jurisdiction, buying a fallback rather than a lifestyle.
• Citizens of wealthy countries, a newer and growing group, buying insurance against domestic political outcomes — a shift that surprised the industry and changed its marketing.
• People whose banking has become difficult because of nationality, for whom a second status is an access problem rather than a travel one.

What is driving it

• Sanctions regimes that attach consequences to nationality rather than to conduct.
• Visa policy volatility, in both directions.
• Remote work, which decoupled income from location for a large professional class.
• Tax competition between jurisdictions actively recruiting residents.

What the demand has produced

• Higher prices, as programmes harmonised minimums rather than competing.
• Deeper scrutiny, since volume attracted attention.
• Closures in Europe, where the political cost of supplying the demand exceeded the revenue.
• A shift towards residence products, which are politically survivable in a way citizenship products are not.

What it means for a buyer now

The market is more expensive, more scrutinised and smaller than it was, and the direction is consistent. Anyone whose plan depends on a programme still existing in five years is making an assumption the last five years contradict.

The durable positions are the ones that do not depend on a programme: a citizenship by descent, a permanent residence earned by living somewhere, or a status already granted and maintained properly. Everything else is a product with a policy risk, priced as though it were an asset.