More and more Westerners are telling us they think their country is going in the wrong direction,
and they want an alternative.
Western countries have more and more chaos, more and more geopolitical friction,
more and more high taxes and regulations with no end in sight.
And while the BRICS countries may not be a perfect alternative, they are an alternative.
And today I'm going to walk you through residents and citizenship options in the BRICS Alliance.
And at the end of the episode, I'm actually going to tell you about some non-BRICS countries that
emulate some of the parts that Westerners might like about BRICS countries.
Why might you want a residence permit or a citizenship in a BRICS country?
Well, quite frankly, because you feel like the West is going in the wrong direction,
and you would like to have a plan B in a place that is different.
There's nothing wrong with wanting to have citizenship in a European Union country,
if that's where your ancestors came from and you qualify for citizenship by descent.
You can be American and say, I'm going to get my Polish citizenship, and now me and my family
have options all throughout Europe. Nothing wrong with that. But what a lot of people look at is
they look at, hey, there's nowhere to go because I live in Canada and the US and the UK aren't much
better. You need to look at places that are substantially different. I'm not saying you've
got to move there. I'm not saying you've got to put all your money there. I'm not saying you
got to put all your hopes on that country. But if you had a residence permit or a citizenship
in a country that was in BRICS or had those features, what would you do? Well, you'd have
geopolitical and currency diversification. What are you seeing? Countries around the world are
pushing back on new manufacturing hubs. China is obviously a well-known manufacturing hub,
but you don't hear much about some of the smaller ones. Vietnam obviously is up and coming.
They got into a spat with the US recently, and they're seeing even in places like Cambodia.
I was reading about Malaysia is becoming a bigger hub. We've talked about Turkey over
the years. I was even reading about Benin in West Africa, one of the biggest cotton exporters,
and now they're trying to do more value-add manufacturing. What are you seeing? The West
and the so-called global South aren't getting along as well. When you see the US wants to ban
TikTok, well, what's China going to do? Ban US businesses. We run a global business at
no matter capitalist. I don't only sell to Americans far, far from it. That means no
matter what happens, our business can keep going. Even if there's a recession in the US or the US
decides, hey, we don't want to allow dual citizenship anymore. We're going to make it harder. I can
still run my business. If your business is only selling to one place and you're only collecting
money in one currency, not just at a financial risk. Increasingly, I see a geopolitical risk
as this BRICS effect takes hold and more countries say, we don't want to put up with your
terms and conditions the way we used to. Obviously, having access to other currencies,
having access to open bank accounts in other places, having access to diversify,
and just an alternative to what some are calling the woke West. Let's get into it.
Let's start with India and China, two of the original five members of BRICS,
basically out of the question in terms of residents and citizenship. Now, if you get a
job in China, you can get a residence permit. We're not talking about that. We're talking
about optionality for entrepreneurs and investors who don't want to necessarily move to the
country, but they want the option to move there if time gets tough, or they just want
the option to, hey, as a resident or a citizen, I can open a bank account and I've got a different
place to park my money. I may not park my money there now, but I can in the future. These are
two countries that are tough. If you're of Indian origin, look at getting your OCI. Obviously,
China has Hong Kong, its own SAR. I think banking there could be potentially interesting.
They do have a residence program now back on the table in Hong Kong with CIEES,
but that is a rather niche program for most folks. It certainly is an expensive program.
I'm not convinced you always have to be a resident to have a bank account. We're working
with our vendors in Hong Kong. There's always some new banking option available,
and that could be one to look at from the asset protection standpoint,
but India and China largely off the table. Russia, one of the other regional five,
we've covered that with their anti-woke visa. They also have a golden visa, Russian citizenship,
relatively toxic fees. CIEES, if you want to bank or do other business outside of the
Western financial system. So that's obviously been a change in the last two and a half years.
Brazil, not a tax friendly place to live, but a good residence program, and they do have a
residence program if you're willing to invest, if you are willing to marry a Brazilian. If you're
willing to have a child in Brazil or adopt a child from Brazil, you can get citizenship
in as little as one year plus about a year to process that. There is a time commitment to
be there in the ground, but when you can get citizenship soup to nuts in as little as two
years, or as an investor, if you wanted to spend time there, it's going to be a couple
years longer. One of the most neutral passports. So an alternative to Russia, where it's very
not neutral. Brazil, nobody really has a beef with the Brazilians. Very high quality passport,
travel to the UK, travel to Europe, travel to Russia, travel to Asia. Obviously, you can travel
all over South America, which I think for people who are looking for alternatives to the West,
I mean, one of the lowest populated land masses in the world is South America. I mean,
it's a very small percentage of the world's population for having so much land, good land,
arable land. So people who are looking kind of that plan B, Brazil could be an option.
You can get the residence permit. You can work towards that citizenship. And people like the
lifestyle. They like the social lifestyle. You've got good quality health care in some parts of
the country. So Palo is the New York of Brazil. I've got some friends who absolutely love it
there. And then you've got friends who like the safer parts like down in the South,
Florianopolis, for example, comes up. And so Brazil could be an interesting place to have
a toll. I think South America in general, it's, and again, I'm going to come back to
how you can replicate some of these BRICS features without actually going to the limited
number of countries in BRICS in a minute. South Africa was looking at very affordable waterfront
property of their friend in Monday today from Cape Town in Cape Town. I would not want that
passport. I've advised a few friends of mine to not go back through their family and get that
passport because of the whole financial expatriation they have there. It's not at the level
of the U.S. yet, but I have some concerns about South Africa's taxes. I would look at other
African passports. And I think you have Egypt now with its citizenship by investment program.
You've got one candidate running in Ghana who says they should offer a cheap
citizenship by investment. There's other ways to get African passports.
We're constantly looking into new ways and we're going to talk about some of those actually
at Nomad Capitalist Live, our four-day annual event you want to get in the waiting list for
nomadcapitalist.com slash live. But South Africa is the one I would skip. So those kind of five main
original members, I think Brazil is interesting for a number of reasons. The taxes there are
certainly not the most friendly. So if you're living there full-time, that's going to be a
challenge. But if you have an option there, if you've got a residence permit, that could be
a reasonable way to diversify into the original BRICS. And what I would encourage you to
do is to learn from people who live in these countries, learn from people who come to these
countries. They could be good places to live, have a residence permit or invest. We had a gentleman
named Vussy from South Africa speak at the last Nomad Capitalist Live and he talked about all
the opportunities in Africa. You want to understand from people who are actually
on the ground how it works. That's what we do. That's what our network does.
Let's talk about some of the other countries that are now joining. So Saudi Arabia,
permanent residence by investment program. You're going to basically pay $213,000.
Yes, you could get a Caribbean citizenship for that same donation and that might be a better
place to start. But if you're building all your options out, who else spoke at Nomad
Capitalist Live in the past? Zubi. Zubi grew up in what was then a much more conservative
Saudi Arabia. He said it's nothing like you see on the media. What do they have there?
They've got strong banking. As a resident, you can access that strong banking. That can be a tunnel
access to that banking. By the way, one of the things we've talked about at Nomad Capitalist
Live the last couple years is how you get him a bank in one country and that bank has branches
in six different countries and now you can move around. And so Saudi Arabia, the Middle East and
also Southeast Asia is one of those regions where you've got banks that have locations
in some further flung places that are harder to access as a non-resident. So you get the
residence permit that opens up financial banking, certain investment opportunities in some cases.
Saudi Arabia is obviously very tax friendly. That region is becoming a little bit less
tax friendly for businesses like the UAE's 9% tax. Some of the other countries are going to
roll it out from a personal standpoint. Very, very, very tax friendly. Saudi Arabia,
one of the more conservative countries compared to certainly like Bahrain, for example,
which also has a residence permit. You could do that instead. But Saudi, they're in the news.
They're saying, oh, should we have the Petro Iwan? They're really looking at all their options. And
so if you want a country that has that sort of heft geopolitically, you're not going to be a
citizen, but you can get that residence permit and it is for life for that donation. As long as
you keep your nose clean, it is for life. The United Arab Emirates, UAE, Dubai,
they have numerous different residence programs. Start a company. Again, you're going to be paying
9% tax, nine times out of 10. So it's not the most tax friendly place to go. You could buy a property,
get a golden visa. Again, unless you are a really heavy hitter in the business scene
and they give you citizenship, as they did, you know, Kevin O'Leary, Pavel Durov and others.
I think that, you know, they've done hundreds of those. Otherwise, you're going to have a residence
permit. What was interesting about, you know, the Middle East is their residence programs are
getting better and better. Not saying their corporate tax policies are getting better,
but their residence programs, they want to keep people there. They're realizing they don't
just want people to go home when it comes time to retire. They want to keep people there longer
and longer. It's like, you know, how do we keep people listening to our radio station for
longer? How do we keep people, you know, coming back to Starbucks more often? And so,
Saudi and the UAE are part of BRICS and looking to do that. Egypt has recently joined. They've got
105 million people. Most people don't realize the heft that some of these countries are adding
in terms of the population. Same with Ethiopia where there's no play and they've got some
problems right now. Egypt, not necessarily a place to live, but you can get a citizenship
there. And so when I mentioned African passports earlier, what we've talked about for years is
the African Union saying, let's all get together more. We're seeing, you know, slowly but surely
some evidence of that among different countries. Hey, all Africans are welcome here. They're
opening up. There could be increased residence rights, increased investment rights, things like
buying, you know, land that's off limits to foreigners, certain business opportunities,
freedom of movement. It'll be interesting to see what will happen in the next generation
for people with African passports. Egypt, while not in sub-Saharan Africa, is in Africa.
And so they are now in BRICS as well. That could be an option with a citizenship. They have a
residence and citizenship. Again, you want to consider what impact that's going to have.
If you've got some fancy Swiss bank, we've talked to some of them and they say, okay,
we don't like here. Egypt, it's not on an audio list. We're happy with Egypt.
But you want to understand holistically what any residence program or citizenship is going to
do to you. That's what nomadic countless helps our clients figure out. We have more information,
more vendors, more resources and a bigger in-house team that exclusively does research and development,
exclusively does client strategy. And I think any other company out there, because we are
dedicated to giving you the most options, you don't call and everybody gets sold to Egypt.
We'll talk about all the different options and if BRICS is something that you're thinking
about, hey, here's one place you can get citizenship. You don't have to live there.
You don't have to pay taxes there. You barely have to go there. You have to invest some
money. And if that matches your criteria, we can help you find properties that are not from
developers that are marked up in a big way. We can help you find the very limited number of
secondhand properties that are reasonable to buy. And you can get that citizenship in a matter
of months. And we help people do stuff like that. I'm not saying that's the option for you,
but it's an option. And then you get the future joiners. Kazakhstan's talking about
getting in. I think Central Asia is a very interesting region. Jim Rogers,
we've interviewed him. He spoke at Nomad Capitalist Live in 2023. He's a big fan of Uzbekistan,
but Kazakhstan will in some ways be kind of the hub of that region. In the same way that Serbia
is still somewhat the hub of both the open Balkan free region, just the western Balkans in
general, Kazakhstan could be that for Central Asia. They had talked about a residence by
investment program that has not really materialized. Uzbekistan does have a residence by
investment program. That's an area that we're focusing on, deepening our ties in and learning
more about. I think Central Asia could be interesting. Kazakhstan, looking at joining Brics,
maybe Uzbekistan is an approximate player to that. Turkey wants to get in. The only NATO
member that wants to be in Brics. And they would bring a substantial population.
Interesting how the world has changed that for 20 years, Turkey wanted to be in the EU.
What did Jim Rogers say? He said, you know, it's probably the point where
the EU needs Turkey, more than Turkey needs the EU. And they are going their own way.
They're building up manufacturing. Yeah, they have problems with inflation. And yet people
don't understand, you can get citizenship by investment in Turkey. You can buy second-hand
properties. My property has gone up dramatically in value in dollar terms, in lira terms,
and just through the roof. But in dollar terms, my property has gone up in value. And if you
want a residence permit, or if you want a citizenship, you can get that with an investment.
And now you have the option to live there whenever you want, but you don't have to.
You have the option to travel as a citizen of that country, but you don't have to.
And so at a time when the big players, the US, the UK in particular, are pushing away
the so-called global south and saying, we don't want your companies doing business there,
you think those companies are just going to go under? No, they're increasingly
finding strength and working with each other. And I think that's where a lot of money is
going to be made in the next generation. And if you want to be part of that,
there's going to come a time when being Turkish will have less baggage potentially than being
American. Now Turkey may not be the best example, but certainly being Brazilian
is going to have a lot less baggage than some of these Western passports, because
Brazil is not going to be out targeting everybody. Brazil is trying to make their way.
Look at what embrayers doing with their planes. They're taking advantage of Boeing
having a lot of problems with their planes, with their spacecraft. And an embrayer,
they're not going to take over from Airbus and Boeing, but they are making some moves
into certain markets to take some share. And so Brazil is going to have a different
attitude towards global trade than what the US and the UK and Australia and Canada
are doing. They're basically trying to keep their claw on power as the last gasps come out.
Why do you want to be a citizen and a resident and a taxpayer and a person with all your assets
exclusively in a country where the last gasps and the claws of power are taking place?
These are some options. They're not all perfect. You want to make sure they work
together. So those are eight bricks residents and citizenships and some that won't work for
you and some that might not work for you. But here's the alternatives that I promised you,
the non-joiners that still have some of the same mindset.
El Salvador's president has picked on the West and said, hey, how come they get to get away
with this stuff and we don't? And he's really kind of leading that kind of messaging. El Salvador
is not talking about being bricks, but they have some of those same positives. They're
talking about tax friendliness. I've been a little disappointed quite frankly for all. I love
the vision. I'm not singing of execution, but El Salvador has the right message. Whether you like
it or not, Venezuela, obviously going through some stuff right now. The best time to buy property
there was probably the end of the 2010s, maybe 2020. Since then, ultra cheap property is gone.
And so if things in that country improve, I think that could be an interesting counterbalance
at some point. It is a place where it's more of like blood in the streets kind of
but I'm going to be checking that out and not too distant future. I have friends who have been
there and said, you can live a great life. We have people who live there and work in our company
who have great lives. Serbia is another country. The Western Balkans we've talked about for years,
maybe a bit more palatable to a lot of folks. Eastern Europe, we've had a lot of clients
want to move to Serbia, to Montenegro, Montenegro less involved with that. I think Serbia, the
one country that while it's not applying to join bricks, it is not NATO. It doesn't want
to be part of NATO on like Montenegro and North Macedonia which got in. They are doing their own
thing. And so you can find a country that has come with the same mindset as bricks,
leave us alone, we're neutral. Yeah, we can work with the West and we can work with the
Northwest and we're not going to be judged and we're not going to be bullied and we're going
to take part in multiplicity and we're going to make our own citizens wealthier and having
the ability to go there and take part in that. It's not the worst thing. Maybe buying
property at a time when it's very affordable priced and could go up in values, not the
worst thing. That's how you involve bricks in your plans. It's not about having to say,
I'm leaving the US forever and now I'm joining Russia. Let's not take it to the extremes.
Let's talk about optionality. I think it's what bricks offers to solve a lot of the
problems the West has brought and you can see what happens and make decisions as the situation evolves.