Vanuatu passport

[Paratore]

Why would the banks not see place of birth of Moscow, Shenzhen, or Washington DC on a Vanuatu passport and immediately ask about other citizenships during KYC? Even if the document was fraudulent. “Ok Mr. Momoa, everything looks in order.” [to the Russian accented blond blue-eyed white man with place of birth in Vanuatu]. If it’s some borderline crypto exchange that doesn’t care, use a $300 USD Palau e-residence card. Well, you still have to off-ramp somewhere legitimate later.

Use it to cloak travel by switching passports? First, Vanuatu is not an airport hub. Second, if you are one of those who can only have one passport, how does this work?” Mr. Zhang, how did you spend so much time in Vanuatu?” “Well, I have a second…” Wait, that only works with permanent residence cards. Third, permanent residency costs less than $130,000 USD and will work just as well for the first part of that.

Maybe if you have zero other options in terms of second passports (never true). You can always fall back on the visa-free travel. I guess you have Russia and the Philippines. Still, I recall people here getting access to Russia for far less than $130,000 USD.

Vanuatu is part of CRS. “But I’m a tax resident.” “Then supporting documentation should be no problem. By the way, what is your other citizenship? Just asking.”

You could live there I suppose.

An Interpol Red Notice has name, date of birth, and nationalities listed. Reputational KYC services are likely to find past indictments. I suspect a Vanuatu passport will subject you to EDD and that will be a part of it. Unless you change your biographical data and keep the two personas completely separate this is not going to hide you.

The unstated part is that you are doing something illegal as part of getting one of these and that is what makes it work. Or else I just don’t know enough about how the financial system works. Someone educate me and tell me how I am wrong.

 

[JohnnyDoe]

Someone educate me and tell me how I am wrong.

you are 100% right.
As explained here Citizenship is not a tax strategy: no bs guide to tax residence the real use cases of a passport are limited.
If you want to play smart games, then use friends, you can find imaginary ones that look very much like you 😉

 

[Paratore]

you are 100% right.
As explained here Citizenship is not a tax strategy: no bs guide to tax residence the real use cases of a passport are limited.
If you want to play smart games, then use friends, you can find imaginary ones that look very much like you 😉

Excuse my rambling here. I don’t want to go over there and defecate all over the guy’s Vanuatu/Guinea-Bissau passport business model in his own thread. With a Canadian or Italian passport, for example, there are some niche benefits.

• There are a few (very few) institutions that will allow Canadian citizens to open accounts while residing abroad. Of course, you will be reporting your other citizenships and settling taxes under the appropriate DTA. It can still be useful for investment. See some companies returns on TSX plus CAD fluctuations over the past year. Counterpoint: Why even bother? Invest elsewhere. Decent returns are everywhere.
• An Italian passport makes it easier to open a simple bank account there and get a card that uses SEPA for use during travel in Europe. Or to use the Trenitalia mobile app. You can get into some museums for free. Counterpoint: Use a credit card with no FX fee and a percentage cash back. Use the Trenitalia website. I’ve already seen the museums.
• One could live in Canada or the EU which is a bit of a different prospect than doing such in Vanuatu. Counterpoint: Taxes. Residence permits don’t much care which passport they are in.
• Children can easily qualify for local university tuition rates which is a large cost reduction. Counterpoint: You are making too many assumptions about how a life may turn out decades in the future.
• There is the largely superfluous ease of travel. Counterpoint: It’s superfluous.
• They could in some unlikely cases make operating in certain regions slightly easier or safer. One would have gotten faster repatriation flights out of Dubai had he not driven across the border and left via Muscat, for example. Counterpoint: These are all contrived examples and extremely improbable.
• You can use them while another passport is being renewed or out due to a visa application. Counterpoint: This can be just as easily mitigated by proper planning and how often do you need visas, anyway?
• It will save tiny amounts of money on ETAs. Counterpoint: Extremely bad RoI here.
• If one needed to travel to China, it would save relatively expensive visa fees (RoI on the Canadian passport would be about 100% with just one trip here). Counterpoint: There are only a few countries like this and the math only works on one passport because it was obtained so cheaply.
• You are flying back from Africa/ME through AMS or CDG and due to flight delays you miss the last flight to North America that day but have already hit your 90/180 in Schengen. Counterpoint: This is approaching “if frogs had wings they wouldn’t bump their asses on the ground when they hopped” levels of fantasy scenario.

But these are very specific cases and minor, mostly theoretical benefits. It borders on justification. I made a compelling counterpoint for each one. In terms of business and serious banking they add nothing. The passports mostly sit in a drawer and presumably provide some form of mental reassurance. And neither is a Vanuatu passport, of course, which offers none of the above. Neither of the above cost six figures, either.

That is my experience. I live a boring life, admittedly, and probably do not understand the more esoteric aspects of international business. But at least I get to use eGates in the airports. If someone has a better use case, my ears are open to learn more.