Handful Of Passports

From MT:
"How Wealthy Russians Buy a 2nd Passport"

When Nuri Katz, founder of investment firm Apex Capital, heads for the customs gate, he gets to decide which of his three passports to use — a privilege that his Russian clients would pay up to 5 million euros to enjoy. Katz is in the citizenship-by-investment business. Select Western nations provide everything from fast-track visas to full citizenship in exchange for significant investments in their economy. Apex Capital, the oldest of a handful of Russian-centric investment advisories, guides clients through the citizenship-by-investment application process. While immigration for poorer Russians is filled with sacrifices, the modern Russian businessman chooses alternative citizenship for the luxuries it offers. "A lot of people do not know what they want," said Katz, who holds Israeli, Canadian, and U.S. passports. "'I want to go there,' clients say. Well, 'there' is 150 different countries." The U.S., Canada and Britain, as well as smaller nations like the Caribbean islands of Antigua and St. Kitts, all encourage applications. Still, these programs can be both expensive and difficult to navigate. Cypriot citizenship, which metals billionaire Alexander Abramov received in 2010, costs a minimum of 5.5 million euros ($7.4 million), in investments or real estate. St. Kitts, on the lower end of the spectrum, offers citizenship for real estate purchases of no less than $400,000. Advisory firms, at the least, prepare application documents and assist in finding suitable investments. The hardest part of the application is often explaining the applicant's financial history to immigration officials unfamiliar with Russian history and accounting practices. Applicants who made their start-up capital in the heady and legally ambiguous days of privatization can be the hardest to explain.  Public knowledge of a Russian's second citizenship, especially for the very wealthy, can also cause problems, and confidentiality is highly valued within the industry. Billionaire banker Vitaly Malkin was pressured into resigning from the Federation Council earlier this year after his Israeli citizenship and decades-long quest for Canadian citizenship was revealed. Irina Zozulya, whose family emigrated to the U.S. in 1998 from a town near Odessa, remembers an exhausting, year long process of trips back and forth to U.S. immigration services in Moscow. Even a nonimmigrant visa may be hard to get. Zozulya's aunt spent 15 years applying before getting her travel visa.

Immigrants can only receive permanent residency status in the U.S. if they have sponsors or win the green card lottery. Every year, the U.S. opens the door to 50,000 applicants from around the world. In 2013 the lottery let in less than 3 percent of the 109,156 Russians who applied.

 ^ I can understand a country giving away a visa or permanent residency for a price, but not it's citizenship. That only cheapens the citizenship of everyone from that country. The Russians mentioned here are what ordinary Russians call "New Russians." They spend money to spend money and be seen. I have two passports (Canada and the US) but I didn't pay for them. I had to wait years for the Canadian Government to "wake-up" and change it's stupid citizenship laws before it was given to me - making me a native - not naturalized - citizen. ^

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/how-wealthy-russians-buy-a-2nd-passport/488087.html