Attorneys and advisors to family offices and high-net-worth families said they are seeing strong demand from clients looking for second passports or long-term residencies abroad.
Interestingly, since the Covid-19 era, an increasing number of wealthy Americans have always considered leaving the country. Wealth advisors, on the other hand, stated that many of their wealthy clients are acting now.
Immigration lawyers say that ahead of Tuesday’s election, a growing number of these wealthy Americans are considering leaving the country out of fear of social and political unrest regardless of who wins.
Dominic Volek, group head of private clients at Henley & Partners, which advises wealthy clients on international migration, stated, “We’ve never seen demand like we see now.”
According to Volek, wealthy Americans are the company’s largest clientele for the first time, accounting for 20% of its business, or more than any other nationality. He claims that the number of Americans planning to relocate abroad has increased by at least 30% since last year.
According to David Lesperance, managing partner of the international tax and immigration firm Lesperance and Associates, the number of Americans hiring him for potential overseas moves has roughly tripled since last year.
53% of American millionaires say they are more likely to leave the United States after the election, regardless of who wins, according to a survey conducted by Arton Capital, which advises the wealthy on immigration programs.
Sixty-four percent of millionaires between the ages of 18 and 29 indicated that they would be “very interested” in applying for so-called “golden visas” through an international residency-by-investment program.
Since COVID-19, the wealthy in the United States have been steadily increasing their interest in second passports or residences. In point of fact, the wealthy have numerous non-political reasons for wanting to travel abroad.
Additionally, citizenship in a single nation is increasingly seen as a concentrated personal and financial risk by the extremely wealthy. Others want a passport from a country other than the United States in case they want to travel to dangerous countries or areas that are hostile to the United States.
For more than three decades, most Americans only wanted to move abroad for tax reasons. Now, politics and the fear of violence are at the forefront, with the upcoming election accelerating those fears.
Others are concerned about the threat of violence in the event that Donald Trump wins the election, as well as Vice President Kamala Harris’s proposal to tax unrealized capital gains on assets worth more than $100 million.
Even with a Democratic majority in Congress, tax experts say the unrealized gains plan has little chance of passing, but Lesperance said it’s still a risk.
According to lawyers, the wealthy also cite the possibility of political violence, antisemitism, Islamophobia, and skyrocketing government debt as reasons to leave.
The United States is most likely to consider Europe as a destination. Henley says that Portugal, Malta, Greece, Spain, and Antigua are the most popular destinations for Americans seeking residency or second citizenship. Americans have also started to like Italy.
While the issue of mass immigration has become a hot-button political topic all over the world, politicians in Europe have begun to oppose golden visas, which grant wealthy individuals citizenship or residency solely on the basis of investments.
For the time being, wealthy Americans still prefer Malta as their second passport. According to immigration attorneys, Malta’s investment citizenship program offers citizenship, unrestricted travel and residency in Malta and, by extension, the European Union—although at a cost of approximately $1 million to $1.2 million all-in.
Pope Francis On Trump And Kamala Over Plan To Deport A Big Number Of Immigrants..
The EU has been litigating a challenge to the Malta program, but the majority of immigration lawyers anticipate that Malta will prevail.
Americans seeking a second passport are increasingly choosing the Caribbean. If you spend more than $300,000 on a property that has been approved in Antigua and Barbuda, you can get citizenship, which gives you the freedom to travel to other countries like Hong Kong, Russia, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and Europe. Attorneys assert that St. Lucia is also gaining popularity.
Retirement visas are also available in some nations, like Portugal, which provide entry and a path to citizenship.
