There is a third option often touted by fly-by-night operators: Golden Visas.
Second residence
This provides the ability to live in a nation and maybe even benefit from a more favorable tax schedule.
Second citizenship
Second citizenship makes it possible to have a second passport, thereby gaining options and possible government protections and a place to go.
While both make for more choices, a residency can often lead to citizenship.
Golden visas
Most people are under the illusion that by only receiving a "Golden Visa" they are magically entitled to receive citizenship a few years later.
They believe or are led to believe, that through investing in some property, and by visiting a country a few weeks a year, their citizenship application would be automatically accepted. Few or no further questions asked!
To make matters worse, most Golden Visas are temporary, requiring renewal every five years. It also obliges children to reapply once they become of age and independent.
Vague articles stating the contrary are most often written by those that stand to benefit from this "misunderstanding".
The same promoters would also have you believe that you can skip the stages of Long-Term Residency and Permanent Residency and go straight to citizenship.
Guaranteed citizenship by residency? Not so fast
The countries in this list are the ones which have a problematic track record of not extending citizenship to people with established residency.
No, not Malaysia. In Malaysia, a person can get a residence permit to live there, but merely being a resident in Malaysia won't get you citizenship.
There are countries looking at you. Panama, for example, has a Friendly Nations Visa program which should lead to citizenship, but often doesn't in reality. Many newsletters and conferences will advise you to put five thousand dollars in a Panamanian bank or open up a little business, and voila, permanent residence is yours.
The four-color newsletters and brochures fail to talk about the reality of what is happening on-the-ground.
It isn't always the fault of the conference promoter or an out-of-date newsletter. No one gets it right 100% of the time. Nations change their laws — even overnight. Just because there's a possibility of gaining citizenship through a program today, doesn't mean the same program will be there tomorrow. Even applying for citizenship doesn't mean you're guaranteed to have citizenship given.
In Panama, for example, a person may apply for citizenship after 5-years of permanent residence. There's a chance you'll get citizenship if you spend most of those five years living in Panama. There's also a chance you won't.
There are nations, like Latvia, which has a Golden Visa program where you don't have to live there to keep residency alive, but you do need to spend the better part of each year there if you hope to become a citizen.
If a country's embassy tells you you need to spend nine months a year in the nation to become a citizen, don't be surprised if you only stay there three-days a year and they turn you down for citizenship.
Some ‘fast-track' naturalization programs may work, or you could do a variety of residency programs to learn which ones eventually lead to citizenship.
Singapore
It's now difficult to even get a residency permit in Singapore. Being an entrepreneur gives you a better chance but no guarantee.
Seven years ago, if you wanted to be in Singapore, you could get in on great terms. But, the country became popular and doesn't really need more citizens. Singapore does have one of the best citizenships in the world, but it's hard to get.
Montenegro
The government can make it difficult to get citizenship by residency since they prefer you take advantage of their citizenship by investment program. With the CBI program, you're allowed to skip residency and get citizenship immediately. Montenegro is encouraging people to use the country's tax-friendly residency program to make an investment.
Malta
Malta has a longer than normal time-line toward citizenship by residency (10-years) and citizenship by investment (1-3 years).
The price tag for Maltese citizenship is more than for the residency program, and even after living in Malta for ten-years, it is difficult to become a citizen — thanks to complex bureaucracy. If you really want citizenship, they really want a big investment.
Greece
Greece is one of the cheaper Gold Visa countries, just 250,000 euro. However, don't plan on gaining citizenship by residency. Greece has been historically difficult about naturalizing people who aren't ethnically Greek.
Look at Greece's Golden Visa as a 250,000 path to being a European resident and a resident of the Schengen area. If you can tolerate Greece's bureaucracy and taxes, then don't rely on citizenship.
Panama and Paraguay
Both national programs have become less reliable since everyone is in a hurry to apply. The laid back bureaucracy is just slopped and anyway, what county wants to have loads of people descending on it just to get the passports?
Panama residency is convenient, and the country is a handy place to live besides being tax-friendly. But don't rely on Panama for citizenship because you won't get it.
Peru
Peru's laws tell you you need to invest $US 30,000 to get residency. The reality is you'll have to pay at least five times that amount. Put in substantial time Peru, and there's a better chance you can get Peruvian citizenship — but there's a “wait, there's more”: getting in is different than suggested on paper.
Marketing companies still talk about the $30,000 investment needed for a Peruvian residence permit. Once you pay that, it can be relatively quick to citizenship.
Reality is different.
The government has said they're not taking $30,000. It's actually closer to $150,000 — and sometimes more.
Uruguay
Uruguay is one of the easiest places on this list to get citizenship. But you have really got to be there. Your future there depends on you making some type of commitment.
The takeaway
Do something.
Making a small investment in a country with an average passport – investing $25,000 in bonds or $50,000 in real estate or $100,000 in a bank deposit – is going to better your chances.
It doesn't have to be millions of dollars, but you're going to start to see more of a correlation between the more you invest or, the more you commit to living somewhere – be it three to five months or a year – and your ability to obtain citizenship.
