Passport Power: Why Everyone Wants a Second Passport In 2025!
Today, we’re diving into the hot topic of why so many folks are chasing after multiple passports—yep, you heard that right! With Brexit shaking things up and COVID throwing a wrench into global travel, it's no wonder people are looking for alternatives to their British passports. We’re chatting with the knowledgeable David Kiss, who runs KISS Information, and he’s got the lowdown on how to navigate the maze of immigration and citizenship options. Whether it's for travel freedom, safety, or tax benefits, the demand for second passports is on the rise, and David spills the tea on what it takes to snag one. So, grab your headphones and let’s unravel the passport puzzle together!
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- KISS Information
- Italy
- St. Lucia
Takeaways:
- Brexit has sparked a surge in passport applications, especially from UK nationals seeking alternatives.
- The ability to hold multiple passports can offer significant advantages in today's global landscape.
- Not everyone can afford citizenship by investment; there are alternative routes like ancestry or residency.
- Cultural attitudes in Europe often discourage ambition, contrasting sharply with the optimistic American mindset.
- The concept of 'Tall Poppy Syndrome' illustrates how societal pressures can stifle individual success in Europe.
- Historical imperialism shapes modern perceptions, but it's vital to focus on unity rather than guilt.
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- KISS Information
- Italy
- St. Lucia
Transcript
Foreign.
Speaker A:Welcome back to another episode of the Breaking Point podcast.
Speaker A:Today we are here with David Kiss.
Speaker A:David is the host of KISS Information.
Speaker B:KISS Information's, you know, like passport, immigration, how to get multiple passports in different countries.
Speaker A:My two high demand for people trying to get multiple.
Speaker A:Is it like post, like Brexit?
Speaker A:Do people want multiple passports because of the benefits or the lack thereof of having a British passport nowadays?
Speaker B:Well, to be fair, you've covered all topics in that question pretty well.
Speaker B:Yeah, you're absolutely right.
Speaker B:Well, the Brexit thing is just for UK nationals because, you know, if you're an Irish citizen, Brexit doesn't really impact you because you have free movement to both European Union, Ireland as an EU EU passport, also to the United Kingdom because of the Good Friday agreement and the common travel area.
Speaker B:So the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, that fully open border, they don't even have a welcome to Ireland, welcome to Northern Ireland, or welcome to the United Kingdom there.
Speaker B:The only way that you know when you've switched country is when you is you'll see on the sign where it says we will now switch from kilometers to miles or miles to kilometers, respectively.
Speaker B:So it is absolutely.
Speaker B:For British nationals.
Speaker B:You're absolutely right.
Speaker B:Brexit, major incentive to get another passport, but not just British nationals.
Speaker B:And to answer the question about whether there's a high demand for it, is there as much as a high demand for it as maybe, you know, social media or TikTok?
Speaker B:No, but getting multiple passports is also a bit more exclusive.
Speaker B:It takes time and it takes money.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:You can't really get it for free unless you got born with a stroke of luck and you have ancestry from a bunch of different countries that go back about three or four generations.
Speaker B: ck all the way to, I believe,: Speaker B:They've changed it now, but the demand is definitely there.
Speaker B:And I think it's not just Brexit.
Speaker B:I think around the world, another reason why people find it important is a.
Speaker B:Because the legacy countries, you know, we take the United States for example, or, or the UK or countries that are still living off of their old reputation, they still have a strong passport.
Speaker B:But Covid was also an important Time to analyze why it's important.
Speaker B:Because, for example, you know, you're a British national, I'd imagine, just like me in the British passport.
Speaker B:And as with many other passports, it says this document allows the own a full access, unrestricted access into our country without any questions asked.
Speaker B:Right now, Covid.
Speaker B:The Australian passport disproved that completely because the Australian government wasn't letting in their own citizens into their own country.
Speaker B:So that was a major wake up point as well, for a lot of people to go, okay, these countries that are living off of their old reputation or maybe are still are very good countries to live in, right?
Speaker B:They're not doing the best for me.
Speaker B:Maybe you can find another passport somewhere else of a lesser known country that will protect me more.
Speaker B:So that's where the incentive has grown.
Speaker B:Brexit, Covid.
Speaker B:And also, you've got taxation stuff.
Speaker B:But that's primarily a concern for the Americans.
Speaker B:I mainly deal with the European passport, so the taxation's not on me.
Speaker A:Do people come to you and say, can you help me getting a new passport?
Speaker A:Is that like, is that a service that you offer or do you just do it on YouTube?
Speaker B:Not just it's not a service I offer, but I do get it.
Speaker B:I do get inundated with emails like that.
Speaker B:It's not a service that I offer.
Speaker B:There are other people who, who do that.
Speaker B:There are major firms or major players in this field who do do that.
Speaker B:I'm not one of them.
Speaker B:I don't have a agency or a company or anything like that.
Speaker B:It's not really my interest.
Speaker B:My interest is more providing the information, providing the details on how you can get this passport.
Speaker B:Because this is another thing to point out.
Speaker B:I have a friend in the, in the States, Ray Monk, who did the St. Lucia citizenship by investment program back in the day, where I think at the time he had to invest a hundred thousand American dollars into the country of St. Lucia.
Speaker B:And in exchange, you got the passport.
Speaker B:Now, that sounds very good on paper, but what they don't tell you is about the other requirements, how long it takes if you don't want to do the investment.
Speaker B:If you haven't got 100 grand, right, like me.
Speaker B:How, how else can you get a passport somewhere else?
Speaker B:Because you can pay your way into a passport in most countries, but that's not going to be possible for everyone.
Speaker B:So you have other options.
Speaker B:You have residency, ancestry.
Speaker B:What else do you have?
Speaker B:You have exception, merit, maybe?
Speaker B:No.
Speaker B:The actor Ralph Fiennes, I believe he's a Serbian citizen because he made a load of films in Serbia.
Speaker B:So he got Serbian citizenship by exception.
Speaker B:It is a demand.
Speaker B:I personally don't offer the service at all.
Speaker B:No, I don't even think I will, to be honest.
Speaker B:I'm just here to make the videos about and do the information.
Speaker B:You can definitely do that for sure.
Speaker B:It's just not something that I'm offering, but I absolutely get inundated with a lot of people, primarily from India, Bangladesh and Pakistan wanting EU passports.
Speaker B:Primarily.
Speaker A:Isn't there some rule about if you want to emigrate to Australia or New Zealand, you have to.
Speaker A:After a certain age, you need like £30,000 in the bank or you need.
Speaker A:There's some sort of.
Speaker A:There's certain.
Speaker A:Is.
Speaker A:I didn't realize.
Speaker A:I know nothing about this topic, so it's not a shock that I didn't realize anything.
Speaker A:But there are so many requirements to going abroad up to emigrating.
Speaker A:Is it emigrating or is it.
Speaker A:What's the difference between immigration and migration?
Speaker B:To be honest, they're just from the way in which I understand, and naturally you have to appreciate the English isn't my official mother tongue, but it's pretty much the same logic as expats.
Speaker B:And.
Speaker A:That'S awesome.
Speaker B:Thanks, man.
Speaker B:I appreciate that's a niche language.
Speaker B:To answer your question about what's the difference between migration and immigration.
Speaker B:Sorry, what was the second word you said?
Speaker B:Migration.
Speaker B:Immigrated.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker A:Is that expat?
Speaker A:Is it exp.
Speaker B:Immigration?
Speaker B:Of course.
Speaker B:Yes, of course.
Speaker B:Yes, of course.
Speaker B:But then this is a thing.
Speaker B:This is sort of an interesting lane, right, because expat is a word that Westerners use when they go to less well off countries.
Speaker B:But when people from less well off countries go to the west, they are immigrants.
Speaker B:So to be honest, it's a bit of an elitist term.
Speaker B:I use the phrase expat because the official definition, I believe, if you were to look on any English language dictionary, is someone who is not living in their country of origin for economic or political reasons.
Speaker B:Although political is most likely asylum.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:But an expat, like, let's put it this way, every immigrant is an expat and also every expat is an immigrant.
Speaker B:So for me personally, they're complete synonyms.
Speaker B:What the only difference is when white Westerners go to less off Latin American countries are expats.
Speaker B:But when Latin Americans go to the United States, for example, they're seen as immigrants because the media wants to vilify them.
Speaker B:But when you think about it logically, they're the exact same thing.
Speaker B:There's just one has a good reputation Of a word.
Speaker B:The other one has a bad reputation because of media discrimination, keeping it as.
Speaker A:Like, least controversial as possible, if that's possible.
Speaker A:Why do you think people are so sort of disillusioned with the UK and why do you think they're trying to leave the UK and particularly young people?
Speaker A:That's what I've seen and heard.
Speaker B:Well, to be honest, my answer.
Speaker B:So like, if you were to ask me, like whether I'm disillusioned with it a bit, I am, right?
Speaker B:I'm a free speech absolutist and everything else.
Speaker B:But my answer is going to be very different to everyone else because the majority of people who talk about stuff like this, they often go with the media psyop distractions that you talk about where difficult to date.
Speaker B:Well, to be fair, that's actually more of an alleged problem in the United States, to be fair.
Speaker B:Uh, but that's one that I hear all the time, specifically by men.
Speaker B:But going to Colombia isn't going to help you with that.
Speaker B:If you're not a good, if you're not a catch, let's put it that way.
Speaker B:Safety is another one.
Speaker B:Now that is a fair point.
Speaker B:To be fair, it has become a lot less safer, primarily around the major cities.
Speaker B:You know, there's a lot more drug addicts on the street, stuff like that.
Speaker B:Whereas compared to you go to somewhere like Eastern Europe, like Hungary, Slovakia, yes, there's also crime there, but it's a different type of crime.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:You're not really going to get mugged in Budapest at 3am in the morning for a watch, let's put it that way.
Speaker B:But I think the primary reason for me is weather is a. I mean, the weather now is decent.
Speaker B:I'm not too sure where you are in the United Kingdom, but the weather in my, on my part of the world has been quite good lately on this island.
Speaker B:But the other issue that I see with the United Kingdom is it has a bit of a European mindset, which is quite interesting because they, they were the former colonizers of the United States.
Speaker B:So you'd imagine that they would be more akin to thinking like Americans.
Speaker B:And what I mean by that is Americans are very optimistic people.
Speaker B:This whole idea of something not working out is an alien concept in the United States.
Speaker B:And the example that I always bring up is if, if we're in high school or university or what have you, and a lecturer or a teacher were to ask us what our life goals were and you were to tell them, Ollie, for example, that you want to grow the breaking Point podcast, or you want to get this really big guest on the show, right?
Speaker B:Or maybe you want to travel around the world.
Speaker B:Maybe you want to become a good father, a good husband, right?
Speaker B:Whatever it might be, the Americans will go, oh, that's great.
Speaker B:For example, one of my teachers said to me, my cousin's husband is an audio producer.
Speaker B:He's like a sound mixer.
Speaker B:So basically, she gave me his contact information on how to do podcasting, how to get into film entertainment.
Speaker B:So they're very much a supportive nation.
Speaker B:Whereas in Europe, it's more this type of response.
Speaker B:And I'm curious whether you can relate to this as a fellow Englishman.
Speaker B:It's more like, let's say you were to tell them that you want to grow the Breaking Point podcast.
Speaker B:This is the average European response that you would get, in my experience.
Speaker B:Naturally, I'm not trying to grow your podcast, but when I say I'm trying to grow my own social media, well, if you can achieve that, fine, but be a bit realistic, mate.
Speaker B:So that, to me, is the problem.
Speaker B:It's quite a socialist mindset where they're trying to tear you down so they feel more comfortable about themselves.
Speaker B:That, to me, is the major disillusionment.
Speaker B:Although I don't think that's the fairest answer in the world, because, A, that's just a me thing, because I think more like an American, I think.
Speaker B:And also B, it's not a British problem, it's a European problem.
Speaker B:So I don't know if that's the reason why they're disillusioned with the UK or just Europe in general, to be honest.
Speaker B:So apologies if that doesn't.
Speaker A:I should have taken some notes.
Speaker A:Just a little side note, if you see me on my phone, it's because I'm taking notes of things that you want to.
Speaker A:That you said.
Speaker A:And I want to ask you about.
Speaker A:I think the optimism and the encouragement that the differentiation between the US and the UK is brilliant.
Speaker A:I've spoken to another guy about that and how the mindset is just staunchly different.
Speaker A:It's a cliche of cross, like in the uk, that Americans are.
Speaker A:Are all crazy and they're all exceptionally sort of extroverted, enthusiastic, but.
Speaker A:And we sort of disparage it when we, like, go on holiday and we hear them and we're like, oh, my God, these Americans.
Speaker A:But actually, if you extrapolate that album to other aspects of life, it's an exceptionally beneficial and productive outlook to have.
Speaker A:And, yeah, I mean, I. I mean, I've.
Speaker A:I've gotten over it now, not that I needed to get over it, but when I first started out on the podcast, I was so shocked by the lack of support, support that I received from people that I thought would support me and just the lack of interest that I think it's called like the Tall Poppy syndrome.
Speaker A:And it's, it's really interesting.
Speaker A:This is like kind of a separate note, but I'm not sure how old you are, but about 10 years ago there was this real push around the idea, maybe even, maybe even more, maybe even less, that social media was a negative phenomenon and that it was very self indulgent and it was not productive and it wasn't adaptive and it just shows how.
Speaker A:So when I started the podcast, I thought it would be warmly received because I was going against.
Speaker A:I was doing something that was not.
Speaker A:I wasn't just uploading photos of me going on holiday and going out to nightclubs or whatever people do.
Speaker A:I was actually trying to do something that was proper.
Speaker A:And I was shocked by how that wasn't received in the way I expected it to.
Speaker A:And I think that if I'd have started the point, not that I could have, I was too young, but if I'd have started it 10 years ago, it would have been received significantly better.
Speaker A:And it's just interesting how I feel like in life when you try and put.
Speaker A:Change the narrative, unless there's a shift, if you just keep.
Speaker A:So the social media companies, when that whole movement was taking place, they weren't exactly going to go, okay, yeah, we'll just close ourselves down now because maybe we are doing something quite wrong.
Speaker A:They just kept at it and they just kept, you know, I mean, they didn't keep at it, but, you know, nothing changed.
Speaker A:And then now the idea that social media is a negative phenomenon isn't really spoken about anymore, but it really was.
Speaker A:So, yeah, I mean, I think that sort of my convoluted response to your state, your answer was the UK and you're right, isn't just uk, it's Europe, isn't it?
Speaker A:Where do you think that comes from and why do you think we react that way?
Speaker B:Frankly, I have no idea.
Speaker B:Like, you know, if we were to analyze it like an etymology.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:I couldn't tell you exactly why.
Speaker B:Like, you know, 5,000 years ago in Kyivan Rus, the three Slavic cousins thought this way.
Speaker B:I couldn't, I wouldn't be, it wouldn't be right for me to claim that or anything like that.
Speaker B:Or, you know, William the Conqueror had this mindset and it bled through nothing like that.
Speaker B:But if we think about it, it's quite an alien concept, or at least it should be.
Speaker B:Europeans are arguably, and I say this with all love and respect, but it's just the truth when we think about what the Europeans have done historically.
Speaker B:They like to brag about it, but it's actually quite horrific.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:So if we were to look at it geographically speaking, they don't speak English in California, which is about eight hours away from us, time zone wise and thousands of miles away, because the British were kind, warm hearted, loving people.
Speaker B:They don't speak Spanish in the south of Chile near Antarctica because the Spaniards were such a nice, caring people who cared about the native populations there.
Speaker B:Same principle with any country.
Speaker B:Take Russia for example.
Speaker B:You can see Alaska from Russia.
Speaker B:Now Russian is a Slavic language.
Speaker B:They didn't make it all the way to seeing Alaska across the Diomede Strait I believe it's called, or the Eastern Pacific Ocean by holding hands in happy clappy sunshine show.
Speaker B:So the Europeans have always been one of conquering.
Speaker B:Now you'd imagine that they could actually see the positive in that by conquering their own personal goals instead of just massacring other people.
Speaker B:But they don't for some reason.
Speaker B:And it's interesting because Americans are the most optimistic population, I'd say, in the world.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:I haven't been to every country, but I'd be very surprised if the North Koreans were more optimistic than the Americans, let's put it that way.
Speaker B:And it's interesting because the Americans are like the rebellious son of the British people of the British Empire.
Speaker B:The majority of people who founded the modern United States of America when it was just the first 13 states, they were Anglo Saxons, maybe they were, maybe they were Irish, fine.
Speaker B:But they were originally British people.
Speaker B:Some people even classify it as a British civil war of independence.
Speaker B:I won't go that far.
Speaker B:But they had that mindset.
Speaker B:So I don't know where it died out.
Speaker B:I think in Eastern Europe.
Speaker B:I can answer it better though.
Speaker B:Eastern Europe, any country that was behind the Iron Curtain, let's not forget this, it was only 36 years ago that there were full blown communist dictatorships.
Speaker B:All of them, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia at the time, Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania.
Speaker B:And if we think about this negative European mindset, it's quite socialist and unfortunately it's still very prevalent in Eastern Europe and Central Europe of the former Iron Curtain countries.
Speaker B:That's the reason why I think it happens there.
Speaker B:Why on earth it happens in Western Europe, I have absolutely no idea.
Speaker B:Because Tall Poppy syndrome is a Perfect analogy to bring up.
Speaker B:I actually haven't heard that in a long time, Ollie.
Speaker B:So you've given me a new word of the day, but with your podcast and totally relate.
Speaker B:Not necessarily with the podcast wise, because my personal story with the podcast, the first guest I got really, really lucky with and like no one else had interviewed, but when I do other stuff, like when I learn a language, right, when I was learning the Cyrillic Alphabet, I wasn't learning Russian, I was learning the Cyrillic Alphabet.
Speaker B:People had a go at me and started accusing me of being a pro Putinist because I was able to write and read the Cyrillic Alphabet.
Speaker B:I could have been learning Bulgarian or Mongolian.
Speaker B:So I think this whole notion of tearing you down is something that A, is a learned behavior.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:Because if your parents are like that, you're most likely going to be like that too.
Speaker B:If you haven't got the ability to thing.
Speaker B:But also B, if your entire friend group does that around you, what are you going to do?
Speaker B:Are you going to be the outlier now?
Speaker B:You should be.
Speaker B:Absolutely.
Speaker B:I'd like to think I'm, I'd like to, I'd like to think you are because you're doing this podcast, but not everyone is that way.
Speaker B:Europe has a major herd mentality issue.
Speaker B:So to answer the question in a short way without going on a long rigmarole, I think it's because of the herd mentality.
Speaker A:I also, I was just, I've written down a few notes.
Speaker A:America is like a, the, is like an ultimate capitalist country.
Speaker A:And the positive side of capitalism is like, from a psychological point of view, capitalism, or at least not necessarily the financial side of capitalism, but the machination and the motivation side of, of capitalism and entrepreneurship is effectively enthusiasm and ideas and the idea of benefit, even, even if it's.
Speaker A:The problem comes is obviously when the benefit becomes too self indulgent and it quite quickly can become too self indulgent.
Speaker A:And then you have to try and balance it with the, the, the idea.
Speaker A:The, the ideal is that the more something benefits the people, the more the person or the people that initiated it benefit themselves.
Speaker A:And obviously that doesn't work because there's so many layers of, well, what does benefit mean and how do you regulate that, et cetera.
Speaker A:But it is the case that when capitalism is sort of functioning well and, and this is sort of, this is not in my zone of knowledge as much, but that is why I think they're so enthusiastic, because that is just the culture they grow up on.
Speaker A:It's like the American, the American dream is Deep within the unconscious of the psyche of the Americans.
Speaker A:And when you bring it back to when you spoke about the UK and how the reason Californians don't speak English is because we were kind to them, the opposite is true with the uk.
Speaker A:I think what's buried into, what's being increasingly buried into our unconscious is the wrongdoings of the past.
Speaker A:Um, I think it's important.
Speaker A:I mean, I don't know how true this is, but I was watching someone talk about how when you compare the.
Speaker A:The colonies like France, Portugal, England, a lot of the countries that were in the English Empire, the British Empire were rich or became rich and flourished, whereas a lot of the countries that were in the other empires were often poor.
Speaker A:And no, I don't know how true that is.
Speaker A:But do you know anything about that?
Speaker A:Is there any truth behind that from what you know?
Speaker B:Well, there's absolutely.
Speaker B:No, it's absolutely not a coincidence that the majority of countries that people want to emigrate to are the majority of times, not all the times.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:A lot of people are now looking to go to Latin America.
Speaker B:But if we think about the big countries that people are moving to, Ireland, uk, Malta, Cyprus, Canada, Australia, United States, New Zealand, Israel, I'll count that too.
Speaker B:They were also in the British Empire before, but Israel, I don't really count, to be honest.
Speaker B:But they're all part of the British Empire.
Speaker B:So evidently the English system works.
Speaker B:Although to counter that, first of all, the British Empire didn't do great things.
Speaker B:No imperial empire is ever good.
Speaker B:It's not a good idea.
Speaker B:Imperialism is a bad idea in general.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:You shouldn't.
Speaker B:I think Yugoslavia proved this perfectly how, how Yugoslavia collapsed, that when you unite a bunch of different people doesn't end well.
Speaker B:Imperialism is, is no ally of mine.
Speaker B:But with the thing of being, being told to feel bad about the past.
Speaker B:Well, first of all, I mean, I didn't do it, right.
Speaker B:I'm an immigrant to the United Kingdom.
Speaker B:I didn't do anything, but even was a natural born citizen.
Speaker B:I wasn't the one on the ships in the Atlantic.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker B:Yeah, but a lot of people don't think that.
Speaker B:I think it's quite interesting though is this weird thing that you are seeing now.
Speaker B:Yeah, but I mean, I, I do understand it in a way, but also this, it's, it's a weird dichotomy because on one hand they are.
Speaker B:Right, right.
Speaker B:They, it is horrific what happened in the past.
Speaker B:And let's put, I mean, let's be honest here.
Speaker B:People say the Europeans are some of the most craziest continent of people out there.
Speaker B:They're always fighting, they're always attacking someone.
Speaker B:Kind of true.
Speaker B:Although the Mongols do sort of disprove that because the Mongol Empire was not European yet.
Speaker B:They were certainly not very pacifist in their nature.
Speaker B:But for me, the issue is, is that you can either feel bad or you can be absolutely patriotic about it.
Speaker B:For me, both are completely ridiculous.
Speaker B:I don't see any reason to be proud of any imperial empire.
Speaker B:It wasn't my achievement.
Speaker B:And even if it was my achievement, I wouldn't be proud of colonizing other other people.
Speaker B:I'm proud of my own girls.
Speaker B:I'm proud of.
Speaker B:I'm proud about learning another language, getting a good physique, something that isn't harming anyone but benefiting myself.
Speaker B:Building an imperial empire is benefiting your nation, but it's also causing harm to a load of other people.
Speaker B:I mean, there's a reason why there's more white people in the United States than there are Native Americans.
Speaker B:So imperialism is never a good, is never a good idea.
Speaker B:The guilt thing, I get it.
Speaker B:If like your family are very pro empire, fine.
Speaker B:I don't really think that's a problem in the UK though, to be fair.
Speaker B:So I think both are equally bad.
Speaker B:Like I think you have to understand that all empires were terrible.
Speaker B:The Mongol Empire is terrible.
Speaker B:The British Empire was terrible.
Speaker B:The Spanish Empire did terrible things.
Speaker B:French Empire probably did the worst things.
Speaker B:Belgium did even worse than the French.
Speaker B:They're all bad.
Speaker B:And I think you just have to be positive.
Speaker B:Times have changed now.
Speaker B:We're now in an ultra connected world where I can send a message to someone in Dagestan, Russia, and they will get it like that.
Speaker B:So I don't think this is the time anymore for people to be divided based upon nationality or hatred of the past.
Speaker B:We need to be united upon all fronts.
Speaker B:Because the brothers and sisters in Dagestan or in China or in Korea are a lot similar to the western white Europeans than people like to think because they like to be divided and they like to be tribal and act like K. Do you think?
Speaker A:To be honest, that's interesting point.
