Why Your U.S. Passport is Harder to Renew Now
The State Department’s current estimated processing time is 10 to 13 weeks (about 3 months). Two factors led to this bureaucratic mess.
Ted Baumann is International Living’s Chief Global Diversification Expert. He's traveled to nearly 90 countries and is a dual citizen of the United States and South Africa. Born in Washington DC, he grew up on Maryland's Eastern Shore.
As a young man he moved to Cape Town, where he attended university, earning postgraduate degrees in economics and history. For the next 20 years he worked in the global non-profit sector, specializing in urban development. From 2008 to 2013, he served as Director of International Programs for Habitat for Humanity International. After that he switched gears, writing financial and wealth protection newsletters for affiliates of Agora Publishing.
Ted has been published in international research journals, as well as media outlets such as Barrons, Forbes and Cheddar. He co-authored Where to Stash Your Cash (Legally) with his father and former U.S. Congressman, Robert Bauman.
The State Department’s current estimated processing time is 10 to 13 weeks (about 3 months). Two factors led to this bureaucratic mess.
If citizenship by descent or investment is the best route for someone, I'll always tell them so and point them to the resources they need to do that. But in many cases, the best way to get a second passport is to find a place that you love, settle there, and do your time.
If you love what the world offers… and have found a place that you call home… protect that by getting yourself a second passport—before history turns you into a sad statistic, too.
Big news on the second passport front this month: it seems likely that the countries offering citizenship by investment (CBI) in the Caribbean region are about to lose visa-free access to much of Europe. Since the early 1980s, various Caribbean island nations have offered citizenship and a second passport in exchange for an approved investment.
The bottom line is that as tempting as it is to use a digital mailbox if you're going to be living permanently abroad, I don't recommend it. Of course, your personal affairs may make it possible for you to do so, but eventually, I predict you're going to have problems.
Most Americans thinking about moving abroad know they will be liable for U.S. income taxes on U.S. source income like pensions, rental income, and interest. But many states will also expect you to pay taxes to them unless you do what I did.
I'm sharing my physical travails to illustrate a brute fact: The U.S. has by far the highest per capita medical cost of any country in the world. In 2019, the U.S. spent 165% more per capita on health care than OECD average. Americans do not get better health outcomes from this extra expense.
The most likely scenario for the dollar’s demise as the global currency involves a gradual decline in U.S. political and economic power, accompanied by increasing instability in U.S. governance and monetary management.
If the dollar were knocked off its perch, every American would face economic hardship. The cost of imports would rise, spurring rapid inflation. The purchasing power of any financial investment denominated in dollars would collapse.
For anyone considering applying for a long-term residency permit in a foreign country, however, all is not lost. In fact, the environment is arguably more suitable now for people of independent means than it ever has been.