US nationals currently constitute the single largest cohort of applicants for alternative residence and citizenship, accounting for a staggering 21 per cent of all investment migration program applications received by Henley & Partners in 2024.
This information was contained in a report by the Henley Passport Index, the original ranking of the world’s passports according to the number of destinations their holders can access without a prior visa.
CEO Juerg Steffen says the firm has more American clients than the next four biggest nationalities — Turkish, Filipino, Indian, and British — combined.
“Faced with unprecedented volatility, investors and wealthy families are adopting a strategy of geopolitical arbitrage to acquire additional residence and/or citizenship options to hedge against jurisdictional risk and leverage the differences in legal, economic, political, and social conditions across countries to optimize their personal, financial, and lifestyle outcomes.”
Looking ahead to 2025, projections by Henley & Partners and New World Wealth indicate an even greater surge in millionaire migration worldwide, with 142,000 high-net-worth individuals with liquid investable wealth of USD 1 million or more expected to relocate and seek new horizons.
Steffen says, “this represents the most significant wealth migration wave ever documented and reflects fundamental changes in how affluent individuals are mitigating risks and creating opportunities in an increasingly unstable and polarized world”.
Commenting in the Henley Global Mobility Report 2025 Q1, Peter Spiro of Temple University Law School in Philadelphia and a leading expert on dual citizenship says the Trump reprise magnifies another element of value for alternative residence or citizenship rights: political risk insurance.
“This time around, the stakes are higher. During the first Trump administration, legacy political guardrails were still in place. Now, many are gone. There is a sense that what Trump wants, Trump will be able to get. His political agenda is mercurial, to say the least, and political uncertainty is the result. Americans can no longer take stability for granted. Trump can be fickle with outsiders, too. It is almost certain that he will resurrect the infamous “travel ban”, which he put in place a week after he first took office, early in the new administration.
“The ban precluded targeted nationals from securing permanent residence in the USA as well as a range of temporary-stay visas. However the bans did not apply to citizens of targeted states if they
held an additional citizenship of a non-targeted state. The carve-out for dual citizens made sense.”
Join BusinessDay whatsapp Channel, to stay up to date
Open In Whatsapp
