Happier Abroad Forum Community

AnonymousAmerican wrote:

Rock wrote:

AnonymousAmerican wrote:If you want a Latin American passport, get either a Mexican one, a Brazilian, or Chilean one. Those are the best passports to have in Latin-America and you get access to a lot of first world countries without a visa.

It's easy to say that. But how do you do it in practice, how much time on the ground do you have to spend, and how long does it take from start to finish? For most, we are talking at least 5 to 10 years. Some people want or need to get a second passport much faster than that without paying for an economic program one. Paraguay may be the fastest available right now.

If your goal is just an insurance policy against your home country in case they decided to force you home by pulling your passport, then about any second passport would do.

quickest way to get one, getting married.

So if I can find a local to marry, where can I get a faster track to non-economic citizenship than Paraguay? How long does the whole process take? And speaking of Paraguay, how much is naturalization process speeded up by getting married to a local?

I've checked out the marriage route in some countries where it seems to make hardly any difference if at all. For example in DR, it really doesn't speed things up. Likewise for Taiwan.

Rock wrote:

AnonymousAmerican wrote:

Rock wrote:

AnonymousAmerican wrote:If you want a Latin American passport, get either a Mexican one, a Brazilian, or Chilean one. Those are the best passports to have in Latin-America and you get access to a lot of first world countries without a visa.

It's easy to say that. But how do you do it in practice, how much time on the ground do you have to spend, and how long does it take from start to finish? For most, we are talking at least 5 to 10 years. Some people want or need to get a second passport much faster than that without paying for an economic program one. Paraguay may be the fastest available right now.

If your goal is just an insurance policy against your home country in case they decided to force you home by pulling your passport, then about any second passport would do.

quickest way to get one, getting married.

So if I can find a local to marry, where can I get a faster track to non-economic citizenship than Paraguay? How long does the whole process take? And speaking of Paraguay, how much is naturalization process speeded up by getting married to a local?

I've checked out the marriage route in some countries where it seems to make hardly any difference if at all. For example in DR, it really doesn't speed things up. Likewise for Taiwan.

In theory, shouldn't it be instant? Or is "residency" what you get instantly upon marriage? I mean you have to be able to live with your wife. I wonder when the global government is going to do away with marriage-based residency and dual-citizenship.

Also, not to sound too spammy, but what if you're a mormon and marry multiple wives in different countries?

But really, Rock, I second all your questions. Mexico is nice, but sometimes I just feel like getting even further away from the US. Isn't there a good website on the net that has all these questions answered in a nice pictorial graph and flowchart? If I marry a Paraguayan tomorrow, how long until I can fly to Peru with a Paraguayan pasaporte? Likewise, if I marry a Mexican tomorrow, how long until I can fly to Peru with a Mexican pasaporte?

rudder wrote:

Rock wrote:

AnonymousAmerican wrote:

Rock wrote:

AnonymousAmerican wrote:If you want a Latin American passport, get either a Mexican one, a Brazilian, or Chilean one. Those are the best passports to have in Latin-America and you get access to a lot of first world countries without a visa.

It's easy to say that. But how do you do it in practice, how much time on the ground do you have to spend, and how long does it take from start to finish? For most, we are talking at least 5 to 10 years. Some people want or need to get a second passport much faster than that without paying for an economic program one. Paraguay may be the fastest available right now.

If your goal is just an insurance policy against your home country in case they decided to force you home by pulling your passport, then about any second passport would do.

quickest way to get one, getting married.

So if I can find a local to marry, where can I get a faster track to non-economic citizenship than Paraguay? How long does the whole process take? And speaking of Paraguay, how much is naturalization process speeded up by getting married to a local?

I've checked out the marriage route in some countries where it seems to make hardly any difference if at all. For example in DR, it really doesn't speed things up. Likewise for Taiwan.

In theory, shouldn't it be instant? Or is "residency" what you get instantly upon marriage? I mean you have to be able to live with your wife. I wonder when the global government is going to do away with marriage-based residency and dual-citizenship.

Also, not to sound too spammy, but what if you're a mormon and marry multiple wives in different countries?

But really, Rock, I second all your questions. Mexico is nice, but sometimes I just feel like getting even further away from the US. Isn't there a good website on the net that has all these questions answered in a nice pictorial graph and flowchart? If I marry a Paraguayan tomorrow, how long until I can fly to Peru with a Paraguayan pasaporte? Likewise, if I marry a Mexican tomorrow, how long until I can fly to Peru with a Mexican pasaporte?

It's only residency. I don't know of any country that grants instant citizenship just for marrying a local and with many, you can never get it. Even for for foreigners marrying USA citizens, it's a several year process to get naturalized. A lot of people seem to confuse residency or permanent residency with naturalization when in reality, they are very different.

Forget about the Internet. There's a lot of scammers out there ready to take your money for a fake or illegal document. There is one person who has done exhaustive research on this like a decade ago when it was much easier in many countries and he still maintains a website. But if you want his info, it's very expensive. But even he will tell you it's become impossible for many of the places where it could once be done and with time, the list of possibilities has become much smaller and the time required and du-dilligence involved has increased tremendously. Legal residency is a piece of cake (fast and easy) in so many countries but naturalizing generally takes 5-10 years at least in most cases (even with marriage) and many of those countries will require you to first renounce your original citizenship.

Anyway, central to getting a passport is being able to live in the target country. So, one of my original concerns was how the culture is in Paraguay?
I mean what's the on-the-ground vibe? Are women very approachable? How do they compare to the women of Peru? Are they as nice and warm towards gringos? Is it an easy place to make friends? Do the people (even in the capital, Asuncion) have a laid back vibe like a lot of the people in Mexico?

I haven't found any good blogs that describe living in Paraguay from a gringo's perspective.