Among affluent American families and the advisers who work with them, the conversation about residency abroad has changed. It has shifted in a particular way over the past three years. The question is no longer whether to consider it. It is how to structure it.

There is now an industry term for what these families are building: a Plan B passport. It is shorthand for a second residency or citizenship acquired primarily as a hedge, not as a route to immediate relocation. Most Plan B passports, once acquired, are never used as a primary residence. They sit. They preserve options. They wait.

What is actually happening matters more than what the coverage suggests. For families with the capital to act, the structure they choose now will shape the options they have in five and ten years. That is what this article is for.

At a glance

• The Plan B passport has moved from niche to standard among affluent American families. The Greenback Expat Tax Services 2025 survey found 49% of US expats are considering renouncing US citizenship, up from 30% the year before. A Harris poll the same year found roughly half of all Americans expressed interest in dual citizenship. Among Gen Z and Millennial respondents, the share rose to two-thirds.
• Most Plan B passports are not used for relocation. Henley & Partners’ own Managing Director of Private Clients told Newsweek: “We don’t see many clients relocating. Caribbean citizenship is often used as a mobility hedge.”
• The activity is concentrated in specific channels. US nationals now account for over 30% of all investment migration applications processed by Henley. That share is almost double the combined total of the next five investor nationalities.
• Italian Investor Visa applications are accelerating from a small base. Italian authorities recorded 209 applications in 2025 (year-to-date through 1 December), up 63% from 128 in 2024 and from seven applications in 2018. Ariete Capital’s founder has anticipated demand could reach 1,000 applications in 2026.
• Renunciations remain a niche choice. The State Department processes roughly 4,661 Certificate of Loss of Nationality applications per year. The April 2026 fee reduction (from $2,350 to $450) will likely increase this figure. But renunciation remains a small share of the broader Plan B activity.

What “Plan B” has come to mean

For most of the families now building a Plan B, the term is not metaphorical. It is the literal way they describe what they are doing to advisers, to private bankers, to family members.

The structure they have in mind is generally not “leave the United States.” It is something else: hold a second legal foothold somewhere stable. Retain the right to relocate if conditions change. The family is then never in the position of having to make a major decision under pressure.

The industry has noticed. Basil Mohr-Elzeki, managing partner of Henley & Partners North America, has a term for what affluent Americans are doing. He calls it the assembly of “diversified sovereign portfolios”: combinations of residency and citizenship rights chosen for mobility, asset protection, and reach. These portfolios, he notes, are not necessarily tied to relocation. They reflect a desire for contingency planning.

This is a meaningful shift in how affluent families think about citizenship. For most of the twentieth century, citizenship was something one inherited and held in singular form. A serious family might now assemble a portfolio of citizenship and residency rights, the way they might assemble a portfolio of investments. This is new.

The reasons vary family by family. For Americans living abroad, the biggest driver is tax compliance, especially the reporting and banking friction that comes with FATCA. For affluent families still at home, the driver is more often political worry. The sense is that a long-term plan should not depend on a single jurisdiction. Healthcare costs, schools for children, and the practical value of EU mobility account for much of the rest. The mix differs from family to family. The behaviour, acquiring optionality without relocating, is consistent.

What a serious Plan B actually contains

A Plan B is not a single product. It is a structure. A credible Plan B typically contains four elements, each serving a different purpose.

A second residency or citizenship

This is the legal foundation. Caribbean citizenship-by-investment programmes (St. Kitts, Dominica, Antigua) provide a passport in four to six months for $230,000 to $250,000. They serve well as a travel document and backup identity. European residency programmes (Italy, Greece, Portugal where it remains available, Malta) provide something different. They give a legal foothold inside the EU’s mobility framework. The citizenship pathway is slower, but the time horizon is longer.

A tax residence plan

For Americans, the citizenship-based US tax system continues to apply no matter where the family lives, until and unless they renounce. Most Plan B structures are built with this in mind. The Italian flat tax regime sits at €300,000 per year on foreign-source income, raised from €200,000 under the 2026 Budget Law. It is one of several European instruments that can complement a residency move for families who do eventually relocate. Renunciation, while now cheaper after the April 2026 fee cut, remains a niche choice for most.

An asset location strategy

Holding capital in productive companies in another jurisdiction, rather than entirely in US-based accounts, spreads the family’s exposure. This is where structured investment-led residency programmes earn their place. The capital is doing two jobs: providing the legal foundation for residency, and giving the family ownership of assets outside the US.

A clear use case for each element

This is the discipline most Plan B portfolios lack. Acquiring a Caribbean passport, an EU residency, a foreign tax structure, and a portfolio of overseas assets is not automatically coherent. The family should be able to say what each element is for. They should know what scenario it serves. And they should know how it would actually be used if things changed.

Why most Plan B passports are not being used

A Newsweek interview earlier this year captures something the headline coverage has not. John Maniatis is Managing Director of Private Clients at Henley & Partners, the largest investment migration firm in the industry. He said so directly: most of his firm’s clients are not relocating after acquiring their second passport. They are hedging.

This is consistent with what advisers across the space describe. Reaz Jafri of Dasein Advisors has reported more inquiries from high-net-worth Americans in three years than in the prior twenty combined. The same advisers note that the proportion of inquirers who actually move is small.

The behaviour makes sense. For families whose lives, businesses, and social ties are in the United States, the cost of relocation is high. The cost of holding the option to relocate is comparatively low. When the option costs $230,000 (Caribbean), €250,000 (Italian innovative startup route), or €500,000 (Italian established-company route), the price is real but bounded. The alternative is the possibility of having to make a major decision under pressure five years from now. The option-holding behaviour is sensible.

Why programme design matters more than price

It is also why the design of the programme matters more than the headline price. Consider a programme that requires the family to spend most of the year in the country. Or a programme that forces the family to deploy capital into property they can only sell to the next Plan B applicant. Both ask the family to make most of the relocation decision up front. That is not the kind of optionality a Plan B is meant to provide.

This is why the Italian Investor Visa fits the Plan B brief so well. It has no minimum physical presence requirement during the initial permit period. The investment goes into real Italian companies, not into property built for the visa market. And the application is pre-approved before any capital is committed, which removes the risk of paying for a failed application.

What distinguishes a thoughtful Plan B from a panic purchase

Three principles separate the families who build well from the ones who buy a product and hope.

The first is to be precise about what the family is actually buying. A Caribbean CBI passport gives travel rights and a backup identity. It works for someone who wants a passport for visa-free movement and a place to land if conditions at home become difficult. A European residency gives a base inside the EU’s mobility framework, with a longer citizenship pathway and a real economy attached to it. These are different products serving different needs. Treating them as interchangeable, as much of the headline coverage does, leads families to spend real capital on the wrong instrument.

The second is to be precise about the time horizon. Most second passports and residency permits are held for years before they are used, if they are used at all. The right question is whether the structure would still be the one the family wanted if their situation changed in five years. Programmes with low minimum-stay requirements, transparent governance, and credible long-term political stability tend to pass that test more reliably. Programmes built around speed and headline thresholds tend not to.

The third is to keep the investment separate from the residency. If a programme requires the family to deploy capital, the capital should go into something they would be happy to hold. The visa question should not change that. Property speculation tied to a residency programme is the most common version of this trap. Italy’s Investor Visa was deliberately designed without a real estate route, for exactly this reason. Productive equity in real companies passes a different test than a flat in a tourist-zone development built for the visa market.

Where Italy fits

The Investor Visa: how it works

Italy introduced its Investor Visa programme in 2017 under Article 26-bis of the Italian immigration code. It grants an initial two-year residence permit, renewable in three-year increments, to non-EU nationals who make a qualifying investment. The four routes are €500,000 in the equity of an Italian limited company, or €250,000 in an Italian innovative startup. A third route allows €1 million in a philanthropic donation to a project of public interest. A fourth allows €2 million in Italian government bonds. (For a fuller overview of how Ariete works within the programme, see our Italian Golden Visa page.)

Why the structure fits a Plan B

Several features fit a Plan B specifically. There is no real estate route. The application receives pre-approval through a nulla osta (clearance certificate) before any capital changes hands. Family members, including spouse, dependent children, and dependent parents, can join the application. And the visa carries no minimum physical presence requirement during the initial permit period. The family can hold the structure without committing to a fixed relocation date.

Italy’s broader credibility

Italy itself is also more credible to international capital than it was three years ago. The BTP-Bund spread has narrowed to around 60 basis points. Moody’s upgraded the country’s outlook to stable in November 2025. The deficit is on track to fall below 3% in 2026. The Italian flat tax regime, even at its raised €300,000 threshold, remains one of the more predictable instruments in Europe for families with substantial foreign-source income.

At Ariete Capital, we built the firm around a particular view. Italian residency should follow a sound investment in Italy. And the investment should stand on its own merits whether or not the residency is taken up. We allocate international capital into established Italian companies on terms that qualify under the €500,000 Investor Visa route. The €250,000 innovative startup route is available for families with a different allocation preference. For American families who want their Plan B to rest on real assets rather than a transactional passport, the structure does what it should. We are happy to talk it through with families weighing the decision.

The Plan B passport is now part of how affluent American families think about long-term planning. Most of the families building one will hold it without using it as a primary residence. That is what the structure is designed for. The decision worth thinking about is what to build, and whether it fits the life the family expects to live.

Frequently asked questions

What is a Plan B passport?

A Plan B passport is industry shorthand for a second residency or citizenship acquired primarily as a hedge. The hedge is against future political, tax, or geopolitical disruption, rather than for immediate relocation. Most Plan B passports are held for years and never used as a primary residence. They give the family the right to relocate, held against an uncertain future.

How many Americans are acquiring a Plan B passport?

The exact figure is hard to measure because activity is spread across many programmes and many advisers. Henley & Partners reports US nationals now account for over 30% of all investment migration applications it processes. US enquiries to the firm rose 183% between Q1 2024 and Q1 2025. Italian Investor Visa applications reached 209 in 2025 (year-to-date through 1 December). Across all programmes globally, the activity is growing rapidly, though absolute volumes remain modest relative to the size of the affluent American population.

Does acquiring a Plan B mean relocating?

For most families, no. Henley & Partners’ Managing Director of Private Clients has stated this publicly. The firm does not see many clients relocating after acquiring a second passport. Most Plan B passports function as a mobility hedge, with families continuing to live where they live and holding the option to relocate later.

Does a Plan B passport reduce US taxes?

Acquiring a second residency or citizenship does not, by itself, reduce US tax obligations. The United States taxes its citizens on worldwide income no matter where they live. Tax reduction generally requires either (a) relocating to a jurisdiction with a treaty or favourable regime and meeting residence requirements, or (b) formally renouncing US citizenship. The April 2026 fee reduction (from $2,350 to $450) makes renunciation cheaper, but the exit tax and underlying compliance considerations remain.

What makes a Plan B passport different from a panic purchase?

A panic purchase is acquired without a clear use case. It often happens during a news cycle. It often goes into a programme chosen for speed rather than fit. A thoughtful Plan B is structured around a defined scenario the family is hedging against, with a programme whose features match that scenario. The clearest indicator is whether the family can articulate what each element of the structure is for. They should be able to say what scenario each element serves, and how it would actually be used if circumstances changed.

Where does the Italian Investor Visa fit in a Plan B portfolio?

The Italian Investor Visa works well for families who want to build EU optionality on their own timetable. It has no minimum physical presence requirement during the initial permit period. The visa can be obtained without committing to a fixed relocation date. The qualifying investment is deployed into real Italian companies rather than residency-driven property. And the application is pre-approved through a nulla osta certificate before any capital is committed, removing the risk of paying for a failed application.

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This article reflects publicly available information as of May 2026. Figures from third-party sources have been cited where available; readers should treat industry-published migration estimates as directional rather than precise.