[deciplex]

>"U.S. citizenship is the most coveted citizenship in the world. To give it up, it has to be pretty serious,"

It's pretty serious to give up your birth citizenship no matter where you're from. But, as someone with American citizenship, this doesn't ring particularly true for me. There are a number of passports I would trade, today, right now, for the one I currently hold. Anyone claiming American citizenship is the most coveted in the world is saying a lot more about themselves than they are the US.

[jessriedel]

What countries's citizenships would you suppose is coveted by more people worldwide than the US?

[WildUtah]

Any EU citizenship is more useful and less dangerous and more lucrative and more flexible and subjects you to less world-wide paperwork, tax, and business restrictions.

So Estonia, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia (or is it Slovakia?), Lithuania, Latvia, Slovakia (or Slovenia?), and Greece have more valuable passports for their citizens.

If you travel a lot in East Asia, Japan's passport is awfully useful and has much nicer perks than US citizenship.

Obviously, France, Britain, Canada, Germany, Italy, Sweden, and other core wealthy nations have much, much better deals for citizens, too.

The US passport and citizenship is more and more like a third world quality passport every year, with one major exception. That exception, of course, is the right to live in the USA, which is a dang nice country with excellent open country, parks, forests, space to breathe free, big highways, fishing, hunting, the right to keep and bear arms, and fine honest people.

But if you don't love this land, you're better off with Latverian or Hungarian or Freedonian citizenship, because our politicians have done squat to keep our citizenship valuable around the world.

[deciplex]

This. Also Iceland and NZ. Pretty much any developed country, really, because among those the US stands alone in subjecting its citizens to this onerous tax filing BS.

Obviously, if you want to live in the US, that doesn't apply. Just plan on staying there, or only living abroad for a year or two.

[jessriedel]

It sounds like you're talking about the usefulness of citizenship for traveling. But the quotation discussed by deciplex, and his statements, are not qualified in this way.

Extensive nation-hopping is not something most folks in the world can do. (The "onerous tax filing" being even more of a rich-person's problem.) I'd guess that the US citizenship is in fact the most coveted worldwide, all things considered.

[deciplex]

Well, at least you admit you're just guessing...

And, did you bother to read the article? I'm surprised you write off these regulations for expats as 'rich-people problems'.

[jessriedel]

The typical American moving abroad is richer than the median American, and the median American is much, much richer than the vast majority of humans on Earth. The middle-class person being discussed in the article had $100k in the bank, which is more than most humans earn in a lifetime.

So yes, rich-people's problems.

[deciplex]

Yes, I suppose we should all learn to deal with oppressively stupid regulation until world peace is achieved and no one goes hungry.

I really don't get your point. So, if you are 'rich enough' (note: the people in this article are solidly middle-class) to actually maybe be affected by and give a shit which passport you've got, your opinions are immediately written off as 'rich people problems'. On the other hand if you're among the poor in the developing world and your passport is perhaps not something you'll ever think about or care about, then because maybe according to jessriedel you might prefer a US passport to e.g. a French one or a Swedish one or whatever, the US passport is 'the most coveted in the world'. Despite (apparently too rich to count) people giving them up in record numbers.

I'm fascinated to hear other opinions you hold on random shit, if this is any indication of how you arrive at your conclusions. Do tell.

[maaku]

> I'd guess that the US citizenship is in fact the most coveted worldwide, all things considered.

You're assuming people want to live in the US.

[patmcguire]

The first world ones are all pretty much equivalent in terms of getting you around, one or two countries difference with no Visa among the top, not sure where the discrepancies are...

http://www.ibtimes.com/best-passports-have-unrestricted-trav...

US citizenship means you have tax liability on income overseas and dealing with a few weird things like the Cuba embargo, but you're also a citizen of the most powerful nation on earth, which does matter if you get stuck in a revolution or something.

[adamnemecek]

switzerland?

[LammyL]

canada?

[magamiako]

Quite a few people I know would prefer to travel on an American passport because it offers less hassle than most other passports. We have fewer VISA requirements, etc.

We have somewhat shot ourselves in the foot here or there since we tightened travel restrictions on some countries. But it's still an incredibly good passport to have for traveling.

[DenisM]

magamiako, your account is hell-banned.

[maaku]

How do you see hell-banned posts?

[georgemcbay]

Go to your 'profile' (click your username in the upper right corner when logged in) and set 'showdead' to 'yes'.

[judk]

It's just WSJ rah rah blind patriotism and running interference for moneyed interests.

Obviously USA has a lot more to offer a plantation worker in Honduras than a wealthy retiree who might need some medical care.