Is it Possible to be Stateless?

What if you renounced your citizenship, but didn't have a second citizenship? Is it legally even possible?

The process of renouncing your only citizenship would render you stateless. It's possible, but highly inadvisable for most people as many parts of everyday life will be difficult.

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ABOUT NOMAD CAPITALIST

Andrew Henderson and the Nomad Capitalist team are the world's most sought-after experts on legal offshore tax strategies, investment immigration, and global citizenship. We work exclusively with seven- and eight-figure entrepreneurs and investors who want to "go where they're treated best".

Andrew has started offshore companies, opened dozens of offshore bank accounts, obtained multiple second passports, and purchased real estate on four continents. He has spent the last 12 years studying and personally implementing the Nomad Capitalist lifestyle.

Our growing team of researchers, strategies, and implementers add to our ever-growing knowledge base of the best options available. In addition, we've spent years studying the behavior of hundreds of clients in order to help people get the results they want faster and with less effort.

DISCLAIMER: The information in this video should not be considered tax, financial, investment, or any kind of professional advice. Only a professional diagnosis of your specific situation can determine which strategies are appropriate for your needs. Nomad Capitalist can and does not provide advice unless/until engaged by you.

[COtrucker]

Former US citizen Mike Jude Gogulski renounced his US citizenship while in Slavic Europe effectively rendering himself stateless. His reason to voluntarily go stateless was to protest US policy. While a legal resident of Slovakia (and the EU), he is eligible for Slovak citizenship though he prefers to remain stateless.

[klwtherd]

This was a great question and i understand why these people asked this question. A lot of people are financial strapped where they don't have the option of just paying $100, 000 to get another passport. Some too have criminal records whether it's through drug possession or other offenses that makes it even harder to free yourself from the tyranny of the United States. People get desperate and when they do they want to know if they can renounce even if they can't get another passport. Andrew did a great job diving into the question and giving very specific answers. Awesome video.

[husseinselit]

I think there is a passport for stateless people provided by the UN yet it's not recognised by all countries only few. I always wanted to have this one.

On the other hand, if you think about having a portfolio of many passports you're making yourself stateless theoretically because you will no longer be a "state-person" rather a global citizen. So, in my definition Andrew is a stateless.

[Warrior_Resisting_Colonialism]

It's most oppressive here in the USA as an American Indian citizen. We can't relinquish our forced colonial US citizenship and retain our Indian Nation citizenship. The colonial US "government" holds us as their hostages of genocide to this day. It's disgusting.

[HunkyMan]

New Zealand requires evidence of another citizenship before they allow you renounce. I have an issue with that - for privacy I would not want them to know where any new citizenship is

[Boristien]

If you're stateless does that mean zero taxes? Sounds based to me.

[EmperorDionx]

>becomes stateless
>gets pushed into the sea

[taxslave]

I want to be a sovereign individual. Not a citizen.

[VeganFootsoldier]

I think you might have missed the fact that if you are stateless, it is almost impossible to fly anywhere. You will just be refused entry at passport control. This means you can either only travel illegally by land border crossing or if you obtain a travel permit from a government.

[dr.winstonsmith]

There was an American guy who renounced US citizenship in 1991 to protest the first Gulf War. Eventually the Aussie authorities caught up with him. He asked the stay, but the Aussies sent him back to the US. He was then stuck in the US because he couldn’t get a new US passport. He had to reapply for US citizenship to get a passport to leave. Don’t be this guy. Get a second passport before renouncing.

[Xergecuz]

There are a lot of people that don't have citizenship in any state, the classic case are palestinians, in the middle east citizen is inherited from the father, so if your father is lebanese and you are born in Syria, you're still lebanese and Syria won't provide you with citizenship, this is known as Ius Sanguini while birth rights like the ones we have in the west where if you are born in France or Argentina or the US you get instant citizenship, this is known as Ius Soli.

Some countries like Mexico even if your citizenship is removed or renounced you still have the nationality, meaning you can still live and travel thru Mexico, but you no longer have your rights as a citizen, meaning voting, running for office and others. The US has a similar thing with people from Guam and American Samoa, where they get a passport but not citizenship, because they are non citizen american nationals, this is why I once asked you if you got this passport after you renounced citizenship in the US.

[dagmastr]

I was going to Uzbekistan and saw a whole category for Stateless people... I'm thinking like Edward Snowden. My wife was born in the Soviet Union in Tajikistan in 1990 and is Stateless. She has Uzbek I.D. only.

[Jacksmith-dyin]

Great work again,

Could you do a video on getting a good manager for your business? You mentioned that you picked numerous managers for your businesses and you were the strategy/wallstreet guy. What would you do over again? What did you do that worked? What makes this type of relationship work?

I think this would lead to alot of future prospects for your business, for the obvious reason.

[ballballsoo]

Very few countries will allow you to enter if not holding a passport, and try checking into a flight without one, again you may be refused boarding

[alicehirwa]

I've been a refugee for over 2 decades and hence currently am stateless in a way. It is not something anyone should even consider really if you have a choice. Rather get a 2nd passport and renounce the one you don't want. But each to their own.

[yanafridabinaev]

This is such a unique channel. So happy I found it. Tailored to my life story. Thank you for creating this!

[ahmedabdallah]

Greetings from the Sahara desert Northern Mali, I'm totally stateless, I don't even have a birth certificate let alone passport and other stuff

[MyLatinLife]

Paraguay has a history of supporting stateless individuals

[hemantparakh]

A Stateless person is eligible for two free Citizenships

[sepher]

I am with Apatride Network, a coalition of stateless people, communities and stateless-led organizations in the EU. Being stateless means a lack of access to basic human rights. There are actually millions of stateless people in the world. Most become stateless because they were members of minorities that were vulnerable to having their rights stripped. Denationalization and manufacture of statelessness is still as easy for state-actors to do as it was in the 1930s... just in the last decade, we have new cases of mass statelessness in India, Dominican Republic, and Bahrain.