Here’s something most people don’t know. Your government can easily prevent you from getting a passport, revoke your existing passport, or prevent you from getting one, even if you haven’t broken any laws.
If you don’t have a passport, you can’t legally leave your own country. This means that your government can effectively remove your right to travel outside of its borders. It can literally trap you inside your own country, and again, even if you haven’t been found guilty of any crimes whatsoever.
I’ll give you one example that really freaked me out when I first learned about it many years ago. In the USA, when you go to renew your passport, if you have even one dollar in past due child support or alimony, regardless of the amount, and regardless of the reasons why, they can and often will not allow you to renew it (or get a new one).
That’s right. If you’re late on child support or alimony for any reason, you may actually be imprisoned within your on country if those dates coincided with you getting a new passport or renewing an existing one. This never happened to me personally, but I know of many other men who had this happen.
As of January 1st of this year, if you owe more than $50,000 to the IRS (or in many cases, if the IRS thinks you owe this, even if you don’t), the government now has the right to “turn off” your passport (if you have one) or deny you a passport (if you don’t have one). The IRS will literally call up the State Department and make sure you can’t leave the country.
Stuff like this used to be a conspiracy theory; now it’s law.
The USA isn’t the only country who does this. Many others in the Collapsing West world do. In Australia, amazingly, if you nothing but voluntarily file bankruptcy, the government can and will prevent you from getting a passport or revoke yours if you have one.
Insane.
One of the “guaranteed rights” in the United Nations charter is the freedom to travel. I hate the UN and think it’s a huge cluster fuck and a waste of money, but UN member countries such as the USA, Australia, those in Europe, etc, ostensibly uphold these rights… even though they clearly don’t.
You need to understand that your passport is not your property. Your country owns your passport. You do not.
This is why it’s probably a good idea, at least in the long-term, to have at least two passports. (My plan is to eventually have three.)
I’m not saying you should get a second passport so you can break the law. As I’ve said many times, including in my book, the Alpha Male 2.0 always follows the law. This is because failure to do so could result in you being thrown in prison where you have no freedom, and freedom is the most important aspect to the Alpha 2.0.
I’m saying that in these darkening times, having just one passport long-term, and relying on that one passport long-term to serve all of your international travel needs and personal security isn’t the best idea. Just like you should have multiple incomes, multiple businesses, multiple women, etc, you should also have multiple passports. The days of relying on just one of those things for the long haul is long past.
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Typo?
Fixed! Thanks!
Another consideration: in many countries it is common for places like hotels to demand to have your passport handed over to them. This is standard in India, for example.
BTW, no hotel in India, or anywhere else, ever gets to hold my passport, I have had my in-country host raise hell at the desk for me, I will contact people and get access to a guest house rather than leave my passport with some hotel staff, especially when they just expect to be able to walk off into the back office with it. Do not ever let any other private enterprise have your passport eitther, they basically have you by the balls if you let them do this. OTOH, hotel staff are told it’s hotel policy, and unless you have someone with more authority than their boss, or you can find alternatives, this may not be an option for you.
A second passport does solve this problem, though. just be careful that hotel staff only hear consistent stories about where you are from and what you do, ie. consistent with the nationality of the lower-grade passport you leave with them.
Also, I know some guys who have gotten out of some very dicey situations in places where they cops snatch a person’s passport automatically, sometimes to extort a bribe.
Get a 2nd passport, ladies & gents. Just do it!
Otherwise, you might end up doing this
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/dubai/6074279/With-scuba-gear-under-a-burka-French-spy-Herve-Jaubert-made-his-escape-from-Dubai.html
Caleb, can you give us the process of getting two, possibly three passports? Thanks.
“Get a 2nd passport”
Easier said than done, unless you’ve got six figures waiting to drop on a St. Kitts/Nevis or Dominica P4P citizenship. Otherwise, you’re going to have to find ways to naturalize.
I technically have a 2nd citizenship, but not the documents to prove it. Even though it should be a simple slam-dunk to get my documents and 2nd passport (my mother is a foreign national), the bureaucracy of the other country justifies labels such as “Banana Republic.” I’ve been working for nearly 4 years on getting the guberment there to recognize my citizenship and get my 2nd passport. And, that’s with the help of legal counsel inside the country.
Of course, I’m planning on my biz budgeting the six-figure contribution/investment necessary to obtain that 2nd passport (hopefully 3rd if I get the 2nd I’ve been working on). While I agree with the sentiment, getting your 2nd passport is a lot of work, and possibly a lot of money. It’s a bit more involved than saying “get a 2nd passport.”
Way too general a question. Every country is different.
Incorrect. You can get a 2nd passport for $40K from Comoros, as just one example.
I know. I’ve already discussed that in great detail in past posts. Check the archive of this blog for more detail.
Worrying about having your passport revoked violates the 2% rule. Unless you are ripping off the IRS or drug smuggling this happens about zero percent of the time.
If you have enough money you can always go where you want without needing to follow the official channels. So indeed this makes the case for multiple income and multi digit incomes stronger. There are also other things you can do if you dont have that amount of money but those are high risk / high effort (or both), but there is always a way if you are clever/motivated/creative enough.
In fact, if you do ever get to the point where you do have quite a lot of money/influence I would strongly suggest to try to use it to get an official dimplomatic passport (there are some small random countries that will give it to you if you are able to pull the right strings AND right amount of cash). I would do that even if that cost me a significant amount of my total assets and a lot of time and energy, but if you do get to that point with your portfolio you can decide for yourself if the effort is worth it.
About the passport taking while travelling. Like mentioned in the article passport is a property of your country, and it is in fact illegal for authorities in foreign countries (never mind hotel staff) to take your passport. What you can do is bring some photocopies with you and give them those. If they insisit to make their own photocopies then you say you will go with them.
Of course thats not always possible so if you dont have a second passport always carry at least some other kind of government ID (I have two extra with me usually). If something happens whilst I cant leave a country with that I can still go with it to embassy/consulate and easily prove my identity to get a new passport.
1. Not if you owe any back child support, alimony, or federal taxes.
2. I’m not just talking about it actually getting revoked. I’m also talking about not being able to get one if you apply for one, not being able to renew an existing one you already have that’s expired, and so on.
As I stated in the article, I do not break the law, and I do not recommend others do so. The damage to your long-term happiness is rarely worth it.
I agree, but that option won’t ever be available to 99% of men reading these words, myself included.
Of course having photocopies is a must, but no-one has mentioned yet that most countries issue a second copy of the passport upon request. Useful to be able to travel while the other passport is at some other embassy getting a visa into it, or to travel to two countries that are at odds with each other, or just as an anti-theft measure as discussed above.
I was talking about if you need to emergency escape the country. Not about normal foreign travel.
While its definitely possible in most places, Its not a standard process so expect it will take a lot of effort and time in many cases. Usually it requires special justifications or pulling the right strings. You can always lie and say you lost the other passport but then the previous ones number might get revoked in some online database, which could make it difficult to use the original passport in some countries. I never tried getting a second passport but I know for some people who travel extensively around the world its a norm if they for example often visit countries that really don’t like each other.
Just want to share a travel tip. Theres a cool pickpocket proof wallet. It attaches to your belt and goes inside your pants. I bought one for all my buddies. Keep one form of id, cash, and a credit card, hidden or locked at your hotel. Keep the other in this wallet in your pants. Copies of ids help to like soomeone said.
Question: do all countries recognize eachothers marriage laws? Can i get married in some other country for the citizenship, but not be legally bound to anything when i come back to live in the US? The us government/irs would still recognize me as a single man even though i could have wives and citizenship in multiple countries? I wonder which marriage laws are the weakest around the world with least liabilities. Ill go pay a an overweight 18 year old in new zealand or singapore $10k to marry me and then im set.
@Investor,
Your idea about a photocopy of your passport is useful for certain situations, and sometimes photocopies can be useful for visa applications or getting permits. But that’s not what’s going on in Indian hotels (or at least, Indian hotels in the non-tourist parts of India.)
You have to realize that in the India where locals and businesses work the majority of hotel bills are paid in cash (still, in spite of Modi’s weird effort to try and turn India into a cashless society.)
They don’t want a photocopy of your passport, they want your actual, physical passport, or in the case of locals, some important ID like their driver license. This is so they have you by the balls if you try to skip out on paying, or dispute some extra charge they tack on to your bill.