Is there a country you love so much that you’d move to it? If you have deep pockets, it might not be that difficult or even take that long to buy residency or citizenship there, according to this Quartz article. The story follows the April release of Henley & Partners’s annual Quality of Nationality Index (QNI), which attempts to rank the quality of the world’s nationalities (the U.S. came in at #27). The ranking is interesting in itself, but of note today is the apparent availability of certain nationalities to non-citizens. From the Quartz story:

“Thailand is the cheapest place to buy residency. For just $15,902, customers can secure residency that gives them visa-free travel to 75 destinations. The UK is the most expensive residency option; people interested in getting a residency in the UK and access to visa-free travel to 177 destinations need to spend over $2.7 million. These so-called ‘golden visas’ are particularly popular among wealthy Chinese citizens, who were the dominant recipients of the visa last year. The golden visas give recipients the right to work in the UK for three years, and if they invest even more money, they can settle permanently.”

The story also runs through some of the roads to citizenship in a few countries:

“Buying citizenship isn’t necessarily more expensive than buying residency. In the Caribbean islands Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, and St. Lucia, citizenship can be bought from between $100,000 to $150,000. Once paid for, citizenship is issued within three to four months. Citizenship in these islands offers visa-free travel to more than 130 destinations.

Those interested in getting citizenship from a European Union member state—and thus having the right to live and work across the bloc—will pay a lot more money. Malta offers citizenship to those who invest $1.2 million, usually after 12 months. For double that amount, Cyprus issues citizenship within three to six months.”

Check out the full story for more, including the specific requirements for citizenship in many more countries.

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