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How 2 Passports Unlock 39 Countries (Guide to Blocs) · IMI Podcasts

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: With just two passports, you'll get the right to settle permanently in 39 countries across two whole continents, thanks to something we at IMI call supranational settlement blocks.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: You probably already know that citizens of one European Union or European Economic Area country are free to live in any of the 30 countries that make up that block.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: But what you probably didn't know is that around the world there are 13 more SSBs where citizenship in one member country lets you settle in all the others.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: And by getting citizenship in one of these countries, you can unlock entire continents for yourself.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: In this video, we'll explore where the 13 blocks operate and how you can use them to your advantage.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: So, what exactly is a supranational settlement block?
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: Simply put, an SSB is a club of countries that have agreed to let each other's citizens live wherever they want within the club.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: When you become a citizen of one member country, you automatically get the right to live, work, and settle permanently in all the other member countries.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: No visas or permits needed.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's different from just being able to visit a country visa-free for a few weeks.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: We're talking about the full right to move your life there.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: You can stay forever if you want.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: We'll explore all 13 blocks, starting with the ones you probably know and moving to the hidden gems most people overlook.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: First up, the best known, the European Union and European Economic Area Settlement Block.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: This is the world's biggest SSB by number of member states.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: 30 countries across Europe let their citizens settle freely anywhere in the block.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: Get citizenship in Poland or Italy, for example, and you can immediately move to France, Norway, Greece, Croatia, or any of the 30 countries in the group.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: No questions asked.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: This block covers 463 million people and represents 17% of the global economy.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: Second, the Mercosur Residence Agreement in South America.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: This is the world's largest settlement block by land area.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: Over 16 million square kilometers.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: Nine countries participate.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Bolivia.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: Venezuela, for the moment, is suspended.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: Here's how it works.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: Citizens of any member country can obtain a two-year residence permit in any of the others just by showing a clean criminal record.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: After two years, you can convert that to permanent residency and eventually citizenship.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: This block is home to 404 million people.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: Third, the CARICOM single market and economy in the Caribbean.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: Twelve Caribbean countries make up this block, including the five countries that offer direct citizenship by investment programs.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: The one crucial limitation of this SSB is that you'll need a so-called skill certificate to enjoy this freedom of settlement.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's available to anyone with some rudimentary professional experience or a university degree.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: And once you have your certificate, you can settle freely across all 12 countries.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: But note that the skill certificate is only available to people who became citizens by birth, descent, or naturalization, not those who bought citizenship through investment.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: Just in October 2025, four of these countries, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, and St.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: Vincent and the Grenadines, went even further and created a full freedom of movement and settlement block between each other with no skill certificate requirement.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: This is the smallest population block on our list with just 7 million people.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: Fourth, the Gulf Cooperation Council.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: Six wealthy Gulf nations, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, allow their citizens to live and work freely across the entire bloc.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: This bloc is home to 58 million people and represents about 2% of global GDP.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: Several of these countries now offer golden visa programs for investors, though these residency permits rarely lead to citizenship or give access to the broader GCC settlement rights.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: Fifth, the Nordic Passport Union.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden formed this block back in the 1950s, making it the oldest on our list.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: But since all of these countries are part of the European Economic Area anyway, this block mostly matters for two reasons.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: One, it gives you settlement rights in Greenland and the Faroe Islands, which are not part of the EU or the EEA themselves.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: More importantly though, it represents a fallback option in case, as many have predicted, the EU breaks up or the particular EU country you're a citizen of leaves the EU.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: So imagine you got, for example, Portuguese citizenship, but then Portugal votes to leave the EU, taking your EU settlement rights with it.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: If you hold the Nordic Passport Union passport, on the other hand, even if your country leaves the EU, or if the EU itself breaks apart, you'll still have the right to live in five of the richest and most developed countries in the world.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: Sixth, the common travel area in the British Isles.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: The Common Travel Area, the CTA, consists of the UK, Ireland, and the Crown dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey, and the Isle of Man.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's gained renewed importance after Brexit, when British citizens lost their settlement rights in the EU countries.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: The CTA, however, allows citizens from throughout the British Isles to move freely and settle in each other's territories with all the associated rights to work, study, and access public services.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: One reason we've often argued that Irish citizenship is the world's single most valuable is that it offers settlement rights in more countries than any other citizenship.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: And this is thanks to Ireland's membership in both the EU slash EEA settlement block and the common travel area, giving its citizens the automatic right to live in 34 countries.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: This is significant because if you get Irish citizenship by descent, which is theoretically available to more than 20 million people worldwide, you maintain access to both the EU's 30 countries and the CTA's 73 million people market.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: Seventh, the Trans Tasman Travel Arrangement.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: Australia and New Zealand allow their citizens to settle freely in each other's countries.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: New Zealand even extends this privilege to Australian permanent residents who aren't even citizens.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: This two-country block covers 33 million people and 8 million square kilometers.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: As we've covered in our video about safe havens in the event of global conflict, this could be a great destination.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: Eighth, the Compact of Free Association.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: This unique block connects the United States with three Pacific Island nations, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, and Palau.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: Citizens can settle freely across all four countries.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: But there is a big catch.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: Only natural-born citizens or those who obtained citizenship back in 1986 from the Pacific countries can use this privilege to move to the United States.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: Ninth, the Eurasian Economic Union in the former Soviet Union.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: Five countries, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Russia, allow their citizens to move and reside freely across the block using just national ID cards.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: This massive block covers 20 million square kilometers and 183 million people.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: However, some report that in practice this SSB doesn't always work as advertised.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: 10th, the Andean community in South America.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru let their citizens enter each other's countries with just a national ID.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: Show a police certificate, and you can get a two-year residence permit.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: Prove you have a legal way to support yourself, and you can skip straight to permanent residency.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: Like the Nordic Passport Union, the Andean community is another SSB within an SSB.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: All four of these countries are also part of the Mercosur Residency Agreement, giving citizens a backup route if the Andee ever fragments.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: The next three blocks are what we call partial settlement blocks.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: They offer significant benefits, but with some limitations.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: 11th, ECOWAS in West Africa.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: Twelve West African countries, including big ones like Nigeria, Senegal, and Ghana, have established visa-free travel and, in principle, the right to work across member states.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: The challenge is that implementation varies widely by country.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: Citizens still need to apply for formal residence permits for stays over 90 days, and enforcement isn't consistent across the block.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: But the end goal for ECOWAS is complete EU-style freedom of movement and settlement.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: So getting citizenship in one member country today, for example, by buying it for 140,000 in Sierra Leone, could turn out to be a smart investment.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: 12.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: The Central American Four, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua have created a Schengen-like zone where citizens can cross borders using just national ID cards.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: While there's no explicit legal right to permanent settlement, in practice, citizens can live, work, and study in any CA4 country with minimal restrictions.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: Governments rarely regulate CA4 nationals as foreigners.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: And finally, the Pacific Alliance.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru offer their citizens visa-free travel and simplified residence and work permits within the block.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: Settlement rights are still evolving here and are less robust than in places like the EU.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: But the framework is advancing toward deeper integration.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: Beyond these 13 that we've talked about, there are four proto-blocs.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: Groups of countries working toward full settlement rights, but not there yet.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: For example, the community of Portuguese language countries signed a mobility pact in 2021 to create a special CPLP visa category.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: This includes Portugal, Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, Cabo Verde, Guinea-Bissau, and Sao Tumean Príncipe.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: ASEAN in Southeast Asia offers some limited mobility for skilled workers, but no automatic settlement rights.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: These countries are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: AIPEC, a collection of 21 member economies in the Americas, East Asia and Oceania, created the Business Travel Card for qualifying business travelers, which opens up complete visa-free travel throughout the block from China to Chile.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: Finally, the African Union is working on an ambitious African passport initiative to allow free movement across all 55 member states, but it's still in the very early stages.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: So that's your global map of settlement blocks.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: Now let's talk about how you can actually use this information to maximize your global access.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: You don't need to get citizenship in every block to maximize your global access.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: Instead, you want to think strategically about gateway countries, nations that offer both accessible immigration programs and membership in valuable settlement blocks.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: Think about which regions of the world you most want access to, then figure out the best path to citizenship in a country in that block.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: Ask yourself what you want to maximize for.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: Do you want access to the greatest number of countries, or the largest populations, or the greatest landmass?
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: For example, let's say you want the freedom to settle throughout Europe.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: The shortest path to EU citizenship is currently in Cyprus, where you can naturalize in as little as three and a half years under the right circumstances.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: Once you're a citizen of Cyprus, you're a citizen of the EU.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: Congratulations, you've now unlocked 30 countries.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: Now you're free to settle permanently in Rome, Paris, Madrid, or wherever else you want inside the EU EEA block.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: Next up, consider getting citizenship in a country that's part of the Mercosur Residency Agreement.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: The quickest path for now is Argentina, where you can naturalize after living in the country for just two years.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: There's a three-year path to naturalization in Bolivia and Paraguay as well.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: Keep in mind though that the application for that citizenship could take some time to process, depending on demand and the political appetite at the moment.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: So make sure you do your research first.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: Argentina is also talking about opening a citizenship by investment program, which would give you citizenship in the country right away.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: Once you have citizenship in a Mercosur country, you'll have unlocked another nine countries and practically the entire continent of South America.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_00: For most people, getting one citizenship in the EU and one in Mercosur will make a lot of sense.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: You'll have access to 39 countries and two continents with 870 million people.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: You'll then have a huge range of countries to pick from.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: It'll include warm countries, cold countries, capitalist countries, socialist countries, religious countries, secular countries, cheap countries, high-end countries, urban countries, rural countries, safe countries, adventurous countries, countries that speak Spanish, English, German, French, and hundreds of other languages.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_00: In short, whatever kind of country you like, chances are good you'll find it among your menu of 39 countries in Europe and South America.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: Some things to keep in mind.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever countries you pick for your next citizenships, make sure you check.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: 1.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: Naturalization timelines, including if application processing takes place in a reasonable period.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: For more details on the time to citizenship in any country on earth, check IMI's citizenship catalog.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: 2.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: Tax implications.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: Don't fall prey to unnecessary tax obligations.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: 3.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: Physical presence requirements.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: Many countries want you to spend a certain amount of time each year in the country, while others are more relaxed.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: 4.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: Dual citizenship laws.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: Don't get citizenship in a country that makes you give up your other citizenships.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: Now the bottom line here is that supranational settlement blocks represent one of the most undervalued aspects of strategic citizenship planning.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: While most citizenship investors focus exclusively on visa-free travel counts, the more sophisticated approach is to identify gateway citizenships that multiply your settlement rights across entire regions.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: A single well-chosen citizenship can open permanent residence, education, labor, banking, investment, and healthcare rights in 10, 20, or even 30 plus countries.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: Key is to think beyond the passport itself and understand the supranational framework that the passport unlocks.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: For more information on specific programs, requirements, and how to structure your investment migration strategy around settlement blocks, check IMI's supranational settlement blocks page.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: If you found this video valuable, subscribe to our channel and visit imidail.com for daily news and analysis from the investment migration market.
• 15:34
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