We frequently discuss easy ways to get a second passport. When people hear that I zip through the diplomatic line using a government-issued Global Entry card when entering the Land of the Free, they want to know ways they can have access to diplomat-like perks of their own.
Of course, having a second passport is about something entirely different. It’s about freedom from one’s government.
The internet is littered with scams and bad advice on second passports.
In reality, it’s real, legitimate second citizenship that you want, not just a travel document.
Anyone can go around issuing little books with your picture in them. One woman in Paraguay got busted for doing that in her living room. Not good.
One of the biggest scams online is the “diplomatic passport” some “companies” will promise to issue to you. Just pay them a couple thousand dollars and wait a week or two and the FedEx man will drop off a passport from some country you’d never set foot in.
Of course, it’s not that easy to get a diplomatic passport. If it was, do you think any other government would accept them without great scrutiny? It took me all of five seconds flat to find an outfit claiming their service will keep you immune from any country’s laws because you’ll be a “diplomat” from Scamistan.
Fat chance.
The World Service Authority
One realistic-sounding second passport you may come across is the World Passport, issued by the World Service Authority. The group was started by American expat Garry Davis in 1948 as he was renouncing his US citizenship after a stint as a fighter pilot in World War II.
Citing the UN Declaration of Human Rights, which claims that “Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country”, he began issuing World Passports to stateless individuals and the general public.
It’s not often that I’m in complete agreement with what the ninnies in monkey suits at the UN have to say, but the concept that you should be free to leave your country is absolutely something I’m behind.
Of course, the problem with Big Government is that they’ve found a bunch of ways to force you to stay based on whatever whim they like. In fact, that’s happening in the US right now.
They own your citizenship, not you.
While not a scam, the problem with the World Passport is that it doesn’t really work. At this point, you might even get away with calling it a relic. Governments don’t like competition, and the idea of a competing passport is not something they want to embrace.
After all, if governments didn’t want to brand their citizens like cattle, they wouldn’t have so vigilantly enhanced the passport process decade after decade.
So intense is their hatred of such competition that – surprise! – Garry Davis was actually charged and convicted of fraud for issuing passports so authentic-looking the French thought people would be confused.
Wink wink.
Who accepts the World Passport?
While it’s a shame to see the all-too-expected witch hunt on providers of alternative documents, the problem with the World Passport is that few nations accept it. The group itself says the US, UK, and most of Europe “almost never” do.
Those using the documents at borders have wound up in jail too many times.
Now that a suspected terrorist was found to have used a World Passport for his travels, it’s probably all over. Once government can find a way to link something they don’t like with big, bad “terrorism”, they’ll become meaner than ever.
The group’s World Citizens website has a list of seven countries that have contacted the group indicating their acceptance of the World Passport. Among them, Haute Volta (wanna guess how many people have heard of it?) no longer exists and the Vatican doesn’t really have much in the way of available real estate.
The remaining countries claiming acceptance of the passport are Ecuador, Tanzania, Mauritania, Zambia, Burkina Faso, and Togo. Two of those countries have since changed their mind. Worse, the letters received from these governments range from 1954 to 1995. (Do you think anything’s changed in Ecuador in sixty years?)
The group does claim that, over time, some 180 countries have admitted holders of the World Passport. It even claims a couple dozen such instances in The Land of the Free. But I highly doubt you’ll have the same luck.
Consider the fact that the idea of a world passport is for true “citizens of the world” that have NO citizenship. Refugees and those who are stateless, not by their own choice, are the primary targets for the passport, with fees paid by liberty-minded individuals who want one of their own footing the bill.
I don’t think some guy at a US port of entry would take too kindly to you using any kind of passport viewed as “competitive”, let alone you showing up with a Louis Vuitton bag carrying a passport designed for refugees. This is why freedom isn’t easy.
Getting a World Passport doesn’t cost much; it’s cheaper than the outrageous prices being charged by many nanny-state countries these days. However, it’s rather useless for most travel. Even Garry Davis preferred fifty years ago to use a UN document issued to stateless persons for crossing certain borders, including into the UK.
Those with fewer cajones would be ill-advised, especially in this day and age, to try it.
Especially when there are plenty of second passport options from sovereign countries.
It’s not that I don’t support Garry Davis in his mission to give people options. His idea seems genuine, as opposed to those selling passports mainly as decoys from countries that no longer exist (like British Honduras).
The idea that one government can become tyrannical, even without many people realizing it, and shut down the escape routes is chilling. That’s why I talk about the need for a second passport in the first place.
But a second passport and second citizenship is about more than just a travel document that may or may not fool some border guard into letting you into that country. It’s about a deeper freedom than that.
Whether it’s Garry Davis becoming stateless or someone starting a crypto-currency as a means of barter between people tired of the fiat system, we support those who challenge convention to seek out true liberty. For those looking for an easier and more traditional path, there are options available and steps to follow.
Unfortunately, the World Passport is not good enough to be the only travel document you’ll ever need. There are, quite simply, better options in countries like Paraguay and Panama. It’s worth learning more about a legitimate second passport.
