获取第二本护照 不应买卖"国籍"

I should be sympathetic to people’s need for golden visas, and even more so for second passports. Before I became a British citizen (because I live and work in London), I spent a good part of my life travelling on a Lebanese passport – which was a nightmare when it came to obtaining visas, and even raised red flags at airports. My most chilling moment was in Rome, where I was once accompanied by a security guard from check-in to boarding and made to feel I was a menace to other passengers.

对人们获取“黄金居留许可”(golden visa)的需求，我本应很有共鸣，至于获取第二本护照，我就更应心有戚戚。在成为英国公民（因为我生活和工作的地方在伦敦）之前，我人生中一段不短的时间里，一直用一本黎巴嫩护照旅行，用黎巴嫩护照申请签证的过程简直像是噩梦一场，甚至曾导致机场的安保人员如临大敌。最可怕的一次是在罗马，一名安保人员在我从办理登机手续到登上飞机的过程中全程陪同，让我觉得自己好像对其他乘客的安全是个威胁。

I doubt my parents would have invested in a residency permit or a second nationality even if they’d been able to afford it. It wasn’t an easy option, in any case. These days it is much more common to shop for golden visas, permanent residency and even citizenship. The critical ingredient is cash. As financially strained governments have discovered a quick way to boost investment, demand for immigration options has skyrocketed, especially from wealthy Chinese and Russians.

我怀疑就算我的父母有足够的钱，他们也不会花在用投资换取居留许可或第二国籍上。无论如何，这都不是一个能轻易做出的选择。近来，“购买”黄金居留许可、永久居留权，乃至国籍的行为变得普遍多了。其中的关键因素是钱。财政紧张的政府找到了一条促进投资的捷径，人们对移民方案的需求不断高涨，其中富有的中国人和俄罗斯人对这类项目的需求最为强劲。

Websites help you pick the best golden visas, quite a few of them European. A growing number of banks, law firms and consultancies are dedicating staff to advising on the most efficient programmes for temporary or permanent residency and a new nationality. Some countries, meanwhile, are openly advertising citizenship.

一些网站会帮助你挑选最好的黄金居留许可，其中不少是欧洲国家签发的。越来越多的银行、律师事务所和咨询公司指派专员，就获取暂时或永久居留权以及国籍的最高效项目提供建议。同时，一些国家则公开打出出售国籍的广告。

In the past two years Portugal’s golden visa has been among the most successful. A minimum property investment of 500,000 allows you to live in the country for five years, travel to 25 others in Europe and apply for permanent residency.

过去两年中，葡萄牙的黄金居留许可项目是此类项目中最成功的之一。最低只需投资50万欧元购置该国房产，就能获得该国5年的居留权，在此期间还可自由出入欧洲其他25个国家、并申请永久居留权。

This week the glitter came off the Portuguese scheme when a police investigation led to a string of detentions, including the head of the border agency and a senior justice ministry official. Part of the investment, the police suspect, might have been lining officials’ pockets.

最近，这一项目光鲜不再，在警方进行调查后，包括移民局局长和登记与公证处主席在内的多人遭逮捕。警方怀疑，部分投资款项可能流入了这些官员自己的腰包。

Sometimes scandals are useful, if only to remind us of the side effects of a rapidly expanding financial arrangement. Portugal’s investigation will increase scrutiny of these programmes, though it probably won’t stop abuses. There are plenty of reputable business people who need flexibility of travel and an insurance policy for the future. But dodgy clients, too, are attracted to the schemes.

有时候，丑闻是有用的，即便这用处只是提醒我们注意一个快速发展的财务安排存在的负面效应。葡萄牙警方的调查会促使此类项目受到更严格的审查，尽管很可能还是无法消灭滥用职权现象。有许多有身份的商界人士，需要能够灵活地旅行、并对未来投保。但这些项目同样也引来了一些劣质的客户。

Still, the Portuguese debacle could put a damper on a fast-growing industry. According to Christian Kalin of Henley & Partners, Switzerland, residence-by-investment programmes attract about $5bn a year in foreign direct investment; and citizenship by investment another $2bn. Both figures are increasing at 20 per cent a year.

不过，葡萄牙的投资换居留项目丑闻，可能还是会给这个正在快速发展的产业浇一盆冷水。从事投资换居留权和国籍相关咨询业务的咨询公司Henley & Partners瑞士分部的克里斯蒂安•卡林(Christian Kalin)表示，投资换居留权项目每年吸引50亿美元的外国直接投资(FDI)，投资换国籍项目每年另外吸引20亿美元的投资。这两项数据均每年增长20%。

There’s been so much interest in immigration alternatives that experts have established the Investment Migration Council, whose mandate is to promote the industry and set standards of transparency.

人们对移民方案的兴趣如此浓厚，以至于业内专家们已经建立了投资移民理事会(Investment Migration Council)，旨在推动行业发展，设立透明度标准。

Dimitry Kochenov, who runs the IMC, was an adviser on the Malta citizenship programme, which I’m told is the one most favoured by industry specialists. Malta’s residency requirement is only one year, and the total price is less than 1.2m, part of it in an non-refundable contribution to the National Development and Social Fund. There are quicker options: a passport from the tiny Caribbean islands of St Kitts and Nevis, for example, can be acquired for a $400,000 property investment or just $250,000 in contribution to the sugar industry fund – and it doesn’t require recipients to spend any time in the country. Indeed, in May a US Treasury department alert warned financial institutions that some Iranians had been using St Kitts citizenship to circumvent sanctions.

投资移民理事会主席季米特里•科切诺夫(Dimitry Kochenov)是一名马耳他国籍项目顾问。据我所知，马耳他的国籍项目是最受业内专家们推崇的项目。马耳他只要求申请入籍者至少在该国住满1年，办理过程总花费不到120万欧元，其中包括给马耳他国家发展及社会基金(National Development and Social Fund)的捐款，部分捐款过后不可退还。还有更快的方案：比如，要想获得加勒比海岛国圣基茨和尼维斯(St Kitts and Nevis)的护照，你只需花40万美元投资该国房产，或者向糖业基金捐赠25万美元，并且完全无需在该国居住。事实上，5月份美国财政部的一个部门曾向金融机构发出警报，称有一些伊朗人在利用圣基茨的公民身份规避制裁。

Professor Kochenov says he is promoting a concept, not the sale of citizenship. His argument is that there is no straightforward connection between citizenship and feelings towards a country. “There are of plenty of sceptics around the world . . . People say you can’t sell citizenship,” he says. “But there is a misunderstanding about citizenship. People think of it as a sentiment, not as a legal status.”

科切诺夫教授表示，他推销的是理念，而不是国籍本身。他的观点是，国籍和对一个国家的情感没有直接联系。“世界各地有很多持怀疑态度的人……他们说你不能出售国籍，”他说，“但是对于国籍，人们存在误解。人们认为国籍代表一种情感，而不是一种法律地位。”

Having spoken to the professor, I am still sceptical. Maybe I’m sentimental. A golden visa I might just about understand. But trading cash for citizenship in a country where you don’t intend to live, or even visit, is a step too far.

在与这位教授谈话之后，我还是持怀疑态度。或许我太感性了。黄金居留许可我或许还差不多能理解。但用金钱换取一个你不打算去居住、甚至压根儿就不打算踏足的国家的国籍，在我看来就有点儿过头了。