Why: his freedom needed a legal foundation
He had left Germany and deregistered properly.
He believed that this had settled his tax and administrative position well enough.
But his banks wanted to know more.
Where do you live?
Where are you tax resident?
Which country can confirm what you tell us?
He had no proof to show them.
His problem, at first, was that nothing documented his international life.
Not the size of his tax bill.
He needed a structure that would let him present his circumstances clearly to banks and authorities.
And he wanted to keep the freedom to carry on travelling the world.
Who: a man who did not want a fixed home
German citizen.
Mid-thirties.
Works independently of location.
Single.
No property.
No fixed place of residence.
His work travelled the world with him.
What others think of as a holiday had long been his everyday life.
He had no wish to give up this lifestyle or to swap it for a permanent move.
When: eight months to put things back in order
In all, the work took about eight months.
Part of the delay came from the fact that he had left Germany before preparing his new international structure.
The order of the steps proved decisive.
If you deregister first and only then deal with proof of your new situation, you can lose valuable months.
That is exactly what had happened here.
Where: three countries, without giving up his lifestyle
On paper, he gained a permanent right to live in Paraguay.
Dubai was added for situations that call for specific proof.
He acquired his additional citizenship through São Tomé and Príncipe.
His actual lifestyle stayed exactly the same.
He kept travelling the world with his suitcase.
He gained additional legal ties without binding himself to a single permanent place to live.
What was built: a permanent traveller became an internationally secured citizen
- Permanent residence in Paraguay. The residence permit was obtained and maintained without Paraguay becoming his actual permanent home.
- A residence certificate from Dubai. It served as proof in situations where simply declaring that he lived nowhere permanently was not enough.
- A second citizenship from São Tomé and Príncipe. The passport gave him another nationality with very little upkeep.
- Advice on the German tax consequences. This covered deregistration, exit tax and extended limited tax liability.
His actual tax residence still had to be assessed under the legal requirements that applied in each case.
But the additional citizenship and the residence rights gave his international life a clearer structure for the first time.
How much: what does this extra freedom cost?
The investments and fees required differ by citizenship programme and personal situation.
You will find the current terms for the second passport on the São Tomé and Príncipe programme page.
The costs of the residence solutions in Paraguay and Dubai are worked out individually in a consultation.
Why this exact combination: three countries solved three different problems
- Paraguay created a permanent right of residence. It could be maintained without him actually having to live in the country. For his lifestyle, that was especially attractive.
- Dubai added formal proof. Where banks or authorities needed a certificate, a mere declaration could not replace the documentation required.
- São Tomé and Príncipe brought the second citizenship. What counted were the low ongoing requirements. A document that creates a lot of paperwork every year would have been a poor fit for his lifestyle.
An international lifestyle needs solutions that fit the everyday life of the person living it.
That is exactly what the combination was built for.
What was ruled out: three routes that would have limited his freedom
Simply carrying on travelling without any clear residence structure
That was where he started.
Two banks had called his accounts into question.
For neither of them was the answer that he lived nowhere good enough.
He needed better proof.
A property as a permanent anchor
Buying property could have created new legal and possibly tax ties.
Those were exactly the kind of extra ties he wanted to avoid in the way he lived.
A full move to Dubai
He did not want to make Dubai his permanent main home.
The certificate did the job of proof it was meant for, and he spent the days of residence it required in Dubai anyway.
A full move would not have matched how he wanted to live.
What the plan was made of: international freedom with a clear structure
Paraguay
Permanent residence without constant presence
A legal residence anchor that left his life on the road unchanged.
Dubai
The certificate for banks and authorities
Additional formal proof for situations in which such documentation is required.
São Tomé and Príncipe
A second citizenship with little ongoing upkeep
Another passport that suits his mobile lifestyle.
You have given yourself the freedom to live and work from anywhere in the world. Now that freedom deserves a second citizenship that stays with you for the long term. Let's find out which second passport suits your international life and which additional residence rights make sense.
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