How much is US citizenship worth?

November 17, 2006 4:48 AM

What is the cash value of an American passport?

I'm not asking about how much it would cost to buy a passport on the black market or anything along those lines, but rather, what is US citizenship worth approximately, if you were to put a monetary value on it?

posted by xanthippe to work & money (16 comments total)

What do you mean by a monetary value? The amount a citizen is able to make, or the amount someone would be willing to pay to become a citizen?

The two are quite different, as those wanting citizenship most are likely to be those with the least amount of money to spend on such a thing. Those able to pay the most are likely to be those from countries that are already so close to the US economically that a citizenship isn't worth a fat lot to them.
posted by edd at 5:08 AM on November 17, 2006

A few countries offer citizenship for a dollar amount. From memory $50,000 will get you a legit passport from an island in the West Indies somewhere. Many other countries will also offer citizenship to people investing serious dollars in the country. Think $1m. That might give you some parametres to work with.
Of course, on a hijacked plane you might be prepared to pay a hell of a lot to not have a US passport ;-)
Sorry no links, but Google should be helpful.
posted by bystander at 5:13 AM on November 17, 2006

From this page, it looks like a $500,000 investment will get you in with your immediate family (this is permanent residence, citizenship would take longer). Obviously no immigration path is ever 100% guaranteed, but it gives you an idea.
posted by teleskiving at 5:35 AM on November 17, 2006

There are a couple of ways to look at it. One is how much would you pay to keep your citizenship? That's how much it's worth to you. That amount would probably vary based on wealth and what the alternative being offered was--statelessness or another country. Just like on the demand-side.

Another approach would be to look at people indicted and convicted for "selling" citizenship via paid, fraudulent marriages. The price paid by those foreigners is an indication of how they value US citizenship. I'm sure the INS (or whatever they're called these days) would be happy to provide info on that.

That value is for citizenship which is illegal, not guaranteed to work, and runs the risk of jail time. If you're asking what the US government could raise by selling off citizenship, that number would obviously be higher, since it's a sure thing and there's no risk of jail.
posted by limagringo at 5:38 AM on November 17, 2006

Read this story somewhere. If anyone remembers where it is from, please tell!

God was running short of money after some bad investments, so he decided to make some cash by selling birth locations. He picked two babies yet to be born and told them, "One of you will be born in sub-Saharan Africa, and one of you will be born in the USA. Whoever promises me a greater proportion of their life's income will be the one born in America."

It's an interesting alternative way of seeing this question.
posted by jbb7 at 6:04 AM on November 17, 2006

Life? There sure seems to be many people willing to risk their lives to get here. I think it depends on where the person is coming from. Obviously someone with cash in Darfur would give it all to be a citizen here.
posted by JJ86 at 6:05 AM on November 17, 2006

My passport was stolen in a robbery of my home in England. The passport was fenced, and about three months later, the person using it (it had been altered) was arrested trying to board a cruise ship. I got the confession interview from the police, although it did nothing to find the original crook. The man told police he paid a little less than 200 american dollars for my passport.
posted by parmanparman at 6:08 AM on November 17, 2006

At current rates, my fiance's citizenship will cost, in official fees, $170 for visa processing + $320 for the medical exam + $120 for the embassy interview + $325 for adjustment of status form + $70 for biometrics + $205 for removal of conditions form + $330 for naturalization application form and $70 for more biometrics then.

That's $1610. The foreign embassy things are assuming a pound value of around 1.9 dollars. Also I might have forgotten a biometrics. Not sure!

$97 for him to apply for a US passport, after all that.
posted by thirteenkiller at 6:17 AM on November 17, 2006

When I was in Nicaragua, I was offered about 16,000 Cordoba for my passport, which works out to being around $860 USD. I was in a sketchy bar, pretty drunk and a shady fellow approached me and asked if he could purchase my passport from me. Of course he quickly said that it would be so easy for me to replace my passport and that he would be giving my old passport to someone who needed to go to America for an operation. I freaked out and ran out of the bar and never heard hide or hair about it after that point.
posted by banannafish at 6:35 AM on November 17, 2006

I'm with Antifuse. Not narrowly enough defined.

Another unmetnioned factor is that it depends on what citizenship you have and what, if anything, would be gained by giving it up for American. (You can get dual citizenship, but it can bring trouble.) If I have, for example, Canadian citizenship, I would be giving up my health care by going American. Therefore using this single metric would be worth -1 life's worth of public health care.
posted by Ookseer at 6:38 AM on November 17, 2006

This question is better left to the person's own discretion. It's not something you can quantify.
As for me, I'd need to be paid a lot to live in the USA.
posted by PowerCat at 6:39 AM on November 17, 2006

I think an interesting way to look at this question would be to rephrase it: "how much would you pay to have a legal passport from a country other than your home country?"

...for example, I'd pay several thousand dollars to have a passport from a harmless country like Haiti, but I'd probably only pay a few hundred for a US passport.

The US passport would just save me time (border procedures, visas, etc.), while the Haitian passport could potentially save my life. I'd like both, but their values differ.

If you're referring to citizenship (rather than passports, per se), then it becomes a lot more complicated -- there's taxation to think about, innumerable legal aspects (who extradites to whom, etc.) and so on. It would probably be difficult to assign a monetary value except on a purely individual basis (who you are, what money you have, what legal risks you have or expect, etc. etc. etc.)
posted by aramaic at 7:10 AM on November 17, 2006

what is US citizenship worth approximately

But exactly what kind of answer are you after? If you mean "what are the financial benefits of being an American," a lot of it depends on who you are: sex, color, age, education, etc.

An American man makes about $40,000 a year. An American woman makes about $30,000 a year for comparable work. Blacks earn less than whites. Etc.

Some of that goes to taxes, but then a lot of that taxed money then comes back to you in the things taxes pay for: an educated populace to run the country for you, a military to keep other countries from killing you and taking your stuff, etc. Many such benefits come to you whether you pay for them through taxes or not.

So for just being an average American, you can get 30 or 40 thousand dollars a year, but you'll have to spend 8+ hours a day at some place of employment doing an average job and you'll have to allow the government to decide how a chunk of that money will be spent.
posted by pracowity at 7:21 AM on November 17, 2006

This article talks about teleskiving's answer. A $500,000 - $1,000,000 investment will get a foreign investor a permanent resident visa.

But this money isn't a loss, it's an investment in a business enterprise (which must create at least 10 new jobs). Unless the venture is a complete failure, the net cost is likely to be much less (or even negative).
posted by justkevin at 7:49 AM on November 17, 2006

In Shantaram, an Australian national living in India describes the secondary market there for American passports -- I think it was about $1000 for a "clean" passport, and most were sold by their (junkie) holders.

On the other hand, some undocumented immigrants I know tell me that you can get a fake work permit here in Los Angeles for about $100, though it is not something that would fly in a real background check. They tell me that, now, it is damn near impossible to get watertight fake documentation, and amnesty doesn't solve the problem either. To get amnesty, you have to have been in the United States for some years, and if they find out you have ever worked under fake documents they won't give it to you. However, one of my friends is getting legal status because she fled her (permanent resident) abusive husband; I think she would say that citizenship has cost her more than she would have been willing to pay, had she known.
posted by Methylviolet at 8:13 AM on November 17, 2006

If I have, for example, Canadian citizenship, I would be giving up my health care by going American.

No, you wouldn't. Both the U.S. and Canada allow dual citizenship.
posted by oaf at 6:30 PM on November 17, 2006