New Delhi: Living abroad and having multiple citizenships used to be aspirational, but it has increasingly become a necessary reality for many Americans. A new report by residence and citizenship planning firm Henley & Partners found that a growing number of US citizens are collecting multiple citizenships and residency permits.
Limited to the wealthy, these individuals are expanding out of the US in an effort to diversify their investment opportunities overseas.
These “sovereign portfolios” are a collection of residency rights, citizenships, and business interests across the world.
Henley & Partners found that the number of applications for the so-called “golden visas or passports” by Americans doubled since 2024. The report found that most of these applications targeted European nations with Latin America coming in a close second. However, the number one destination was Singapore, with a wealth mobility score of 79.5 out of 100.
The report found that apart from being a financial and business hub, unlike Dubai, the country is politically stable with sustained demand from “internationally mobile wealth across Asia.” Additionally, the island nation also has a “sophisticated wealth management system,” which continues to attract global investment.
Following Singapore, New Zealand emerged as the second most favourable with a wealth mobility score of 75.8. The report added that the nation has seen a significant increase in mobile wealth after introducing its residency-by-investment program in 2025.
The report found that the Pacific Nation’s presence as an emerging financial hub may be attributed to its “strong rule of law, geopolitical stability, and its appeal as a destination for long-term family planning.”
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But why is wealth moving?
In an essay titled “Safe Havens and the Future of Wealth Migration,” Parag Khanna, founder and CEO at AlphaGeo, said that in the post-US-Iran war era, the motivation for wealth migration has changed from taxation and lifestyle to “the search for resilience.”
“The high-net-worth individuals of 2026 are not selecting a country. They are constructing portfolios of jurisdictions,” Khanna said.
Henley & Partners CEO Juerg Steffen explained that the uptick in cross-border wealth has made it easier for individuals to choose where to live and work, adding that governments are no longer just competing for market demand but also for individual interest and investment in “economic growth, innovation, employment, and prosperity.”
“Understanding the factors that shape these decisions is therefore becoming more important. Wealth mobility is no longer a niche issue affecting a small number of affluent families. It is now a significant feature of the global economy and an increasingly strategic consideration for countries seeking to strengthen their competitiveness in a more interconnected world,” Steffen said.
He went on to cite the recent geopolitical tensions in the Gulf as an example of the rise of “sovereign portfolios.” The United Arab Emirates, he said, had primed itself as an international hub for finance and commerce, but the recent war was a wake-up call for many wealthy individuals. Rather than relying exclusively on any one place, individuals are combining bases to mitigate emerging risks and create new opportunities.
“This is the sovereign portfolio in practice: not a replacement for one jurisdiction, but a deliberate diversification of access, opportunity, and security across several,” Steffen added.
And so what used to be a precaution has now evolved into a necessary back-up plan.