The Ultimate Insurance Policy That Everyone Needs

I’m thinking about becoming a maid. 

I mean, I wouldn’t work as a maid—probably—but I figure it might be my way to get into Scotland on a work visa. 

To some degree, this is a joke. On some level, not so much. 

See, my landlord Peter here in Prague is looking to pursue British citizenship so that he can live in Scotland, where he went to university and where he has worked in offshore oilfields. He loves the country. Loves the scenery. Loves the Scottish people, who are some of the genuinely nicest people on the planet. Everyone you meet is your best friend instantly, “not grumpy and cold, like in Czechia,” Peter says. 

I love Scotland too, as I noted in a recent dispatch after I spent the better part of a week there driving around the Speyside region touring whisky distilleries. The country is ethereally beautiful in a way that’s hard to capture in words. You just have to experience it to really grasp that last sentence. 

Living in Scotland, for me, would be a dream. It is exactly the kind of place I have always wanted to call home. I imagine living in a small cottage by a lake, set amid a dramatic landscape, braving the sometimes-angry weather. I even like haggis—the national dish I won’t even try to describe—after tasting it for the first time on my trip. 

The problem is, landing a visa as a freelancer/digital nomad is an impossibility. I’d have to find a job with a Scottish company…which is where Peter comes in. 

Peter already has the right to live and work in the U.K. as a permanent resident. But he wants to take that to the next level—the ultimate level. He will soon begin the naturalization process to become a British citizen, which gives him the right to obtain a U.K. passport, one of the top six passports in the world. 

A big part of his rationale is concerns about what’s happening in our neck of the woods. 

The impacts of the Russian invasion of Ukraine are front and center here in Prague. The city is filled with Ukrainians fleeing the war. Energy prices have soared to insane levels, as Russia and Europe trade tit-for-tat economic sanctions.  

Meanwhile, ultra-nationalist parties are causing challenges in places across Europe from Hungary to Poland to Sweden. 

There is a sense that we’re entering a more dangerous, more uncertain age. 

In this environment, Peter wants a Plan B…a way to move to a safe, welcoming country far from the turmoil engulfing the world right now. Somewhere like Scotland.  

Which is exactly the same reason Americans should consider a second passport.  

Betting your financial future that the U.S. will forever remain a unified nation of 50 states is, I would argue, a risky gamble at this point. The anger, animosity, division, and disrespect between right and left has created a chasm not likely to be bridged.  

Talk of secession, of civil war, is commonplace in America today. It has become normalized. Statistics bear out the comment…47% of West Coast Democrats and 66% of Southern Republicans want to secede from the union. Love of football and turkey in November is simply no longer a strong-enough glue to hold the country together. 

My concern is that at some point this decade, we see a serious political or constitutional crisis in the U.S. that will change the fabric of America.  

Peter has it right in pursuing a second passport now, before the global situation gets worse. At that point, the processes of obtaining a second passport will be more complicated and time-consuming as more and more people apply.  

Maybe countries simply shut down the process entirely.  

Better to be early to this party than risk being so late you can’t get in. 

And here’s the thing…Peter has had to work in the U.K. for years to earn his permanent residency, which he can now turn into a second citizenship and second passport. But many people are simply entitled to a U.K. second passport through ancestry.  

It’s the same in other safe, wealthy, welcoming countries like Ireland, France, Italy… As many as 40% of Americans could be eligible to claim a second citizenship and second passport in the EU due to their family ancestry or other factors. A passport like this could be an essential lifeline in the years to come.  

As Peter puts it, “A U.K. passport may be in the near future the new gold.” His plan is to start a little business in Scotland, “and I could hire you…maybe help you get a visa.”  

Yes!  

I could be his office maid (or more likely his communications expert). I’d work for free, since I already earn enough in my other jobs. But signing on as a maid or whatever…that would be worth it just to get a Scottish work visa so that I can live and work in what, to me, is the prettiest place on the planet I’ve seen so far.  

And then after a while, I could get my own second passport in the U.K. too.