How fast can I actually get a second passport?
If speed is all you care about, the answer is short:
Go buy one.
The five fastest passports in the world are all for sale.
But what if you don’t have $100,000+ to spend?
In that case, there are other options.
For example claiming a passport through your ancestors for a few hundred euros. Or actually earning one by living in the right country for a few years.
This list ranks the fastest passport on each route.
Buy, claim, or earn.
Here’s what you’ll find for each:
Timeline, cost, and requirements in 2026
What the passport gets you (and what it doesn’t)
One thing to know before you commit to any of them
First, the fastest passport money can buy.
#1 Vanuatu (donation)
Vanuatu’s Development Support Program launched in 2017.
A Pacific nation of 330,000 people runs the fastest legal route to a second passport anywhere.
A Digital Citizen guest author bought this exact passport and wrote about the whole process.
Timeline:
30 to 60 days from application to passport
Biometrics can be given in Vanuatu or at approved locations abroad. No residency, no visit beyond that.
Requirements:
$130,000 donation for a single applicant, $180,000 for a family of four
Proof of at least $250,000 in bank assets
Clean criminal record
Benefits:
Citizenship for life, passed on to your children. Dual citizenship allowed.
No income tax, capital gains tax, or inheritance tax in Vanuatu
Visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to 91 destinations on the Henley Passport Index, including Singapore and Hong Kong
How to apply:
Through a licensed agent only, as the government accepts no direct applications.
One thing to know:
This passport is weaker than what buyers got three years ago.
The EU suspended Vanuatu’s Schengen access in 2022 and removed it permanently in December 2024.
The UK now requires a visa too. The price, however, stayed the same.
Takeaway: $130,000 and 60 days buys real citizenship, but the list of places it gets you keeps getting shorter.
#2 Turkey (real estate)
Turkey grants citizenship for a $400,000 property purchase. Among the fast passports, Turkey is the only one where you get your money back.
You buy property, hold it three years, sell it after (or keep it). The passport stays either way.
Timeline:
3 to 6 months from investment to passport
It used to take 8 to 12. Since February 2026, biometrics, residence permit, and citizenship application happen in a single visit to Turkey.
Requirements:
Real estate worth at least $400,000, with a three-year resale restriction on the title deed
Alternative routes at $500,000: government bonds, a bank deposit, a business, or fund shares, each locked for three years
Certified criminal records for main applicant and spouse
In-person biometrics for both
Benefits:
Visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to 113 destinations, including Japan, South Korea, and most of Latin America
The investment comes back: rent the property during the hold, sell after three years
No residency requirement, no language test, dual citizenship allowed
Since June 2026, Turkey also has a 20-year tax exemption on foreign income for new residents. Mostly irrelevant for Americans, who stay taxed by the US wherever they live.
How to apply:
Buy through a government-approved valuation process, then apply via the Presidency of Migration Management.
One thing to know:
Citizenship-targeted properties are routinely overpriced.
Developers know why you’re buying, and some price the passport into the apartment. Get an independent valuation before you sign anything.
Takeaway: Three to six months, and the only fast passport that gives your money back at the end.
#3 St. Kitts & Nevis (donation)
St. Kitts & Nevis has sold citizenship since 1984.
I covered St. Kitts in 4 Passports for Sale in August 2025.
The program is the oldest of its kind in the world, and still the fastest route to a passport that gets you into Europe (but maybe not forever, and this is mentioned below).
Timeline:
4 to 6 months from application to passport
Requirements:
$250,000 donation under the Sustainable Island State Contribution, covering a family of up to four
Around $286,000 all-in for a family of four once due diligence and processing fees are added
Real estate alternative: $325,000 in approved property, held for seven years
Interview for every applicant 16 and older, in person or via video
Biometrics enrollment in person
Benefits:
Visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to 157 destinations, including the Schengen area, the UK, Singapore, and Hong Kong
No tax on foreign income or wealth
Spouse, children under 25, and parents over 55 can be included
How to apply:
Through an authorized agent; the government’s Citizenship by Investment Unit processes the file
Important to know:
The EU wants this program gone.
On June 25, 2026, the European Commission sent letters demanding that St. Kitts and the four other Caribbean CBI states phase out their citizenship programs by June 1, 2028, or risk losing visa-free Schengen access.
The five prime ministers met on July 10 and responded without accepting or rejecting the deadline.
If Schengen access falls, the main reason to buy this passport falls with it.
Takeaway: $250,000 buys the strongest passport money can get in under six months, but the perks of the passport might disappear before the next decade starts.
#4 Ireland (descent)
One Irish-born grandparent gets you the strongest passport on this list.
More than 30 million Americans claim Irish ancestry.
The route for those with the right paperwork is called “Foreign Birth Registration”.
If you can prove the chain from your Irish-born grandparent to your parent to you, Ireland adds you to its register of citizens.
I walked through the full process, and every other way into Ireland last year.
Timeline:
Add a few months up front for hunting down long-form certificates, and a few weeks at the end for the passport itself
Requirements:
A grandparent born on the island of Ireland (Northern Ireland counts), or a parent who was already an Irish citizen when you were born
Long-form birth, marriage, and death certificates for every person in the chain
€278 application fee for adults, plus around €75 for the passport at the end.
Benefits:
Visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to 185 destinations, 4th strongest passport in the world
Full EU citizenship: the right to live, work, or retire in all 27 EU countries
The right to live in the UK too, through the “Common Travel Area”. No other passport on this list opens both.
Ireland doesn’t care that you keep your US citizenship
How to apply:
Start online at the Department of Foreign Affairs, then mail a certified document pack
One thing to know:
Getting the documents together usually takes longer than the application itself. You need long-form certificates for three generations, and one name mismatch between records sends you back for more paperwork. Start collecting before you apply.
Also worth knowing: your citizenship starts on the day you’re registered, not at birth. Children you already have can’t claim Irish citizenship through you. Only children born after your registration can.
Takeaway: The strongest passport on this list is also the cheapest, if you have the grandparent.
#5 Argentina (naturalization)
Argentina naturalizes foreigners faster than almost any country on earth.
Two years of residence, set in a law from 1869.
This is the one you earn.
You have to move to Argentina, live there, and petition a federal judge.
Timeline:
Two years of continuous legal residence
Then a judicial naturalization case, typically several months to a year depending on the court
Realistic total: about three years from arrival to passport
Requirements:
A residency visa first. The Rentista pegs its income requirement at five times Argentina’s minimum wage (plan on roughly $2,000 a month to be safe); retirees use the Pensionado.
Two years of actually living in Argentina
Clean criminal record and proof you support yourself
Benefits:
Visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to 168 destinations, including the Schengen area, the UK, and Japan.
Argentina taxes residents, not citizens. If you leave after a few years and get residency elsewhere, the passport creates no Argentine tax bill.
Nobody asks you to give up your US citizenship.
How to apply:
Residency through the Dirección Nacional de Migraciones, then the citizenship petition through the federal courts.
One thing to know:
This route only works if you actually move.
The judge looks at whether Argentina is really your home: your address, your time in the country, where your life happens. A few weeks a year in Buenos Aires doesn’t count as residence.
Takeaway: Two years of living in Buenos Aires gets you a stronger passport than $250,000 buys in the Caribbean.
Two that almost made the list
Both are donation passports, both cheap and fast, and both too new to rank.
Nauru (donation)
Nauru launched its citizenship program in 2025 and cut the price to $90,000 in February, down from $115,000. Processing takes 3 to 5 months, fully remote.
What you get is a passport from an 8-square-mile Pacific island that opens far fewer options than the Caribbean ones, issued by a program that has existed for barely a year.
São Tomé and Príncipe (donation)
São Tomé and Príncipe started selling citizenship in August 2025: $90,000 plus fees, passport in 6 to 8 weeks.
That would make it the second-fastest on earth, behind Vanuatu.
It gets you into 61 destinations.
My view: nobody knows how border agents and banks will treat these two passports in five years, and 61 destinations is not much to show for $95,000.
I will go deeper into those options once they have a bit more of a track record.
Conclusion
That’s it.
Five passports, five price tags:
Vanuatu is the fastest there is: 30 to 60 days and $130,000, for a passport that keeps losing destinations.
Turkey takes 3 to 6 months and $400,000, and it’s the only one that hands the money back.
St. Kitts & Nevis is the strongest passport you can buy, in 4 to 6 months, with a 2028 question mark hanging over its Schengen access.
Ireland costs €278 and a year of patience, if you have an Irish grandparent in your family tree.
Argentina is the one you earn: two years of living there (realistically three, start to finish) for a top-15 passport.
Notice the pattern:
Almost every option on this list got pricier or more restricted in the last three years.
Get your Plan B in order, before you need it.
And it doesn’t have to be a passport right away. There are great residency options that you can get fast and cheap.
If you have questions, ask me in the comments.
I read and answer every single one.
Appreciate you being here,
— Ben
I wish I was eligible for Irish citizenship by descent. I have Irish ancestry but it's way farther back than 3 generations sadly. Five generations back per my dad.
Love this mate!