Many travelers dream of one day living abroad, but a growing number of US citizens are making that fantasy a reality.
Demand for additional citizenship, residency, and investment opportunities overseas has never been higher, “as affluent Americans seek international diversification in unprecedented numbers,” according to a new report by residence and citizenship planning firm Henley & Partners.
Travelers are now building so-called “sovereign portfolios,” or collections of residency rights, citizenships, investments, and business interests across multiple nations, the firm says.
The shift is part of a growing movement among wealthy travelers seeking increased flexibility and global access. “The wealthy individual of 2026 is no longer selecting a single country; they are constructing a portfolio of jurisdictions,” says Dr. Parag Khanna, founder and CEO at AlphaGeo, a data firm that helped Henley & Partners analyze the trend.
In 2025, the number of applications for residency and citizenship by investment programs—also called “golden visas” or “golden passports”—from US nationals doubled, according to Henley & Partners, and it still remains elevated in 2026. “Only 7% of applications by US citizens originate from Americans living outside the country, highlighting that demand is being driven overwhelmingly by US residents rather than expatriates,” says the report.
Most Americans are seeking residency and citizenship investment opportunities in Europe. Almost half of all US nationals’ applications are directed there, and Portugal and Italy are their top two options. Latin America and the Caribbean are also popular choices for Americans, with more than a quarter of applications targeting programs in those regions.
While demand for these programs is high among US citizens, individuals all around the world are also looking to diversify their residency, citizenship, and investment holdings: In the first half of 2026, Henley & Partners received applications from 86 nationalities for 47 investment migration programs, the firm says. “The objective is to ensure that no single government holds the whole of a family’s life and capital,” says Basil Mohr-Elzeki, managing partner and head of private clients Americas at Henley & Partners.
For many travelers, and American citizens in particular, acquiring residence and citizenship abroad offers a sense of stability “in a world that has grown harder to predict,” Mohr-Elzeki says. In other words, the current combination of US political tensions and global conflicts are driving more US nationals to seek new options overseas. “What used to be a simple precaution, a single spare passport set aside for emergencies, has become a deliberate discipline,” adds Mohr-Elzeki.
