By Parviz Malakouti-Fitzgerald, Esq.
Is the Top G also a top passport collector?
This article is part of our Celebrity Citizenship Breakdown series.
There's only one Andrew “Cobra” Tate.
In 2022 alone, the former kickboxer and “Boo-gah-ee” connoisseur has been possibly the top searched man on google, banned from facebook, instagram, youtube and tiktok, and seemingly covered by nearly every major news outlet at some point. Now, Andrew Tate is teasing a fight with YouTube star and boxer, Jake Paul.
Tate may be the most controversial man of 2022 (Alex Jones would like a word). Whether you believe Tate’s an odious misogynist or a misunderstood free speech martyr, Tate’s been all over the world radar.
All this heat appears to not have hindered Andrew Tate’s global mobility. Since skyrocketing to fame this year, Tate’s been interviewed in England, Croatia, the U.S., Dubai and, of course, his adopted home country of Romania.
Related: The 6 Ways to Get Second Citizenship
How has Tate been able to travel so freely internationally, even at the height of attempts to cancel him?
I believe it’s because he has a portfolio of at least three citizenships, and possibly more.
What color is YOUR passport?
As we’ve written before, citizenship gives one the strongest right of entry to a given country.
This means it’s hardest to deny someone the right to get into a country of his citizenship. On the other hand, tourist visas can be and are often denied. Even temporary and permanent residents (“green card holders” in the U.S.) can be denied or even stripped of residency rights. A polarizing figure like Andrew Tate would want to rely on a citizenship’s legal right of entry to stay insulated from “cancel culture” forces.
As an immigration and mobility lawyer, here are the citizenships I think Andrew Tate has and how they’ve protected his freedom of movement as the world’s most controversial man.
Citizenships Tate Likely Has
First off, Andrew Tate was probably born a dual national.
The “Top G” was born in Washington DC on December 14th, 1986 so according to the United States’ birthright citizenship laws, Andrew Tate was born a U.S. citizen. Fun fact: even if Tate had been born outside of the United States, according to U.S. citizenship law, he still would have been born a U.S. citizen given that his parents were married and his father, chess master Emory Tate, had lived at least five years in the United States before the younger Tate's birth.
Also, Andrew has stated in interviews that his mother is a British citizen. Being born outside of England to a British citizen mother would have also made Tate a British citizen by descent (“jus sanguinis”) according to British law, if Tate's mother herself was a British other than by descent. So by the time he was born, Andrew Tate was likely already born a dual American-British citizen.
On the other hand, it's also possible that Tate was not a British citizen when he moved to Luton, England at the age of 11 but naturalized later after a period of at least five years residency in England. Either way, Tate probably was a British citizen at the age of 19 at the latest.
That’s not the end of the story…
Downtown Luton, Berdfordshire England where Tate grew up
In addition to the citizenship a person is born with, an adult can acquire additional citizenships by descent, investment, by exception, or by moving to the country and being resident for several years, before applying for naturalization.
Tate famously lives in Romania, a country that grants citizenship by naturalization to foreigners who reside there for at least eight years. Romania also can grant exceptional citizenship to foreigners who contribute to the country. Given his residency and business interests in Romania, it’s reasonable to expect Tate may have already become a naturalized Romanian citizenship.
Old Town Bucharest, Romania
In summary, I believe Tate has U.S., British and (maybe) Romanian citizenship.
Citizenships Tate Possibly Has
Would you spend 1/3rd the price of a Ferrari for the right of adding a new country to your citizenship portfolio?
Andrew Tate may have attained citizenship by investment in a Caribbean country. St. Kitts, Grenada, Dominica, St. Lucia, and Antigua offer citizenship by investment programs ranging in cost from about $110,000 to $170,000 for a single applicant.
St. Kitts
Why in the Caribbean? Because these are programs that are official, reliable and mostly reputable. If Tate has really been as dedicated to “escaping the matrix” and spending money as freely as he says he does, a Caribbean citizenship by investment would be an attainable, useful tool in his toolbox.
But, for his sake, hopefully he’s already applied for one of these five citizenships.
Before Tate's explosive 2022, he’d have a high chance of approval. Now, with Tate’s politically unpopular views floating around, a Caribbean country’s citizenship processing unit could very well feel the political pressure that would cause them to deny his application on discretion. Yes, many citizenship-by-investment countries can and do deny applicants they believe will bring the country into disrepute as citizens.
If Tate is already a citizen in one of the above mentioned Caribbean countries, this would bring his total number of citizenships up to four.
Other Citizenships Tate Might Pursue
If Andrew Tate were my client, here’s what I would suggest: go east and south.
Tate likely already has citizenship level access to the U.S., United Kingdom, and visa free access to the European Union. So, diversifying his mobility asset portfolio would mean adding some non-western countries...especially if he plans to continue ruffling western feathers.
Turkey’s vaunted citizenship by $400,000 real estate investment program would be an attractive option, and would result in nationality in a large, beautiful country whose passport affords visa free access to nations such as Iran, Japan and Azerbaijan.
Istanbul, Turkey
If it executes its promised citizenship by investment program, El Salvador would possibly be a suitable “phyle” type citizenship for Andrew Tate, as a self-admitted bitcoiner. It remains to be seen if El Salvador launches a program, and if so, at what price.
Vanuatu is a tiny south pacific island nation with zero personal income, capital gains, or inheritance tax that offers citizenship by investment for a donation of $130k. Tate might consider this option despite Vanuatu having lost its visa-free access to the European Union ("EU") earlier this year, given that Tate likely already has visa-free access to the EU and already spends a paltry $130,000 on a fun weekend.
Carpe diem, right?
In summary, I might suggest Andrew Tate pursue Turkish, El Salvadorian and Ni-vanuatu citizenship in order to give him some rights of residence and increased visa-free travel to countries in the so-called Global South. A passport portfolio containing passports from the U.S., Britain, Romania, St. Kitts, Turkey, El Salvador, and Vanuatu and the would be a formidable combination to secure freedom of movement for a high net worth, controversial individual like the inimitable Andrew Tate.
Only "brokies" get one citizenship at a time
There are also other important issues that high net worth individuals should consider in attaining multiple citizenships, such as tax planning, business culture, and the four red flags of a second citizenship, but we’ll have to cover those in another article…
Want to find out how you can also build a passport portfolio? Click here to book a consultation with Malakouti Law.
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Read more articles about global mobility and freedom of movement here.