A diplomatic passport is the "Nirvana" of international travel.
Once you receive diplomatic status from a recognized government, you may be eligible to enjoy the privileges granted diplomats under international treaty. One of the most significant of these privileges is "diplomatic immunity."
This policy, agreed to under a 1961 treaty, guarantees accredited diplomats safe passage across international borders without being subject to (in most cases) a search of their luggage. Diplomatic immunity also insures that a host country may not subject accredited diplomats to local taxation or prosecution for any crime. A diplomat may not be sued under the laws of the host country. What's more, the home or office of a diplomat is inviolate from search or seizure. The only recourse the host nation has to deal with a misbehaving diplomat is to expel that individual.
Why do otherwise bickering nation-states uphold a system in which they cannot prosecute a criminal inside their own borders? It's because they recognize that their own diplomats may need to carry out activities in their official capacity that may violate local law. They expect other countries to honor their own diplomats' immunity.
Given the enormous tax, privacy, and legal advantages that diplomatic immunity provides, it's not surprising a cottage industry has developed that claims to provide a "diplomatic passport" in exchange for a fee. A colleague recently sent me a link to a Web site selling such passports for only $10,000 each (naturally, from an unnamed country).
For total immunity from taxation, search, seizure, and prosecution in whatever country you decide to reside in with your diplomatic passport, that price would appear to be the bargain of the century.
Alas, the real story is not so glittering. No country in the world sells diplomatic status on an official basis. The only way to obtain a diplomatic passport is to become a diplomat in a country's foreign service. There are very few shortcuts, and you certainly can't buy diplomatic status for a mere $10,000, at least not without dealing in lost or stolen documents, or by bribing corrupt officials.
Otherwise, the only way to obtain a passport through an investment—sadly, without diplomatic immunity—is to purchase one from the handful of countries offer "instant" citizenship in return for an economic contribution. The Commonwealth of Dominica and the Federation of St. Kitts & Nevis are the only countries with an official, legally mandated, citizenship-through-investment program.
The Nestmann Group can help you obtain citizenship and passport in both these countries, and you make your contribution or investment only after your application has been approved. For more information on these programs, click here.
And next time you read about diplomatic passports…be very skeptical.
Copyright © 2008 by Mark Nestmann
(An earlier version of this post was published by The Sovereign Society.)