Why you should get a Second Passport. NOW.

Ferfal,
Thanks so much for your books and blog. They are very helpful for us. We've been implementing what we've learned.
Your article about having two passports http://ferfal.blogspot.com/2015/04/whats-best-passport-and-why-should-you.html strikes me as good common sense. My wife was born in Canada and is now a naturalized American citizen. Most of her relatives continue to live in Canada, despite the election last week, making Canada our #1 international bug-out prospect. We're retired and don't plan to travel to exotic or dangerous locales so dangers and benefits during travel are secondary for us. One of her Canadian cousins is a banker; another is a bishop. Last year, the banker cousin said we could open a Canadian bank account.
After some thought and research, she now resists seeking a Canadian passport because she's concerned that seeking a Canadian passport might cause some people, somewhere, in the American government to hold this against us and cause damage to us later. I agree with her that there are likely some people out there like that but we have no idea how many. I've been active politically albeit at a low level. I've published some articles in print and on the internet that I'm sure are stored somewhere in government archives.
Given your experience and research, what do you think about this concern? What would be your estimate of the benefit/risk ratio of her seeking a Canadian passport? If she does apply, would there be any benefit or disadvantage in applying under her maiden, pre-marriage name?
One of our flags is the "just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get me" flag.
-Bob

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Hello Bob, thank you for your email and your kind words. I’m glad you find my work useful.
I would get the Canadian passport. The risk/benefit ratio is clear to me. There’s thousands of good, law abiding Americans with dual citizenship going about their business every day and they are not any less American for it. Also, there’s little chance Canadian citizenship will raise any flags. Maybe dual citizenship with some of the more volatile countries in Middle East and such would be more suspicious. As for the benefits you already mentioned opening an account in Canada, that’s on its own a big asset for financial preparedness, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg when you start exploring the possibilities a second passport offers.
“But Ferfal, you and your nonsense. Starting fires with chopsticks, hunting bears with arrows made of Coke glass bottles. That’s what survivalism is all about!”
Maybe in Reality TV shows it is, but not in the actual harsh world out there.
The world is changing around us in ways few people fully understand. From a practical, modern survival perspective, few things are as valuable and as important as a second passport during certain worst case scenarios. I’ve mentioned many times how a gun, passport and money are the three main items to have. If forced to get rid of one I’d get rid of the gun first. With a passport and enough money I can get another gun anyway. Now if forced to drop a second item, I’d rather not have money than lose my European citizenship.
Think of it this way: The cheapest passport in some God forsaken island costs about $250.000. An actually good passport that grants you EU citizenship will cost no less than $1.57 million a pop. That’s per passport, so for the average family of fours its over 6 million bucks! And trust me, there’s people out there that happily pay for it. Now the question is, why? For the very wealthy person, it of course has clear benefits both for living in Europe but also investing as citizens. But what about the average Joe? Average Joe can also make great use of a EU passport. I’m one myself and my citizenship is the last thing I’d give up.
“But Ferfal, Europe? No American in his right mind would move there…”
First, yes, many have. Second, to that I just say you never know. You never know if one day relocating to Europe, or Canada would be in your best interest. The world can change so much in just a few years. There’s just no telling what your personal situation will be like ten years from now, let alone what the world will be like. There’s people that have received life-saving medical treatment for free which otherwise they simply couldn’t afford, thanks to the EU. There’s millions that move all over Europe for employment. Right now with the refugee crisis, hundreds of thousands are looking for a country to take them in. For those that already had citizenship, their only concern would have been getting there before things fell apart too bad.
If passports are literally worth millions of dollars, its just a crime not to get yours if possible. I’ll say it again: You just never now. You don’t know if you want/have to emigrate one day, or if maybe your children or grandchildren will. (That would be my case, it was my grandfather that got me my passport) You don’t know if they may want to study abroad, or get a degree in a world class university for a fraction of what it costs back in U.S.
If you have Irish, Spanish, Italian or any other ancestry, its well worth looking into. These things take time, years, that’s why few people bother but trust me one day you (or your grandchildren) will thank you for it.
FerFAL
Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre is the author of “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse” and “Bugging Out and Relocating: When Staying is not an Option”.