Arbitraging the world: How to build a geographic portfolio

Feb 2
7 min read

Updated: Feb 10

You diversify your investments. Why not diversify your countries?

Wealthy families don’t keep all their assets in one stock, one industry, or one country. The purpose of diversification is to make sure that when one stock goes down, others may stay stable or go up, so the impact is lessened on their entire portfolio.

The same principle applies to where they live; strategically deciding where they’re a citizen, where they live, and where their business operates – and those locations aren’t always the same.

As they’ve learnt, there’s an art to building your life across multiple jurisdictions that can help you minimise risk, maximise opportunity, and optimise for the life you actually want.

From our experience, there are multiple pathways to pick and choose from, with the most popular ones being: becoming a citizen of another country, gaining a long-term permanent residency or gaining a temporary visa status.

But which one’s right for you? Let’s take a look:

Citizenship

Being a citizen of a nation is something we might take for granted. But as we look a bit closer, citizenship can provide a lot of benefits:

Access to government support programs: these include unemployment benefits, public healthcare, childcare benefits, grants etc. that are only available to citizens of a country. For example, Australia’s public healthcare system (Medicare) is available to citizens, and is considered one of the world’s most accessible systems for the health outcomes they produce.
Right to hold a passport from that country: countries often have mutual agreements on visa-less travel depending on the passport that someone holds, and this can make it easy for people to travel across the world. Singapore’s passport, for example, is one of the strongest in the world, allowing access to 195 countries around the world without applying for a prior visa.
The right to vote: not only can you vote for the future of a country, but you often have the right to vote on major changes to legislation through referendums in certain countries. For example, Swiss citizens regularly vote on policy matters through direct democracy – from tax rates to infrastructure projects. For those who are invested in the country they live in, this can be an important right to have.
The right to live and work in that country: as a citizen of a country, you can leave for decades and return whenever you want. You can change careers, start businesses, or take time off without anyone questioning your right to be there. Unlike temporary visa holders who face deportation if they lose their jobs or fail to meet renewal requirements, citizenship can't be taken away except in extreme cases like fraud or terrorism.

Citizenship can be gained in a few ways, depending on country:

By birth: by being born in a country – e.g. most of Europe, Turkey, Japan, China, Israel, Australia (if you’ve stayed for 10 years after birth)
By descent: if your parents are citizens of a country at the time of your birth, you may be eligible for citizenship as well – e.g. USA, Canada, most of Latin America, and Australia
By naturalisation: often through living in a country for an extended period. This could be up to 3 – 10 years as a permanent resident, and then meeting specific criteria (such as language tests, citizenship tests, and physical presence requirements)
By investment: some countries offer direct citizenship in exchange for investments (e.g. purchasing property or buying relevant assets from the country)

Becoming a citizen offers security, and permanence. This is great for people who are looking to settle down their lives, especially families, or for people seeking a better life elsewhere in the world, and are willing to make that long term commitment to a country.

However, unless you have citizenship by birth or descent, the main costs of citizenship are time, and money.

As outlined above, naturalisation can take up to 10 – 15 years in total, and the investment required for citizenship can be steep. In addition, many countries will ask you to renounce other citizenships or impose long-term obligations (such as military service or jury duty) that you might not want.

For those who want flexibility sooner, or who aren’t ready to commit, there are other ways that trade security for faster access, and greater mobility.

Permanent and temporary residency

Permanent and temporary residency allows you the right to live or work in a country based on certain conditions, and include benefits such as:

An Employment Pass in Singapore will give you the right to live and work in Singapore for a sponsoring employer, allow you to open bank accounts, rent and buy property, and bring dependents with you. In addition, you’re more likely to meet the tax residency threshold on this visa and gain access to the Singaporean tax system by virtue of working there.
Australia’s Skills in Demand VISA (SID) gives you the right to work for a sponsoring employer up to 4 years and can be renewed indefinitely. Spouse and dependents are included in the visa and are granted full work and study rights in Australia. Your children would get access to public schools in Australia, and after 2 years you would be eligible for PR.
As outlined in this previous article, by gaining the right to work in these countries, you may become a tax resident (if you satisfy other key conditions), allowing you to access more suitable tax systems and regulations.

Some people will use these visas to test out the waters of a country before fully committing to citizenship, and for good reason. Regardless of which visa or residency program you choose, the process can vary between 3 months to 2 years, and require renewal periods every 1 – 5 years for temporary work permits (depending on which country you are applying for).

Though it might seem a long time, compared to citizenship, it’s a lot easier to achieve.

However, quicker access using these pathways also come with strict conditions, which could include: spend a minimum amount of time in a country, invest a certain amount of money, or prove ongoing ties to the country (whether work or living). For example:

Portugal’s highly touted Golden Visa requires you to maintain a property investment of €500,000+ (or other qualifying investments), and spend at least 7 days per year in the country;
The Singapore Employment Pass requires minimum salary thresholds (starting from $5,000 per month minimum – and depends on your age), a university degree, relevant tenure of work experience and qualifications for particular employment types.

In addition, there’s uncertainty as to whether your status continues to be valid based on law, regulation and policy changes. To highlight this with some examples:

Australia increased their Temporary Skilled Migration income threshold from $70,000 to $73,150 to $76,515 from 2023 to 2025 – for many, this threshold changed from the time they started their application to when it was assessed and any further changes could have an impact on their renewal due to the job that they still may be in from year to year.
After Malaysia suspended their “Malaysia My Second Home” (MM2H) program through COVID, the government re-launched the program in late 2021 with much stricter conditions (an income threshold 4x higher than the previous program, and a deposit that raised from RM150k-300k, all the way to RM1mil), essentially destroying a residency pathway for many who could not meet these thresholds. After some failed reforms for the program causing uncertainty for applicants in 2022, they have finally introduced (in 2024) more lenient requirements through a three-tier system for this program.

These policy changes can create real risk for temporary visa holders. Whether this matters to you depends on your priorities – flexibility and quicker access to more suitable tax systems vs. long term security and stability.

Here’s a summary:

	Citizenship	Permanent residency	Temporary visa
Who is this best for?	People who are looking for long-term commitment to a country – permanence, security and not requiring continuous renewal of their status for a country	People who are testing out whether they want to genuinely settle in one location – and may be on the pathway to citizenship	Digital nomads, global citizens, or those who wish to have flexibility about where they live to maintain optionality across multiple countries
What are the benefits?	Access to government support programs Right to hold a passport Right to vote Right to live and work Access to full healthcare system Access to social security / pensions	Right to live and work Right to vote in certain elections (usually local) Access to limited government support programs Pathway to citizenship Must renew every 5 – 10 years typically	Conditional right to work and live in country No voting rights Limited or no support to government programs and support Varied healthcare access More frequent renewal (1 – 5 years)
Tax residency impacts	None – as tax paid depends where you are a tax resident rather than your citizenship status	Varies, but often will be taxed where you are permanent resident as they have similar requirements	Varies depending on your citizenship – e.g. global tax jurisdictions like AU/US may tax your foreign income
How long does it take?	Between 5 – 15 years dependent on country, if you are not already a citizen by birth or descent	2 – 5 years depending on visa – can be quicker on investment visas (1 or 2 years)	Between 0 – 2 years depending on whether it is an investment golden visa, or a work permit
How flexible and mobile can I be with my life?	Certain countries have stronger passports than others – visa-free travel is on the cards for many countries with reciprocal agreements. Can leave and come back without losing status.	Must maintain presence in the issuing country (e.g. in some countries this uses a 183 days+ per year standard) or risk cancellation. Varies by country, but PR often has a day requirement to keep status.	Similar to PR, will usually require minimum annual stays to keep visa (though this will vary by country), but can apply to other countries as life changes.
How vulnerable am I to policy changes?	Immune – citizens are often grandfathered under old rules even if there are changes in law	Relatively lower - PR may have new renewal requirements.	Relatively higher – countries often review and change their immigration policies for visas, and requirements can change often.

Being strategic with your residency planning can help to identify the best places that suit your needs and goals – whether its flexibility to live or work, more suitable tax systems, a safer lifestyle, better access to healthcare or an improved quality of education.

If you’re considering making a move, Pebly can provide professional advice tailored to your specific circumstances and help you understand the critical dimensions of this decision.

Disclaimer: The information provided in this content is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal, financial, immigration, or tax advice. Tax laws, residency rules, and financial regulations vary significantly between jurisdictions and are subject to change. The figures and comparisons included are illustrative and may not reflect current rates or laws. Before relying on the information above, we strongly recommend seeking independent professional advice tailored to your specific circumstances.

Pebly does not guarantee the accuracy of third party data referred to and is not responsible for any decisions made based on this content.

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