Early Retirement Extreme Forums

@jean the bos indicus has a single camel like hump where the saddle is and the neck is not long and smooth like a horse or the unicorn but the neck has a large flap. The unicorn seems male to me.

chenda wrote: ↑

Sat Feb 27, 2021 12:13 pm

Speaking of passports, someone pointed out to me that British passports have a picture of a unicorn on the front. I had to check and yes, they do, a roaring unicorn with a rather phallic looking horn. If anyone knows a more ridiculous national symbol do share.

That's the Scots, it's their national animal (there are various explanations/excuses available). And the lion is England. Apparently this combination dates back to when King James of Scotland got a side job as the King of England. I guess Wales and Northern Ireland have yet to figure out their animalistic identities.

jacob wrote: ↑

Sat Feb 27, 2021 4:10 pm

Sure, but in practice, they're the same, no? Never one without the other?

Not quite. Having citizenship without a passport was already pointed out. I personally don't have a valid passport at the moment, don't have much use for it given the circumstances. This does not matter for my citizenship status, I have other ways to prove it.
Also, several countries issue certificates of identity or "alien's passports" to their residents who would otherwise not have a passport at all, i.e. stateless persons. So, a passport without citizenship. Of course, these are usually more restricted in terms of ability to travel freely.

@henrik, interesting I didn't know that.

Re the suggested cow, it does appear to have udders but it's depicted with 4 legs in profile (with admirable depth indication) but only 1 horn, which does lean back towards the unicorn theory.

My algorithms recently directed me to two interesting cases.

Tina Turner has become a Swiss citizen, though has lived in la Suisse for many years and speaks fluent German and past the required language exam of her Canton. She has renounced her US citizenship, though stresses this is not for tax purposes and will continue to support charitable work in her hometown in Tennessee.

And Gerard Depardieu has become a Russian citizen of all things, partially it seems for tax reasons and also because Russia is a 'great democracy', according to Gerard.

He is friends with Valdimir, the leader of said democracy, whose critics apparently 'lack vision'. He lives in Saransk, a charming town on the Volga, which also has the advantage of been outside the European arrest warrant area which might help him avoid arrest on charges of raping a women in 2018. He denies the charges, though I'm sure the Russian authorities will fairly consider any extradition request. It is a great democracy after all. Unlike the fat, repulsive see-you-next-tuesday France is probably delighted to be rid off.

Costa Rica has a new nomad visa that is a path to citizenship. They want digital nomads but don’t want people making border runs to Nicaragua. What I couldn’t quite figure out from the information was if you needed to work period or if you just needed to convert $60k to colones and put it in a Costa Rican bank. Personally I like the idea of a passport in a country without a military especially if I hold on in a second country with strong on (United States).

Laura Ingalls wrote: ↑

Sun Mar 14, 2021 3:13 pm

Personally I like the idea of a passport in a country without a military especially if I hold on in a second country with strong on (United States).

Yes it's nice it's a neutral country, the only neutral one in the world outside Europe I believe.

@Laura Ingalls @chenda

Well this depends if you believe there is such thing as a neutral country. When push comes to shove in conflict, this neutrality often disappears. Or like in the case of Switzerland, this neutrality is only surface deep (see laundering of Nazi gold by Swiss banks in WW2, etc).

Governments can only exist with the threat of violence (whether from their own military/police/security apparatus, or an allied country's).

@white belt Well it's arguable no country can be entirely neutral, only unaligned. Although formal neutrality can be a useful diplomatic asset and beneficial to it's citizens.

Switzerland wisely played off both sides during ww2, backed by an army of a million men and lots of mountains, and was able to avoid entanglement in the war.

I thought discussing politics had been forbiden.

Dual EU/American citizen. Gives me freedom to live and work in a lot of parts of the world. Gives me a headache when filing taxes out of the US. I just wish the US could drop that crap of filing taxes in the US regardless you live there or not.

Ego wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 30, 2015 11:54 am

Spain is finalizing a law that will permit Sephardic Jews, those who can prove Sephardic heritage and those with Sephardic last names to obtain Spanish citizenship. No need to actually be Jewish. Seeing that they expelled the Jews in the late 1400s, that's a lot of people.

http://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/Spain-clo ... 492-395200

Spain Pledged Citizenship to Sephardic Jews. Now They Feel Betrayed.

In 2015, Spain said it would give citizenship to the descendants of Sephardic Jews expelled during the Spanish Inquisition. Then rejections started pouring in this summer.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/24/worl ... tions.html

A side note, people from ibero america can obtain Spanish citizenship after 2 years of living in the country. I know of one case and a quick search gives e.g. this https://www.identitystrategist.com/late ... itizenship in the comment section someone from Texas claimed they qualified for the citizenship.

It's not stated in the article why the applications were rejected. Maybe they ticked the wrong box on page 94 of the application form or something. Spanish bureaucracy is notorious.

But I'd imagine tracing your ancestors back to the late 15th century involves a lot of guesswork and somewhat dubious claims for most applicants.

I wonder if Spain will offer the same deal to all the Muslims it expelled as it has made to the Jews ?

My guess is they were not happy with the number of Cubans and Venezuelans using the process and they had to even out the rejections to make it seem proportionately fair. Pure speculation on my part judging by the number of each we met while there in 2018.

Last year we had an appointment with the Los Angeles consulate to drop off Mrs. Ego's passport application that was cancelled due to Covid. The day they reopened the appointment system we took the first available which was last week.

Neither of us are particularly pessimistic but on the drive to the consulate we were both resigned to the idea that something would be wrong. The amount for the money order would be wrong... or the passport photo would be the US version, not the EU version... or Omicron would shut down the consulate at the last minute... or a hundred other things.

When we arrived the elderly security guard was happy to allow Mrs. Ego to practiced her Italian during the security check. The consul staff was friendly and efficient. The appointment took three minutes.

Today her passport arrived in the mail. Ten years of work.... success.

Congrats Ego (and Ms Ego)! Welcome fellow EU passport holder.

Congratulations! Feels great doesn't it ? )

Thank you both! It does indeed feel great.

Molto bene Signore e Signora Ego.
We look forward to having you in our beautiful Belpaese.

Have you looked into the tax implications of living in Italy?