Back up plans. I don’t know exactly why but they have always been appealing to me. They are the reason I joined the BoyScouts as a kid, the reason I learned how to fight, and could never pick just one course of study. I don’t think it’s a lack of commitment as some have suggested as much as it is a lack of faith in anything ever working out exactly as I’d planned. I learned how to make fire from two sticks in the BoyScouts not because I didn’t believe a lighter wasn’t a better option, but because no matter how much I liked lighters and how superior I thought they were – one day I might find myself without one and in need of a flame.

It’s for that reason that I’ve been looking into dual citizenship and getting a second passport, specifically an EU member. If you’ve been following me online for a while you know I tend to travel a bit and I’ve certainly been in situations in the past where using a US Passport subjected me to additional screenings and wait times where as the EU Passport holders I was traveling with flew by unscathed. Also, as the US continues to subject travelers visiting this country to more and more restrictions other countries are turning the tables and putting US travelers through similar headaches. If there was a way for me to skip all those politics and go from place to place without worrying about what the administration of one country thought of the policies of the administration of another that would certainly be appealing. And in the ultimate doom and gloom prepare for the worst, given the continuing trainwreck that is the US economy, if things should get really really really bad here, being a citizen of somewhere else might help deflect some of that fallout.

While there are quite a few options available to the average person looking to gain citizenship with a second country, the vast majority of those come with quite large price tags. Larger than I have laying around anyway. After a bit of research I’ve got another plan in the works, we’ll see how it goes…