- Trump’s win is prompting some Americans to consider getting other residencies.
- Concerns include antisemitism, LGBTQ+ rights, and future stability for children.
- Residency firms said they received a surge in inquiries, especially from Democratic-leaning states.
As Donald Trump readies his return to the White House, other Americans are plotting their exit strategies from the country.
Given his party’s and allies’ stances on abortion, immigration, the environment, LGBTQ+ rights, and other issues, a number of Americans feel their safety and stability are at stake and want the option to move abroad.
This week, Google searches in the US for dual citizenship hit a five-year high.
Business Insider spoke to three residency and citizenship consultancies about what they heard in the 48 hours after the election was called. They’ve been busy, receiving dozens more inquiries than on a typical day.
Arton Capital
Armand Arton, the CEO of Arton Capital, a Montreal-based global citizenship and residency firm, said he has seen the most demand in the last three election cycles out of his firm’s 20 years of work.
On Wednesday, the firm received between 110 to 120 inquiries, while their daily number is usually 10 to 20, according to Arton.
While not all inquiries will become clients, he said there is an unusual sense of urgency among those who are seriously considering alternative residences.
“Americans normally will take an average of three weeks to four weeks to review the documents before signing anything,” Arton said. “They’re signing it the same day.”
Most of the firm’s inquiries are coming from Democratic strongholds like New York, upstate Connecticut, and California.
“All the red states will think that they run the world for the next five years. So they’re not going anywhere,” Arton said.
Henley & Partners
Judi Galst, a managing director at Henley & Partners in New York, said that the firm had been receiving nonstop inquiries about acquiring a backup residency since the election was called. She was on the phone all of Wednesday.
“Literally back to back, like, not even time to go to the bathroom,” Galst said.
The London-based company, which opened its US office two years ago, first saw a big uptick in demand for its services from American citizens in 2020, when the pandemic restricted mobility.
Demand has remained high since then. While worries about the pandemic have faded, they were replaced by fears about who might be elected, Galst said.
Most of the company’s clients don’t want to leave the US right away. But worries about the direction the country is headed make them want an option to move.
US inquiries for 2024 have already exceeded 2023’s total by 7%, according to data collected by the company. US Nationals currently make up the largest portion of the firm’s applications.
While demand has risen steadily, Galst said clients’ tone this week took on particular urgency — they’re no longer just shopping around for potential options. Some people seem to regret not starting the process sooner, since the compliance process takes time.
“In the last 24 hours, I’ve heard real urgency,” Galst said. “Before, sometimes people would be like maybe I’m crazy; I can’t believe I’m even thinking about this. But for some people, their greatest fear has been realized.”
Galst said that worries of antisemitism have come up in about one-third of her recent calls. There has been a wave of antisemitic sentiment in the country in the wake of Israel’s military action against Gaza following the Palestinian militant group Hamas’ October 7, 2023 terrorist attacks.
“I think especially for people who lost family in the Holocaust, it’s in their DNA,” she said. “They don’t want to see history repeat itself, they want to be prepared.”
Other inquiries came from same-sex couples, a family with transgender children, and Democratic donors worried about retribution.
Galst said the company has seen a surge in interest in migration through investment, which unlocks destinations like Portugal and the Caribbean for high-net-worth individuals. It has also seen an influx of people looking to gain foreign citizenship by descent, which is an option for those with family ties in Ireland, Germany, Austria, and Poland, among other countries.
Pela Terra
Pela Terra, a citizenship-by-investment service based in Portugal, has been tracking demand for dual citizenships since 2011. A spokesperson said that the company prepared for the increase in post-election inquiries.
Unlike Henley & Partners, which saw highly-concentrated interest from Democratic-leaning states, Pela Terra received a lot of inquiries from Florida, which voted Republican.
Other inquirers’ demographics included people from California and those from the LGBTQ+ community.
One recent call came from a retired lesbian couple living in a central American state, who worry about their own future in the US — and are far more concerned for their adult daughter and her children.
“They feel that their rights are likely to be increasingly curtailed in the next few years and potentially beyond that, and they want to provide the escape option for them of a second passport in liberal Europe,” the spokesperson said.
