Most CBI programs sell access. El Salvador sells alignment.
Citizenship by Investment is a legal pathway by which a sovereign nation grants citizenship in exchange for a government-approved contribution. Every country running one sells the same thing: access, a stronger passport, a back door. El Salvador is the exception. The Freedom Passport is the only one settled in Bitcoin at the sovereign level, and it sells alignment with a Bitcoin nation rather than escape from your last one.
What citizenship by investment actually is.
Citizenship by Investment, or CBI, is a legal pathway by which a sovereign nation grants citizenship in exchange for a government-approved contribution. It is not residency, not a visa, and not the sale of a passport as a product. In El Salvador it is the Freedom Passport: a defined contribution, a defined fee, a defined timeline, and defined due diligence, administered through The Bitcoin Office and the DGME under Legislative Decrees No. 918 and No. 286, with Director Stacy Herbert signing the agent authorizations.
The order is what keeps it lawful. You make the $1,000,000 contribution in BTC or USDT through a licensed agent, your on-chain source-of-funds package is screened under AML/CTF due diligence, you collect the passport in person at an authorized Salvadoran location, and the grant of citizenship is permanent and hereditary. The passport is issued after the grant, not before. That sequence is what separates a real CBI program from the tabloid caricature, and the full program runs end to end on the Freedom Passport page.
Six features. No other program.
Alignment is not a slogan; it is a set of mechanical facts. These six are what a Bitcoiner is actually buying at $1,000,000, and no rival program holds more than one or two of them at once.
The only Bitcoin-native passport
Funded only in BTC or USDT by a state that holds a Bitcoin reserve of roughly 7,684 BTC at bitcoin.gob.sv and runs a national Bitcoin Office. No other citizenship program on Earth is administered by one.
0% Bitcoin capital gains
El Salvador applies 0% capital gains on Bitcoin for foreign investors, retained even after legal-tender status was repealed on 30 April 2025. The full structure is on the tax page.
Non-CRS, and Schengen-access
The only Schengen-access citizenship by investment outside the OECD Common Reporting Standard. A true and material feature, set out in full on the Non-CRS page.
Schengen plus 132 destinations
132 visa-free destinations at Henley rank #36: the full Schengen Area of 29 plus Japan, South Korea, Singapore, and Hong Kong. The United States and the United Kingdom require visas; ETIAS applies from 2026.
A passport in 6–8 weeks
Processing runs 6–8 weeks from a complete file, handled remotely end to end. No relocation, no residency clock, no waiting period before the grant.
The whole family, same price
The $1,000,000 contribution is flat across the family, with each additional applicant the $999 marginal fee. One file covers a spouse, children, and dependents in the ascending line.
Five lines. Nothing hidden.
The entire commercial and legal shape of El Salvador citizenship by investment, in five lines. No tier matrix, no “from,” no fine print that contradicts the headline.
All-in for a single applicant is $1,050,000; for a family of four, $1,052,997, scaled only by the $999 marginal fee per additional applicant. The full fee ladder, with a live BTC calculator priced in sats alongside USD, is on the pricing page.
Mobility source: Henley Passport Index, as of June 2026 (132 destinations, Henley rank #36).
One contribution. One pathway. One price.
No real estate to manage from 6,000 miles away. No bond maturity to track. No refund application after five years. You contribute $1,000,000 in BTC or USDT and receive permanent, hereditary citizenship for your family.
The simplicity is the feature.
Most citizenship-by-investment programs hand you a decision tree: a donation route or a real-estate route, a bond that matures in five years, a fund subscription you redeem later, a property you then have to let and maintain in a country you will rarely visit. El Salvador removes the tree. There is one contribution, one asset class, and one outcome, and the entire mechanism is documented on the Freedom Passport page.
The sovereign you can audit.
Approximately 7,684 BTC as of June 2026, accumulated through treasury purchases and state geothermal mining. The balance is published on-chain. You do not align with a slogan; you align with a sovereign whose Bitcoin position you can read block by block.
The difference is the whole point.
A passport from a CBI program is the same instrument everywhere: it widens a map. What differs is the country standing behind it, and whether buying in means buying out or buying in.
A wider map, and little else
The traditional CBI sale is mobility and an exit option: a second document, a back door, a place to be when you would rather not be home. The country is incidental. You are not aligning with it; you are insuring against somewhere else. That is a real product, and for many buyers it is the right one.
A country that holds your asset
El Salvador holds Bitcoin on its balance sheet, settles your contribution in BTC or USDT, runs the first national Bitcoin Office, and applies 0% Bitcoin capital gains for foreign investors. You are not buying a way out of your country; you are buying into one whose monetary conviction matches your own. The fuller case is on the legitimacy page.
Every other program sells you a way out. El Salvador is the only one that sells you a way in.
The fit, and the honest edge.
The $1,000,000 contribution is the highest in the lineup, and it should be. The program is built for a specific reader, and the wrong reader should hear that before they spend a sat.
Conviction as a position
El Salvador suits the Bitcoiner whose conviction is a position, not a hobby: the holder drawn by 0% Bitcoin capital gains and the Non-CRS structure, the traveler who needs full Schengen rather than the Asia-Pacific corridor, and the family that wants permanent, hereditary citizenship under one flat contribution. For all of them, the alignment carries the decision. Two questions settle it on the fit page.
Where Europe and the US still bite
The passport reaches 132 destinations, but the United States and the United Kingdom are not among the visa-free, and ETIAS applies to Schengen entry from 2026. Citizenship is also not tax residency, and US persons remain subject to FATCA and worldwide income reporting regardless of any second passport; ending that requires formal renunciation through our sister service exit.ly. Home-country obligations always apply.
The direct answers.
What is citizenship by investment?
Citizenship by Investment, or CBI, is a legal pathway by which a sovereign nation grants citizenship in exchange for a government-approved contribution. It is not residency, not a visa, and not the sale of a passport as a product. In El Salvador it is the Freedom Passport: a $1,000,000 contribution in BTC or USDT, screened by The Bitcoin Office and the DGME, granting permanent and hereditary citizenship under Legislative Decrees No. 918 and No. 286. The full program is on the Freedom Passport page.
How much does El Salvador citizenship by investment cost?
A flat $1,000,000 government contribution across the family, settled in BTC or USDT and non-refundable, plus $999 per additional applicant. The 21 CBI advisory is a flat 5%, or $50,000. All-in for a single applicant is $1,050,000; for a family of four, $1,052,997. There is no real estate purchase, no bond, and no tier matrix. The full ladder, with a live BTC calculator, is on the pricing page.
How long does El Salvador citizenship by investment take?
Processing runs 6–8 weeks from a complete file, handled remotely end to end. There is no relocation requirement and no residency clock before the grant. Citizenship is permanent and hereditary; the passport renews on a 6-year cycle, with one in-country visit every 5 years to maintain the genuine link. The program is capped at 1,000 grants per year. The stage-by-stage detail is on the timeline page.
What makes the Freedom Passport different from other CBI programs?
It is the only Bitcoin-native passport, funded only in BTC or USDT by a state that holds a Bitcoin reserve of roughly 7,684 BTC and runs a national Bitcoin Office. It is the only Schengen-access citizenship by investment outside the OECD Common Reporting Standard, applies 0% capital gains on Bitcoin for foreign investors, reaches 132 visa-free destinations at Henley rank #36, and includes the whole family at the same $1,000,000 plus $999 each. The privacy structure is on the Non-CRS page and the tax structure on the tax page.
Alignment, not access.
You have the core term answered on this page: what citizenship by investment is, the six features that set the Freedom Passport apart, the five-line ledger, and the single pathway. The next step is a confidential file-read with Adam, where the first thirty minutes go straight to the advisor. No junior associate, no chatbot, no obligation.
Low time preference does not mean no action. It means making the right move at the right time.