Legitimate by law, honest about the risk.
Every careful buyer asks whether the Freedom Passport is real. It is: established by legislative decree, administered by a cabinet-level Bitcoin Office, granted by a sovereign state. The harder question is governance risk on a $1,000,000 contribution that cannot be reversed. This page answers both, with the law and the policy timeline on the record.
Three claims, each one you can verify yourself.
We would rather you check than take our word. The legitimacy of a $1,000,000 decision should rest on records you can open, not on a brand's say-so. Here are the three that matter, each tied to its primary source.
Established by decree
The Freedom Passport is created in statute under Legislative Decrees No. 918 and No. 286, with the 2025 Bitcoin-law amendment in Decreto No. 199. A citizenship granted by a sovereign state, not a product sold by a broker.
Audit it on-chain
El Salvador's sovereign Bitcoin reserve, approximately 7,684 BTC as of June 2026, is published and verifiable block by block. You read the balance, not our description of it.
Read the credential
21 CBI, operating as Bitcitizen LLC, is a Licensed Agent authorized by Director Stacy Herbert of The Bitcoin Office, valid 27 February 2026 to 26 February 2027. The certificate is published, not described.
Written into law, not bolted onto a brochure.
The Freedom Passport is established under Legislative Decrees No. 918 and No. 286. It is not a loophole, a gray market, or a passport sold as a product; it is a citizenship granted by a sovereign state under its own statute.
Read the chain of authority, because it is what separates a lawful program from a tabloid “golden passport.” The program is administered by The Bitcoin Office in coordination with the Dirección General de Migración y Extranjería (DGME), the national migration authority. The digital-asset regime that surrounds it is the LEAD framework, in force since 2023, supervised by CNAD, the national digital-assets commission. You make a government-approved contribution, your file clears AML/CTF due diligence, and the state grants the citizenship. The passport is issued after the grant.
The advisor chain is just as verifiable. 21 CBI, operating as Bitcitizen LLC, is a Licensed Agent authorized by Director Stacy Herbert of The Bitcoin Office, valid 27 February 2026 to 26 February 2027. The license authorizes 21 CBI to submit and process applications; it is not pre-approval of any applicant. You can read the credential rather than take our word for it: view the certificate, or see the full program ledger on the Freedom Passport page.
A state that built the institutions first.
El Salvador did not append Bitcoin to an immigration product. It built sovereign Bitcoin institutions, and the Freedom Passport sits inside them. These are the four that make the program unlike anything else priced at $1,000,000.
A cabinet-level institution
A government institution under President Bukele, led by Director Stacy Herbert, who signs all agent authorizations. No other citizenship program in the world is administered by a national Bitcoin Office; the institution is the difference.
A treasury you can audit
Approximately 7,684 BTC as of June 2026, accumulated through treasury purchases and state mining. The balance is published and verifiable on-chain at bitcoin.gob.sv. You do not take the sovereign's word for the reserve; you read it block by block.
Geothermal Bitcoin mining
State-backed mining powered by volcanic geothermal energy, feeding the reserve. The volcano is not a metaphor; it is the power source behind the coins the treasury holds.
The digital-asset regime
CNAD licenses and supervises digital-asset service providers under the LEAD framework, in force since 2023. The same regulatory architecture that governs the reserve and the asset providers surrounds the Freedom Passport.
Twenty-five years, by the date and the decree.
The honest way to judge governance risk is to read the policy record, not the marketing. Here is the monetary timeline that the Freedom Passport sits inside, each line tied to its instrument.
The legal-tender repeal of 30 April 2025 is the single most cited “is this still real” question. It is real: the program stayed open, the foreign-investor 0% capital-gains treatment was retained, and the dollar resumed sole legal-tender status it had held since 2001. The full tax picture sits on the El Salvador citizenship tax page.
We do not pretend governance risk is zero.
An honest advisor is most useful at the edges of what is possible. This is the edge: a $1,000,000 contribution into a Bitcoin policy that has already moved once.
El Salvador's Bitcoin policy has shifted under IMF negotiations and could shift again. The $1,000,000 contribution is irreversible. We say that first, before anything reassuring, because the firms that bury it are the ones to worry about. If a settled, low-time-preference Bitcoiner cannot make this contribution and sleep, the answer is not to soften the risk; it is not to make the contribution.
Program risk is not citizenship risk. The policy that governs new files can move. A lawful grant already made cannot be cancelled at a government's convenience.
Hold the distinction precisely, because it is the whole answer. Once granted, the citizenship is constitutionally protected and cannot be unilaterally revoked by a change of administration; it is established via Legislative Decrees No. 918 and No. 286, and it is permanent and hereditary. A future government could alter the terms for new applicants, raise the contribution, narrow eligibility, or close the cohort. That is program risk, and it falls on people who have not yet filed. It does not reach back to a grant already made. This is the fourth of our four stated limits, made concrete; on the program page we write it as a principle, and see Limit 4 in Our Limits, Stated for how we walk you through the policy timeline before you commit.
Program risk falls on the unfiled. Citizenship risk does not exist.
A future administration can change what the Freedom Passport costs, who qualifies, or whether new applications are accepted at all. Anyone deciding whether to file should price that in; it is the honest reason we walk every applicant through the policy timeline before a single sat moves. But a citizenship granted lawfully under Decrees No. 918 and No. 286 is permanent and hereditary, constitutionally protected, and passes to your children. The files that get challenged anywhere in the world are the ones that went around the law: undisclosed records, unauthorized channels, a source of funds that does not survive scrutiny. The protection is the process: a clean, fully disclosed application filed through a licensed agent, and screening you pass on the facts. Do it right, and there is nothing to revoke.
The skeptic's questions.
Is El Salvador's Freedom Passport legitimate?
Yes. The Freedom Passport is established in law under Legislative Decrees No. 918 and No. 286, administered by The Bitcoin Office in coordination with the Dirección General de Migración y Extranjería (DGME), under the LEAD (2023) digital-asset framework supervised by CNAD. El Salvador is a sovereign UN member that issued the program by legislative decree; the citizenship is granted by the state, not sold as a product. 21 CBI (Bitcitizen LLC) is a Licensed Agent authorized by Director Stacy Herbert of The Bitcoin Office.
Who administers the El Salvador Freedom Passport?
The Bitcoin Office, a cabinet-level institution under President Bukele, administers the program in coordination with the DGME. Director Stacy Herbert signs all agent authorizations. The digital-asset regime that surrounds the program is supervised by CNAD under the LEAD framework in force since 2023. No other citizenship-by-investment program in the world is run by a national Bitcoin Office. The Freedom Passport page carries the full administering ledger.
Can El Salvador citizenship be revoked if the government changes?
Once granted, citizenship is constitutionally protected and cannot be unilaterally revoked by a change of administration; it is established via Legislative Decrees No. 918 and No. 286, and it is permanent and hereditary. A future government could alter the program terms for new applicants, but that is program risk, not citizenship risk. The two are distinct: the policy that governs new files can move; a lawful grant already made cannot be cancelled at a government's convenience.
Is the $1,000,000 contribution at risk if El Salvador changes Bitcoin policy?
We do not pretend governance risk is zero. El Salvador's Bitcoin policy has already shifted under IMF negotiations and could shift again, and the $1,000,000 contribution is irreversible. The honest position is to read the policy timeline before committing. The 2025 amendments repealed Bitcoin's legal-tender status while retaining the 0% foreign-investor capital-gains treatment; the program remained open. Program terms can change for future applicants; a citizenship already granted cannot.
What is the legal framework behind the Freedom Passport?
The Freedom Passport is established under Legislative Decrees No. 918 and No. 286. It is administered by The Bitcoin Office in coordination with the DGME and surrounded by the LEAD (2023) digital-asset framework supervised by CNAD. El Salvador has been dollarized since 2001; Bitcoin was adopted as legal tender in 2021 and that status was repealed effective 30 April 2025 by Decreto Legislativo No. 199, which retained the 0% foreign-investor capital-gains treatment.
Did the 2025 Bitcoin Law repeal close the program?
No. Decreto Legislativo No. 199, effective 30 April 2025, made Bitcoin acceptance voluntary and repealed its legal-tender status, but the Freedom Passport remained open and the 0% capital-gains treatment for foreign investors was retained. The US dollar resumed the sole legal-tender status it has held since 2001. As of June 2026 the reserve stands at approximately 7,684 BTC and the program is accepting applications. The full record is on the Freedom Passport page.
Is the El Salvador Freedom Passport a scam?
No. A scam takes the money and returns nothing; the Freedom Passport is a citizenship granted by a sovereign state under published law, Legislative Decrees No. 918 and No. 286, administered by The Bitcoin Office in coordination with the DGME. The contribution settles directly to a government wallet, the national reserve is auditable on-chain at bitcoin.gob.sv, and 21 CBI's agent authorization is a signed certificate you can read. The honest caution here is not fraud; it is governance risk on an irreversible $1,000,000 contribution, which we state plainly rather than bury.
Is El Salvador citizenship by investment worth it, and what are the downsides?
It depends on the buyer, and the honest answer names both sides. The strengths are real: permanent, hereditary citizenship, a Non-CRS jurisdiction, 0% tax on Bitcoin gains, and a fully remote six to eight week process. The downsides are equally real: the $1,000,000 contribution is non-refundable, El Salvador's Bitcoin policy has already shifted once under IMF negotiations, the passport is not visa-free to the United States or the United Kingdom, and program terms can change for future applicants. It is worth it for a settled, low-time-preference holder who values the privacy and the framework and can make the contribution without strain. It is not worth it for someone who would lose sleep over an irreversible decision.
Don't trust. Verify.
Read the decrees, read the policy timeline, and price the governance risk before you move a single sat. Then, if El Salvador fits, book a confidential session with Adam, where the first call goes straight to the timeline and your file, not a sales script.