Work
Earn or practice your profession where your status authorizes it.
The CitizensOS Manifesto
Mobility Assets: The Missing Asset Class.
Plan Your Freedom to Move.
A second residency or citizenship can expand where you are legally able to live, work, build, own, and retire. It deserves a place in the same strategic conversation as investments, property, tax, and estate planning.
The case for Mobility AssetsA modern life portfolio
01Equities
02Bonds
03Real estate
04Digital assets
05Mobility Assets
01 / The concentration
Your portfolio is diversified. Is your life?
Financial plan
Capital across markets and asset classes
Life plan
One country
Home, work, healthcare, retirement
Illustrative U.S. starting position
A PassportFolio with one country in it.
Four parts of a life plan can all point back to the same place.
01Where you can liveResidence
02Where you can workLabor market
100%United States
03Which tax rules you plan aroundTax exposure
04Which laws govern your statusLegal regime
A financial plan may spread risk across markets and asset classes while assuming that home, work, healthcare, and retirement will all remain possible in one country. That is a consequential concentration of options.
In which other country could your client lawfully live if they chose to — and how soon?
02 / The gap
The demand is visible. The plan is missing.
42%
of Americans have considered or plan to move abroad to improve their happiness.
Source: The Harris Poll, March 2025About 5.5 million
Americans are estimated to live abroad.
Source: AARO estimate, October 2024Clients are asking about a second place to live. Most plans still have no line item, timeline, or framework for answering them.
03 / The market
A global market. No common operating system.
Every country sets its own rules. Advisers and clients must piece together eligibility, documentation, cost, timing, and local execution across disconnected providers. The party seeking a path often has the least information and the most at stake.
Without a standard way to compare and execute, mobility remains an advantage for those who already know the system.
04 / The category
Mobility Assets turn legal status into strategic optionality.
A second residency or passport can create a set of practical rights across jurisdictions. The point is to know what each route could make possible, what it would take to acquire, and what it costs to maintain.
Mobility Asset — an existing lawful residency or citizenship status, or a documented pathway toward one, evaluated for the rights and options it could provide. Supporting cross-border banking, business, and ownership arrangements belong in the plan but do not grant residence by themselves.
Allocate a defined planning budget and timeline to this category, then evaluate the result alongside the client’s investment, tax, estate, and retirement plan.
Mobility Asset scorecardIllustrative profile · fields unfilled
- JurisdictionTo assess
- EligibilityTo assess
- Right to reside and workTo assess
- Travel accessTo assess
- Property and business permissionsTo assess
- Family coverageTo assess
- Time to statusTo assess
- Acquisition and renewal costTo assess
- Durability and presence requirementsTo assess
Mobility AllocationBudget & timeline: ______
What the cover cannot tell you
A legally recognized status unlocks a specific bundle of jurisdictional rights.
A pathway points toward a status. It does not grant those rights until the status is approved.
Verify the rights in that status
- Live
- Work
- Family
- Durability
The layer describes the kind of position. The country and the granted status determine the rights.
A framework for the whole category
Seven layers. One way to understand your options.
Mobility Assets are not one visa or one destination. Our seven-layer framework organizes lawful residence and citizenship rights by the kind and durability of the position they can create — from the citizenship you already hold to a temporary residence you may choose to pursue. Select a layer to see what it means.
Select a layer
Layer 0Birth CitizenshipLayer 1Instant CitizenshipLayer 2Fast-Track CitizenshipLayer 3Residency-to-PassportLayer 4Entitlement CitizenshipLayer 5Long-Term ResidencyLayer 6Short-Term Residency
Layer 6 · Try a new base
Short-Term Residency
Time-limited permission to live in a place, sometimes renewable, with work and presence privileges defined by the permit.
- Example type
- Qualifying digital-nomad, study, or temporary residence routes
- Duration or timing
- Time-limited permission; renewal varies by route
- Right to live there
- Residence and work authorization extend only as far as the specific permit provides.
A pathway you could pursue is different from a right you already hold. Governments decide eligibility and grant status.
The layer tells you what kind of position you are considering. The rights bundle tells you what it actually lets you do.
05 / The rights bundle
Six rights. A different set of possibilities.
A Mobility Asset can be evaluated by the privileges it provides. The mix depends on the country, program, and legal status; these six dimensions belong on an adviser’s scorecard:
Voice
With citizenship, participate in the civic decisions shaping another home.
Retire
Secure a lawful place to spend later years, subject to stay and renewal rules.
Live well
Choose a setting that better fits family needs, health priorities, and daily life.
Travel
Gain cross-border access where your passport or permit provides it.
Own and build
Hold property, create a company, or invest locally where law permits.
06 / The allocation
The value of an option is being ready to use it.
01
Choice before urgency.
An established status or prepared pathway gives a client more time to decide on their terms.
02
A measurable commitment.
Budget, lead time, maintenance obligations, and legal privileges can be mapped long before any move.
03
Family continuity.
Some routes can include relatives or pass on rights, subject to the destination’s law.
EvaluateAcquireMaintainMobility allocation: ______
Give mobility a deliberate allocation of capital, time, and professional attention before the need becomes urgent.
An asset class becomes easier to plan when its terms become clear.
Property has records. Equities have exchanges and statements. Crypto has wallets and ledgers. Mobility needs a clear way to describe the rights a person holds, what a pathway could provide, and what it takes to acquire and maintain a status.
01Real estateRecorded ownership
02EquitiesExchanges and statements
03CryptoWallets and ledgers
04MobilityRights, terms, and upkeep
Legal status is not a tradable security. Its rights bundle can still be assessed alongside eligibility, cost, time, and upkeep.
07 / The platform
The next platform opportunity is global mobility.
Robinhood widened access to investing. Wealthfront put sophisticated planning into software. Coinbase made crypto easier to access and use. Yet a second residency or citizenship is still sourced one country, one intermediary, and one opaque quote at a time.
Robinhood InvestingWealthfront Digital adviceCoinbase CryptoCitizensOS Mobility Assets
CitizensOS is building the operating system for Mobility Assets:
comparable pathways, visible requirements and costs, accountable execution, and a connected journey from Explore to Plan to Apply to Move.
ExplorePlanApplyMove
Countries set the rules and grant status. CitizensOS standardizes how people discover, compare, plan, and execute within those rules.
From one-off searches to a plan you can keep.
The rules will always belong to each country. The way people find, compare, and act on those rules can change.
The old wayWhat CitizensOS is building
Where to start
One country and one route at a time
Compare routes across countries
What the rules say
Requirements scattered across sources
Requirements with a source and date
What it costs
A quote that arrives late
Known fees and obligations in view
What happens next
A one-off handoff
A plan from Explore to Move
Comparable information helps an adviser and client see the choices before the paperwork begins.
Our mission
1,000,000 Our goalOne million Americans with more than one option.
By the end of the decade, we aim to help one million Americans assess, plan, and pursue lawful Mobility Asset pathways — alongside the financial, estate, and tax professionals they already trust.
More portfolios with a mobility plan. More families with choices. More futures with room to move.
When it's time to leave, it's too late to plan.
The moment to build a second option is while staying is still a choice. Start with an honest assessment of what you qualify for, what it would take, and how it fits your wider plan.
Explore Mobility Assets