also called five flags · five flags theory · flag planting · perpetual traveler theory
A strategy of spreading citizenship, residence, business, assets and lifestyle across different countries.
The idea of splitting the pieces of your life across different countries: citizenship in one, residence in another, your business and your money somewhere else again. The pitch is that no single government controls all of you. The perpetual traveller idea is one flavour of it, focused on never becoming tax resident anywhere. The quality of advice sold around this varies enormously.
Someone reads about holding a passport from one country, banking in a second and running a company from a third, and starts assembling the pieces off the back of a slick blog. Whether it protects them or lands them in trouble depends entirely on whether the advice was sound, and a lot of it is not.
Influences how some long-term travelers structure passports, companies, and tax exposure; quality of advice varies wildly.
The difference is the whole point, so here is each one in a line.
These labels differ by how settled you are and why you moved.
A digital nomad works remotely while moving between places, a slowmad does the same but stays months at a time, and a perpetual traveller keeps moving specifically to avoid becoming resident anywhere; an expat lives abroad but settled, and an immigrant means to stay for good.
Flag theory and base-building are strategies for spreading your residence, banking and citizenship across countries, while a third culture kid and nomad family travel describe raising children in this life.
Flag state is the odd one out here, meaning the country a boat is registered in.
Base-building strategy · Expat · Flag state · Nomad couple / family travel · Perpetual traveller · Third culture kid
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