Overview
Eritrea holds a rank-85 passport reaching 39 destinations without a prior visa. Its population is around 3.7 million, the capital is Asmara, and the currency is the nakfa (ERN).
Eritrea has no citizenship-by-investment programme.
🔴 Taxation by NATIONALITY — the side of nationality nobody considers when adding one
📌 This is Eritrea's contribution, and I consider it the most important financial lesson this library was missing.
The facts:
- 🔴 Eritrea levies a charge on citizens living abroad, commonly cited at around 2% of income — 🔴 and the basis for the charge is ERITREAN NATIONALITY ITSELF, not residence or income source.
- 🔴 In practice, whether it has been paid is recorded and affects the ability to complete consular procedures — passport renewal, documents, matters relating to property at home.
- 📌 Several countries hosting Eritrean communities have raised concerns about how the charge is collected, and a United Nations Security Council resolution has addressed collection methods. 📌 This site states this at the level of facts.
📌 Why this matters to readers here:
✅ Almost every country in the world taxes by RESIDENCE or by INCOME SOURCE. 🔴 Only very few tax on nationality itself regardless of where the person lives — the United States being the largest case and Eritrea the other most frequently cited.
🔴 For anyone weighing a second nationality, this is the question to ask BEFORE SIGNING, and very many people do not:
✅ "Does this nationality carry any obligation that follows me abroad?"
📌 Three obligation categories worth checking for ANY country, not only Eritrea:
- ✅ Nationality-based taxation — 🔴 must you file and pay in the issuing country even while not living there?
- ✅ Military service — 🔴 does the nationality carry an obligation for you, or for your SONS when they come of age? 📌 This is where families get caught: parents buy nationality for the household, and a son grows up to find an obligation in a country he has never lived in.
- ✅ Reporting obligations — 🔴 must you declare assets, declare residence, register periodically with a consulate?
🔴 For the Caribbean investment citizenship programmes this site covers, the answer to all three is usually NO — ✅ and that is part of their genuine value, more worth stating than comparing visa-free counts. 📌 But "usually no" does not replace reading each country's specific rules, at the moment of signing.
🔴 And national service — why so many leave
🔴 Eritrea has a national service regime that international organisations describe as indefinite in practice, including civilian as well as military assignments.
🔴 International refugee agencies record this as a principal reason very many Eritreans leave the country — 🔴 and Eritrea has among the world's highest ratios of people departed relative to population. 📌 This site states this at the level of facts.
📌 The connection to the section above, and it is what I want readers to see:
🔴 Eritreans abroad both left because of an obligation at home and remain subject to a charge based on the nationality they carry. ✅ Renouncing is not simple either — renunciation procedures in many countries require documents and approval from the very authority a person is avoiding.
📌 This is what the Morocco article opened and Eritrea closes very clearly:
✅ When weighing a nationality, do not only ask "can I get IN". Ask also "if I later want OUT, can I get out, and who decides that".
🔴 For most investment programmes, you can — renunciation procedures exist and work. ✅ But that is something to CONFIRM in writing, not assume.
📌 Asmara — a city that is a World Heritage Site
📌 The capital Asmara is a UNESCO site, recognised for a modernist architectural ensemble from the early twentieth century preserved at a rarely seen scale — 🔴 a legacy of the Italian colonial period, and among the best-preserved collections of that period's architecture anywhere.
📌 Asmara sits at around 2,300 metres, giving it a temperate climate year-round despite its proximity to the Red Sea.
Geography & economy
Eritrea borders Sudan, Ethiopia and Djibouti, with a long Red Sea coast and the Dahlak archipelago.
🔴 That position matters greatly to Ethiopia: 📌 Ethiopia lost its sea access in 1993 when Eritrea became independent — ✅ exactly as the Ethiopia article records, and Eritrea is the other side of that same story.
📌 The two countries fought a prolonged border conflict and signed a peace agreement in 2018. 🔴 Regional relations remain complex.
Economy: mining (gold, copper, zinc, potash), agriculture, fisheries and remittances.
🔴 Disadvantages, stated fully: 🔴 low income per head; 🔴 a closed economy with little published data; 🔴 significant restrictions on private economic activity; 🔴 international organisations document serious human rights and political space concerns; and 🔴 drought affecting agriculture.
As always: tax obligations here do not replace those in your country of residence.
Immigration routes & citizenship
🔴 Not a realistic path for readers of this site. 📌 Categories in law are very limited and the business environment closed.
🔴 If anyone offers you "Eritrean citizenship by investment", stop. No such programme exists.
Who should consider Eritrea
🔴 This site does not propose Eritrea for personal relocation or investment. 📌 This article exists to record a very important nationality fact and to complete the library of 199 countries.
The point to carry away: ✅ Eritrea supplies the financial lesson this library was missing, and it is very concrete.
📌 This whole site discusses the rights a nationality confers. 🔴 Eritrea is the reminder that nationality also carries OBLIGATIONS, and obligations can follow you across borders.
✅ So before signing any programme, check three lines, in writing, not on an adviser's word:
✅ One — does this nationality carry a tax obligation while I do not live there? ✅ Two — is there a military service obligation applying to me or to my children when they come of age? ✅ Three — if I later wish to renounce it, what is the procedure and who approves?
🔴 Those three questions take ten minutes to ask. 📌 Not asking them can take twenty years to undo.