When you meet João Pacheco Gonçalves, you could say he has already lived five lives as a global citizen. With an academic background in International Relations and a drive to understand how the world connects, João left Portugal to study in Maastricht and Moscow. Early in his career, he landed an internship at the Portuguese Embassy in China, an experience that gave him his first exposure to the world of mobility.

Today, João advises global citizens on freedom of movement and wealth mobility. You could say his path into this industry was natural. Combining his early exposure to diplomacy with hands-on experience in wealth management in Switzerland has given him a vantage point few in the industry share.

His focus is bridging global mobility with private wealth management, advising family offices, private banks and institutional partners on why freedom of movement has become a core part of the modern wealth strategy. In a world where more high-net-worth individuals are pairing assets with alternative residencies and passports, João’s role is part educator, part connector.

In this exclusive conversation with Global Citizen Solutions, he explains why this work matters, how the industry has matured and why awareness is still the biggest challenge.

How did you come into the world of global mobility?

João:

My academic background is in International Relations. I’m Portuguese and I studied in Portugal. The goal originally was to follow the diplomacy path. I studied in Porto, in Maastricht, Netherlands, and in Moscow, Russia. My first internship was at the Portuguese Embassy in China, in the Political and Economic section. After that, I was 23 and my head was rushing with ideas: do I really try and do this, or should I go to the private sector? Very different careers, different goals, different rewards. So I made the shift. I went to Mozambique in Africa and worked for an oil and gas reporting company for a few months. Then COVID came, I came back to Portugal and started at GCS. I was looking to move from the public side into the private sector.

Being in China, I was in the embassy, so I knew about golden visas — not deeply, but I knew more or less how it worked. When I saw the business opportunity with GCS back then, for a sales position, I was very interested. It’s work that is very dynamic, international, global. The company’s name says it all.

So I joined GCS and worked on the funds side. That was super interesting because I got to know more about the asset management side of things in Portugal. Then I moved to Switzerland, working with institutional clients — private banks, family offices, wealth managers. I always stayed in touch with GCS. I kept thinking about how global mobility was becoming more important and how I could bridge GCS with institutional firms that I got to know in recent years. During talks with the partners, we saw the potential and now my goal is to build synergies between GCS and all these family offices, private banks and similar companies. That’s really how I came back.

How has the global mobility industry evolved?

João:

One of the things I find really interesting is that global mobility by investment is a niche. It’s only accessible to a very specific type of audience — high-net-worth individuals. Having said this, I’ve been keeping track of this industry for the last five years out of interest, and I think it keeps growing exponentially year after year. Mainly, it’s because there are more and more wealthy people, and there’s political instability. Originally, 20 or 30 years ago, only a few Caribbean countries offered these programmes and the reputation wasn’t there yet. In recent years, countries like Portugal, Switzerland, Austria, UK and Italy are doing it too, which raises the reputation. Word of mouth helps too, but mainly, especially for American clients, it’s about political instability. No matter which side you’re on, the instability is there.

In Europe, it’s also about tax concerns. The UK, France and Germany are becoming less attractive for taxation, which prompts people to think about other options. It’s also about passport diversification — collecting passports as a form of sovereign diversification, to reduce sovereign risk tied to residency or nationality. COVID probably accelerated that with travel restrictions too. If you were an American during COVID and had a Portuguese passport, you could travel to Europe much easier. There are many factors, but mainly political instability.

I think it’s a normal sign that the industry is maturing. For governments, the incentive is clear. The main concern is how their population views these programmes. That’s their biggest concern because from a government perspective, they’re very lucrative. There’s a direct economic impact. In Switzerland, it’s not life-changing because they’re already wealthy, but in Portugal it has had a big positive impact. In the Caribbean, even more — some countries are fully dependent on it. Monaco, for example, is almost entirely dependent on offering residency. The country relies a lot on offering residency to affluent individuals that contribute to the micro-state’s economy. So for governments, it makes sense. The industry is maturing and the way people see these programmes is improving because they’re getting used to it. In Portugal, 15 years ago, when the golden visa started, people were almost outraged. After 10 years, people got used to it, which helps governments keep or improve these programmes.

But that’s just my humble opinion.

What motivates you in this line of work?

João:

People usually look for something better. Rarely does someone say I’m going to change countries because I want to downgrade my lifestyle. That doesn’t happen. One part I really like about working in this industry is just helping people gain more freedom. Even if they don’t move. It could be freedom of movement for a rainy day. For their kids. For their retirement. I really enjoy working with that. And then there’s the other side to it as well. Helping clients enter more tax-friendly environments. I have really enjoyed helping individuals preserve what they build in that sense. Then, on an industry level, what drives me is helping people achieve more freedom. So, what we do is help people gain freedom of movement, for themselves, their kids, for retirement, for tax reasons, for security.

Especially now, with political instability, rising taxes in parts of Europe and the world changing so fast, a second residency or passport is a kind of insurance. COVID really accelerated this mindset. People don’t want to feel stuck again.

What’s the biggest challenge for the industry?

João:

Awareness. It’s where I think the biggest issue remains. So I do agree that there is more awareness today than ever before, but it’s still maybe like you know, a river compared to the ocean. There’s still so much to do. For example, in my particular case, because I have been speaking mainly with, let’s say, institutional partners. They know global mobility exists, but they don’t know how it works [when paired with wealth preservation]. And then the logistics are a factor too. You know the differences that the programmes have, the requirements and so forth. They show interest. If there was more awareness, I think the market would quadruple.

What can companies working in this industry do to change this?

João:

That’s a good question. From a business to client perspective, it’s about producing content and tools which are free or very accessible. The goal is to reach the right people, the right audience, people who are interested in this space. From the institutional side of things, things like attending conferences, participating in meetings, dialogue, meeting with managers, private banks and so on, and explaining how the industry works is key. And I’ve been having a few of these and I can say, the interest is there. But the knowledge about the industry is very, very limited. Which of course poses a barrier, because sometimes they might lose interest thinking it’s either too complex or too hard, or too impossible, something like that.

Where is the industry headed next?

João:

I’m quite optimistic about it because one thing I realised, and it’s a natural thing in the industry, is that due to internal politics in each country involved, programmes close and open all the time. The reason is almost always some kind of internal friction or political move. So, programmes will close for sure in the next 10 years, like Spain closed a few months ago and Malta is also having issues. But lots of programmes are opening as well. Argentina just opened now. So my general view is quite optimistic because I think these programmes are here to stay.

That’s the first thing. The second is that the appetite of people is bigger and bigger for mobility, because even if globalisation is slowing down, which I think it is in the last year or two, individuals are not becoming less mobile. I think they’re becoming more and more mobile. So my humble projection is that in 10 years you’ll see this industry two, three, four times bigger than it is today.

The number of programmes will probably be more or less the same. Now I think it’s around 40. Maybe in 10 years it’s 30, maybe it’s 50. But the number of clients, the number of people doing it, will just increase more and more.

João Pacheco Gonçalves is Head of Institutional Client Relations at Global Citizen Solutions.