Eight hours in limbo. That’s how long Sam spent in detention at the airport in Qatar.

The Filipino-Jordanian was held against his will, caught in a bureaucratic no-man’s land for one reason and one reason only: he was born with weak passports.

Before traveling, the then-London resident had mailed in his UK residency permit for renewal, unaware that without it in hand, his valid work visa meant nothing to airport authorities in Doha. They refused to let him board for England.

Sam argued. He explained. He pleaded. None of it mattered.

That day, as he sat trapped in purgatory, it dawned on him: no matter how global his life felt, his passports still defined where he could—and couldn’t—go.

He made himself a promise: never again. He would do whatever it took to secure a “really good passport” and free himself from that kind of humiliation.

Today, Sam is on that path. He divides his time between Hong Kong and Spain, leading a life that one day could unlock an EU passport.

It’s a globe-trotting lifestyle he was arguably born to have. From a young age, Sam grew up between cultures. His mother hails from the Philippines and his father is Jordanian.

At sixteen, he left home for United World College in Italy. From there, his world kept expanding. He went to college in the US and worked stints in Switzerland and the Philippines before landing a job with Google in Singapore.

By his late twenties, he had already lived in seven countries. But it was Hong Kong that changed everything.

An internal transfer with Google brought him to the global financial center, and what was supposed to be just another fleeting chapter in his dynamic life turned into something deeper.

“[Hong Kong] is like a mega city within a forest in the mountains and islands,” he told PolyPassport. The day he moved to the metropolis, he remembers thinking, “I love this place.”

He would stay for seven years straight. Long enough to secure permanent residency and build a life—but not to calm his restlessness.

Eventually, his itchy feet returned. Sam left his tech career behind and reinvented himself as a location-independent executive coach. With his work untethered to a specific place, the question became: where next?

The answer was revealed in short order. He joined a coaching firm with plans to expand in the UK. They sent Sam to the British capital to lead the operation. His visa application took a grueling ten months to come through. But when he finally arrived in London, the reality didn’t match the vision.

“I didn’t like it,” he admits. “It’s such a cool city, but I needed the sun. I needed to be close to beaches and nature.”

When his company eventually downsized, they cut Sam’s pay too. That was the final push—the one Sam needed to make a drastic decision.

He didn’t have to be in the UK and endure a high cost of living on a reduced income. Spain, which had been lingering in the back of his mind since a friend’s wedding there, suddenly became a serious option.

Plus, Spain offers Filipinos and other nationals of former Spanish-held colonies a shortcut to citizenship: just two years of residency. And with the launch of the digital nomad visa, there was now a clear path to making it work.

Within months, Sam had founded his own firm, packed his things and moved to Jávea, a quiet coastal town in Valencia. Lower costs, a slower pace of life, and, most importantly, a route to an EU passport made it the perfect choice.

Sam’s setup today is binational, and it works. His business was incorporated in Hong Kong and he pays himself in Spain.

He shuttles between the two locations on a regular basis. To maintain permanent residency in Hong Kong, one can’t be away for more than three years.

He’s also looking into a cost-effective housing setup in the former British colony, where sky-high real estate prices make ownership a challenge financially.

By 2026, if all goes according to plan, Sam will have Spanish citizenship. Even better, he recently learned that his path to naturalization allows him to keep his Filipino and Jordanian passports, a welcome exception to Spain’s usual rules.

For those dreaming of a similar path, Sam has one piece of advice: take the risk. “If you really, really want to move somewhere,” he said, “you have to be willing to test it out first,” he says.

Get to know the place before committing. Secure the right visa. Build a structure that actually fits your life. And most importantly, don’t let paperwork dictate your potential.

Sometimes, you just have to be willing to make the jump in the first place. Dive in and don’t look back.

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