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It is never legal to buy a passport, as they are official documents issued by sovereign states. Countries charge fees for issuing passports, but they should not be considered a purchase price. Passport scams are common, and attempts to purchase a passport from a first world nation are likely to be detected. Some nations allow wealthy investors to essentially buy a passport for an extremely hefty fee.
Strictly speaking, it is never legal to buy a passport. Passports are official documents issued by sovereign states. They indicate citizenship and provide certain rights and benefits to aid in international travel. Countries typically charge fees for issuing passports, but these fees should not be considered a purchase price. Countries in good standing in the international community do not allow the resale of passports. Some, however, issue passports to anyone willing to pay a very hefty service fee, which is essentially the same as selling a passport.
In most parts of the world, obtaining a passport is simple. Typically, the process simply involves submitting proof of citizenship to the relevant authorities and then paying some sort of administrative fee. This resembles a business transaction, but is more like the process of obtaining a driver’s license or similar official document. A citizen does not buy a passport. The associated cost is not a purchase price, but rather a fee to cover processing fees.
As a general rule, any person or service offering to actually sell a passport is working on the black market. Passport scams are common, especially in countries where the rule of law is not strong. These scams may provide you with some type of document, but usually it is an outright fake or a modified copy of an existing passport. Traveling using such documents is extraordinarily risky and can lead to serious legal problems.
Attempts to purchase a passport from the United States or another first world nation are especially likely to end in tragedy for a consumer. Global concern about terrorism has led to much stricter measures to monitor passports and international travel more generally. An attempt to purchase a passport from one of these nations and travel using it will almost certainly be detected in the first world, as customs agents use quite sophisticated computer systems to check the validity of passports.
Some nations come close to allowing the sale of passports. These nations, which often depend heavily on offshore banking and finance to keep their economies afloat, have found it useful to allow wealthy investors to essentially buy a passport for an extremely hefty fee. Technically, the nations involved still issue passports to men and women who have suddenly acquired a new citizenship. In practice, since these nations usually only charge a very high fee to become citizens, this amounts to a legal system of selling passports.
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