The number of Chinese citizens who secured investor visas to
the UK doubled last year.
A total of 357 British “Tier 1” investor visas were issued
to Chinese nationals during the 12 months to the end of September, accounting
for 43 per cent of all investor visas issued during that period, according to
UK government data. These visas could be obtained in return for a £1m
investment in gilts or British companies’ shares or bonds, a limit that has
since been raised to £2m. People willing to invest at least £5m can apply to
settle in the UK after three years while those who invest at least £10m can
apply after two years.
Statistics from other popular destination countries such as
the US, Australia and Portugal have shown an explosion in the number of rich
Chinese trying to gain residency or citizenship abroad in the past few years.
The latest figures from the US show mainland Chinese
applicants made up more than 85 per cent of the nearly 11,000 people who
received “EB-5” investor visas in the US in the year to September. Foreigners
who invest at least $500,000 in approved projects in the US that create or
preserve at least 10 jobs are eligible to apply for the EB-5, which gives them
a green card and eventual citizenship in the US.
In June last year, Canada scrapped a similar federal
investor visa scheme, including a large backlog of applications, saying it had
not benefited the country as expected and “undervalued” Canadian citizenship.
Russian investors are the second-largest group to take
advantage of the British scheme, with 184 of them receiving visas in the 12
months to September, an increase of 57 per cent from a year earlier.
No comments:
Post a Comment