Australia may ease visas for rich Chinese
Print Edition
AUSTRALIA may ease rules on a visa scheme to lure investment from wealthy Chinese to help clear a backlog of applications and in the wake of complaints that disclosure requirements are too strict, lawyers and migration agents said.
The 18-month-old Significant Investor Visa scheme offers residency to overseas individuals who invest more than A$5 million (US$4.6 million) in Australia under a program the government hopes will eventually raise A$6 billion a year. More than 90 percent of applicants are from China.
Finding the right balance is a challenge for the government, said Jerry Gomez, a lawyer and registered migration agent, especially at a time when China has launched a sweeping crackdown on corruption that has among other things targeted officials who transfer ill-gotten gains offshore.
“High net-worth individuals in China are very private in relation to their wealth,” Rita Chowdhury, a member of the Law Council of Australia’s migration law committee told parliament.
“They definitely have a lot of concerns about providing information about their financial circumstances to a government body. They also have suspicions that the Australian government could be passing that information to the Chinese government.”
Approvals for the visas have progressed at a snail’s pace.
By the end of June, just 286 visas had been approved compared with 1,497 “expressions of interest,” according to data from the Immigration Department.
At least 20 percent of applications are either withdrawn or rejected, largely for want of more disclosures on the sources of funding, said Bill Fuggle, a partner at law firm Baker & McKenzie LLP.
“You don’t want dirty money but you also have to give a reasonable guideline about how to prove that money is not dirty. The government is now trying to do that,” he said. “At the moment, it’s just a guess.”
Australia has said it wants to speed up approvals and lawyers and agents expect it to clarify rules on source of funding by specifying timeframe and evidence to prove the money is clean.
It is also likely to allow more products for investments.
The new rules will likely be announced by November.
The government wanted “to facilitate rather than frustrate such investment programs,” a spokesman for Assistant Minister for Immigration and Border Protection Michaelia Cash said in an e-mailed response, though he declined to give details of the new rules.
The number of applications are set to rise after Canada canceled a similar program this year, saying it “significantly undervalued Canadian” permanent residency.
Wealthy Chinese are also being attracted by cash-strapped southern European economies, including Portugal, Spain, Greece and Cyprus.
However, China has recently been cracking down on so-called naked officials, whose spouse and children have emigrated.
Australia’s immigration department said it was aware of the potential for “serious economic fraud” and said it refers suspicious matters to police. Some applicants are also reported to authorities in China or other home countries for background checks.
“Decisions to grant a SIV are only made following careful and informed assessment of an applicant’s financial circumstances,” the spokesman for Cash said, referring to the Significant Investor Visa.
Lawyers and agents said it was clear some applicants were trying to use the scheme to hide ill-gotten money, but the practice was not widespread and faced significant hurdles.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
