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Chinese flock to Australia on the 'golden ticket' visa
To obtain Australian permanent residency intending migrants have to spend $5 million and agree to live in Australia for a minimum of only 40 days a year for four years.
Organisations such as Ord Minnett, Macquarie Cash Fund, Otan and Nab Private Wealth have their sights squarely set on the massive pool of funds which are likely to be worth a whopping $3.5 billion a year. This means that investments banks and consulting firms are now spending a good proportion of their time positioning themselves for the golden ticket visa. And this visa is the fortune visa, the 888!
Migration Alliance estimates that 99% of all potential 888 investor visa 'golden ticket' applicants are nouveau riche Chinese. The Sydney Morning Herald reports that migrants from 'Asia, India, South America, Russia and Taiwan are also keen'.
Whilst Immigration Minister Scott Morrison MP is insisting that legislative requirements should focus on entrepreneurship and economic value, not just capital, the reality is that from where most of Australia sits, it looks like the government is literally selling Australia.
Bob Birrell of Monash University has said that it is like 'treating Australia as a commodity'.
The criteria to win one of these golden ticket visas is quite low by Chinese standards. For a lot of millionaires in China, $5 million is not a lot of money for a new life in a new country without much effort. They get to re-invest the money and dictate to a certain degree how the $5 million is to be spent.
New South Wales is competing for the wealthy migrants and is trying to ensure that $1.5 million from every $5 million is invested in a Waratah Bond (state infrastructure). In Victoria, Registered Migration Agents are still waiting on the Victorian government to release it's guidelines.
Interest in the new visa - referred to as the ''golden visa'' among migration agents - is strong, according to most of the agents interviewed by Fairfax Media.
Agents, lawyers and investment bankers, who have been conducting seminars on the visa for business people in China, say it is more attractive than former business skills visas because it has no English language test and no age limit. That is interesting. No English Language test for a non-Australian, but that's ok, they have money so that makes it ok (cough)! Overseas migrants need not sit an English Test but Australian RMAs must sit one from 1 Jan 2014. And the latter is bringing the former to Australia. It 'no makie sensie'.
With an estimated 700 new Significant Investor visas set to be approved each year that is a huge amount of money coming into our malnourished economy.
The Sydney Morning Herald recently reported that Chinese wealth by research group Hurun. Hurun publish a China Rich List every year. Hurun found that China now has more than 1 million millionaires and 85 per cent of them plan to send their children overseas to be educated.....and Australia is on their target list.
