Australia’s government has decided to abolish the Significant Investor Visa (SVI) scheme, known as the Golden Visa program, which permitted wealthy foreign investors to acquire residency, provided they made a financial investment and met specified requirements.
Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil said the decision came after the scheme, introduced by Prime Minister of Australia Julia Gillard’s government in 2012, was part of a broken system that the Australian Labor Party had inherited, VisaGuide.World reports.
It has been obvious for years that this visa is not delivering what our country and economy need from a migration system. The investor visa is one of many aspects of the system which we are reforming to create a system which delivers for our country.
BIIV visas granted to foreigners as part of Australia’s migration program aimed to attract investors, business owners, and entrepreneurs to contribute to this country financially.
Australia’s Business Innovation and Investment Visa Scheme (BIIV) consists of the Business Innovation and Investment (Provisional) Visa (Subclass 188) and the Business Innovation and Investment (Permanent) Visa (Subclass 888). While subclass 188 is temporary, subclass 888 is permanent.
The Business Innovation and Investment (Provisional) Visa (Subclass 188) allows internationals to own and manage a business for a period of four years but does not offer them a permanent stay.
Streams under the Subclass 188 include the following ones:
- Business Innovation
- Investor
- Significant Investor streams
- Premium Investor
- Entrepreneur
At the same time, the Investment (Permanent) Visa (Subclass 888) is a permanent counterpart to Subclass 188. In order to benefit from Subclass 888, persons must have held a Subclass 188 visa for a specific period and met the needed conditions.
It offers a pathway to permanent residency for persons who have successfully made a designed investment, established a business, or met the conditions of other eligible streams under Subclass 188.
85% of Australian Golden Visas Granted to Chinese Nationals
Since its first introduction, thousands of Significant Investor Visas have been granted through this scheme, with a total of 85 percent of successful applicants coming from China, based on the data provided by the government.
The decision was also welcomed by the Chief Executive of Transparency International Australia, Clancy Moore, according to a report from BBC.
For far too long, corrupt officials and kleptocrats have used golden visas as a vehicle to park their illicit funds in Australia and arguably hide their proceeds of crime.
According to a BBC report, the scheme failed to meet its objectives, based on the government’s findings.
Residency and citizenship by investment schemes (RBI/CBI) are also offered in several European Union countries, with a recent report from the Financial Action Task Force and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) revealing that such schemes are being used by criminals and the corrupt for money laundering, tax evasion other similar irregular affairs.
Authorities in the United Kingdom, in 2022, put an end to a program offering fast-track residency to wealthy internationals.