Australia has recently suspended the Significant Investor Visa (SIV) in the “Business Innovation and Investment Program” (BIIP), commonly known as the “Golden Visa”, which means that individuals need to invest more than 5 million Australian dollars (approximately HK$25.77 million) in business innovation; at the same time It also cracks down on student visas. According to industry insiders, there are three levels of student visas. The worst-ranked level three includes applicants from China, India and Nepal. This is mainly due to the appearance of applicants who pretend to be studying but are actually working. “Speculation”, but application for student visas in Hong Kong and Taiwan will not be affected. (Written by: Wendy Global Real Estate)
Retirees abuse golden visa and make low economic contribution
Australia has issued thousands of SIVs through BIIP since 2012. This visa has also been dubbed the “golden visa”. This type of immigration has no English requirements and no age limit. Applicants are mainly business innovation, investors, and major investments. investors, senior investors and entrepreneurs, etc. If the application is successful, you will be granted five-year residency, which will lay the foundation for your subsequent application for permanent residency. The plan was originally intended to attract more foreign investment, but the Australian government found that its actual benefits to the economy were not good, so it made the decision to terminate it.
Australian Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil confirmed that the suspension of this type of visa is part of the local government’s plan to adjust the immigration system, and mentioned that such visas have not helped Australia and the economy benefit from the immigration system over the years. Because these immigrants usually come to Australia in the later stages of their lives and after their careers, basically for retirement.
According to a 2022 report by the Grattan Institute, an Australian think tank, most of the successful golden visa applicants are elderly and poor English speakers. Research shows that each of them contributed only 600,000 Australian dollars (approximately 3.08 million Hong Kong dollars) to Australia in their lifetime, less than half of Australian citizens. The Australian earlier revealed that Chinese criminals and corrupt officials used relevant programs to obtain Australian citizenship.
Yu Weilong, founder of the Smart2Go immigration platform, said that in fact, the visa application quota was gradually suspended last year. The Australian authorities feel that the entire immigration policy has been abused, and the current government wants to plug loopholes. Since the application condition for the 5 million Australian dollar significant investor visa is that English and any conditions of stay are not required, the applicant may not be able to stay in Australia for a long time. The desire to reside is purely a backup plan for “buying status with money” and will not be of much help to Australia’s real economy. In addition, most of the applicants will not work locally, or their business is simply in their home country, and they will not go to Australia until retirement. They have not paid any tax to the Australian government in the past 10 to 20 years of their lives, except for investment. Local real estate or the purchase of financial products will not benefit much the actual local economy. They are not the talents that Australia wants to attract, so the authorities intend to cancel this policy.
Thousands of people have obtained golden visas in recent years, 85% of which are Chinese.
According to statistics from the Australian Department of Home Affairs, since 2012, more than 100,000 overseas immigrants have obtained Australian residency through the Business Innovation and Investment Immigration Program, and between 2022 and 2023, thousands of people have obtained visas, 85% of whom have obtained visas. for the Chinese.
On the other hand, student visa applications hit a new high. According to monthly visa data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), as of July last year, a total of 654,870 temporary student visas had been issued, a record high, an increase of about 300,000 year-on-year, and about 10% higher than the peak before the new coronavirus epidemic. Ten thousand copies.
While pretending to study and actually working, China, India, and Nepal are among the lowest class
Yu Weilong said that there are too many student visa applications and they are easily abused. For example, some students applied for a student visa to immigrate to Australia, but were unable to graduate for a long time. The reasons for failure to graduate were either failure to meet local academic requirements or insufficient English proficiency. The applicants were even unqualified and would continue to apply for re-study. Some applicants Failure to graduate as scheduled for 10 years has inadvertently turned the student visa into a “temporary permanent visa.” The applicant may never graduate, but his purpose is to work part-time locally. For example, if an applicant from a relatively backward country studies in Australia, even if he works part-time, his income is still higher than his full-time income in his place of origin, forming a “fake” Studying is really hard work.”
Currently, there are three levels for applying for an Australian student visa, with the lowest level being Level 3. Yu Weilong revealed that currently, China, India, and Nepal are all classified into the third level. The most affected are the third level applicants. Almost every 10 applications will be “exposed”. He pointed out that applicants in this category were still rejected even if they graduated from university, were 22 years old, and had an IELTS score of 6.5 in English. On the contrary, applications from students from Hong Kong and Taiwan will not be affected. Hong Kong people can still use the old lifeboat scheme, but the English IELTS requirement may be increased from 6 to 6.5.
The original article was published on AM730
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2024-01-25 20:30:49
