MacroBusiness
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at 10:20 am on April 19, 2021 | 18 comments
The Significant Investor Visa (SIV) program is a ‘fast-track’ residency scheme that can lead to Australian citizenship, and requires participants to spend $5 million over four years on complying investments in order to receive citizenship.
Since its inception, the SIV program has brought around $11.6 billion into Australia. However, it was criticised by the Productivity Commission (PC) as prone to fraud and money laundering, with the PC recommending the SIV program be scrapped altogether:
Because there are no English-language requirements for the Significant Investor Visa and Premium Investor Visa, and no upper age limits, it is likely that these immigrants will generate less favourable social impacts than other immigrants. Further, compared to other visa streams, investor visas are prone to misuse and fraud. Concerns about visa fraud played a part in the Canadian Government’s decision
Coalition green-lights money laundering visas
at 11:00 am on December 18, 2020 | 24 comments
The Morrison Government has tightened some business and investment visas, but curiously left the ‘golden ticket’ Significant Investor Visa (SIV) commonly used for money laundering untouched:
Business migrants will face tougher requirements under changes to investment visas that have so far drawn in at least $12 billion from mostly Chinese nationals.
The existing nine different business and investment visas will be cut back to four with various thresholds of required investment adjusted…
The Business Innovation visa, which allows migrants to operate a new or existing business in Australia, will remain but applicants will now be required to hold business assets of $1.25 million, up from $800,000.