Australia ends golden visa for rich

The visa subcategory contained the number 888 – meaning three lucky in China. This code is no coincidence; The “Golden Visa” primarily enabled wealthy Chinese to obtain residency rights in Australia. 85 percent of successful applications were from the People's Republic. In total, more than 100,000 foreigners came to the continent this way.

Australia's Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil has now put an end to this influx of rich people: a business innovation and investment program introduced in 2012 to attract the wealthy to the country is being scrapped again. The program allowed foreigners who invested at least 5 million Australian dollars (2.86 million francs) to live in Australia.

Skilled immigrants bring more

Australian think tank Gratton Company He noted in 2022 that most “golden visas” in the “significant investor” category were not issued. Conversely, seven out of 10 visas went to people investing in small businesses in retail or hospitality. The Grattan Institute says these are industries unlikely to contribute to the program's stated objective of promoting innovation.

Program participants have fewer benefits than skilled immigrants because they tend to be older, speak little English and have lower incomes, the report noted.

Significant reduction in immigration

A government review also concluded that the program had not achieved its key objectives. The government had already said in December that it wanted to focus on visas for skilled migrants. The aim is to bring in more people with the skills Australia will need in the future.

At the time, Home Affairs Minister O'Neill announced that Australia wanted to reduce annual immigration by about 50 percent to about 250,000 people over the next two years.

Information about this was also published in Dinamani newspaper “Australian”, claims to have exposed foreign criminals and corrupt officials using the visa category to obtain Australian citizenship. Representatives of the Cambodian Hun Sen regime are said to have used this method. For too long, corrupt officials and kleptocrats have used “golden visas” as a vehicle to funnel illicit funds into Australia and hide their proceeds of crime, a Transparency International representative said. BBC.

According to experts, the abolition of visas and the allocation of places to applicants from the category of “qualified workers” will lead to a significant increase in tax revenue.

Australia isn't the first country to close its doors to wealthy immigrants: Great Britain decided to take similar action. However, other countries, such as Malta or Vanuadu, which bring rich people into the country in this way, continue to insist on their “golden tickets” despite criticism.