Australia to Offer Fast Track Visa for Expat Millionaires

Expat Globe

Wealthy potential expats looking at Australia for their next offshore destination may have a new opportunity to get fast tracked for a visa thanks to new rules announced recently.

Australian immigration minister Chris Bowen said: “The Significant Investor visa is an important new tool in the armoury of Australia’s financial services sector, as Australia looks to compete in our region for high-wealth and high-skilled migrants and the capital that comes with them.”

Individuals investing AU$5m in qualifying bonds, infrastructure projects and managed funds in Australia will be granted a quick route to an Australian visa. The new policy circumvents the current point and aged based qualifying requirements.

It is hoped the new rules will prompt the growing number of Chinese high net worth individuals to invest their fortunes in Australia and also that the investment will plug the funding gap that exists for many australian infrastructure projects.

Australia isn’t the first Western country to introduce such a scheme with the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Canada among those who have had similar policies in place.

However, The Telegraph reports one disgruntled expat (an important political constituency in Australia) as saying, “It seems a bit two-faced as Australia has a reputation of turning away asylum seekers and boat people, yet is bending over backwards to accept foreigners just because they are wealthy. Thankfully I qualified under the points system, as I’m not quite a millionaire yet.”

it is important that all exapts seeking offshore investment advice consult an IFA.

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