Australia visa: Why the country decided to end "golden visas" for the wealthy

Illustrative image,

The “Golden Visa” was originally designed to attract foreign investment

author, Hannah Ritchie
scroll, From BBC News in Sydney
5 hours ago

Australia has decided to end the so-called “golden visa”, which guaranteed rich foreign investors the right to live in the country.

It was intended to attract foreign business, but was scaled back in immigration reforms after the government found it brought “poor economic results.”

Critics of the feature have long argued that the scheme was being used by “corrupt people” to hide money from illicit sources.

Thousands of Significant Investor Visas (SIV) have been granted through the program since 2012. According to the government, 85% of successful applicants were from China.

Introduced as a way to boost foreign investment and stimulate innovation, candidates were required to invest more than A$5 million (R$16.3 million) in Australia.

After multiple reviews, the government concluded that the scheme failed to achieve its main objectives.

In a document published in December 2023, it announced it would scrap it, focusing instead on creating more visas for “skilled migrants” able to “make significant contributions to Australia”.

“It has been clear for years that this visa does not meet the needs of our country and our economy,” Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neill said in a statement issued on Monday (22/1).

Clancy Moore, chief executive of Transparency International Australia, welcomed the move.

“For too long, corrupt officials and corrupt rulers have used golden visas as a way to bring illicit money into Australia,” he told the BBC.

The program has already been the target of intense questioning due to its alleged “loopholes” and “vulnerabilities.”

Bill Browder, who is widely credited with creating the Magnitsky Act, a US law intended to punish people for abuses committed abroad, also criticized the scheme.

In 2016, a government investigation raised concerns about “the potential for money laundering and other nefarious activity.” While in 2022, an Australian newspaper reported that members of Hun Sen's regime in Cambodia were among the bad actors exploiting the regime.

The government investigation also concluded that the visas brought people with “lower business acumen” to Australia than others who would have arrived otherwise, while also providing tax benefits that were costly to the public purse.

Some asset managers rejected these valuations, arguing that SIV's investment ended up being much larger than A$5 million.

Australia now joins the UK in abandoning a scheme offering fast-track residency for the super-rich in 2022 due to concerns about the influx of illicit Russian money.

So-called golden visa schemes are also under pressure in Malta, which grants fast-track citizenship to wealthy non-EU citizens.

In 2022, an investigation found that visas were being granted after people had spent just a few days in the island nation, while the European Union raised concerns about the risks of money laundering, tax evasion and corruption.