Australia scraps ‘golden visas’ designed to attract wealthy investors

He Australian Government announced this Monday that it has eliminated ‘golden visas’, created to attract wealthy investors and from which Chinese citizens have mainly benefited, in an attempt to create a more efficient immigration system.

Australian Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil indicated that the Business Innovation and Investment Program (BIIP), known as the ‘golden visa’, has not worked as expected since it was introduced. in 2012.

“It has been obvious for years that this visa has not produced the results that our country and economy need from an immigration system”said O’Neil, according to the Australian media News.com.

This special visa was the gateway to obtaining residency in Australia for applicants who invested at least US$5 million in the country (about US$3.2 million or 3.02 million euros).

More than 80% of the investors who have obtained this visa come from Chinawhile other places of origin are Iran, Vietnam and India, among others.

Critics of the golden visa have denounced that this type of system benefits corrupt officials who travel to Australia to launder money of illegal origin.

Last December, the Australian Government indicated that it will boost visas for qualified workers and that it will try to reduce immigration from the 510,000 foreigners who arrived in the 2022-2023 fiscal year to 375,000 in the following fiscal year and 250,000 in 2024-2025.

Other countries with visas gold are Germany, the United States, Canada, the United Arab Emirates, Ireland, New Zealand, Italy and Spain.

In the case of Spain, people who come from outside the European Union can obtain the golden visa, introduced in 2013 and which allows residence and the right to work, in exchange for investing 500,000 euros in real estate properties, buying 2 million of euros of state bonds or creating a company, among other options.