Chinese snap up Australia 'significant investor' visas
90pc of applicants to Australian residency scheme for 'significant investors' launched just over a year ago are wealthy mainland nationals
Nine out of 10 applicants for an Australian immigration scheme aimed at wealthy investors are from the mainland and they have pumped a total of A$325 million (HK$2.2 billion) into their new country of residence in the first year since the launch of the plan.
Sixty-five "significant investor" visas have been granted to mainlanders and 91 per cent of the 545 applicants for the permits were Chinese nationals since the scheme began just over a year ago, according to figures from the Australian Department of Immigration and Border Protection.
Paul Bernadou, a Hong Kong-based migration lawyer, said 90 per cent of his clients were mainlanders and Australia was their second choice after Hong Kong.
The requirements for an Australian significant investor visa are a A$5 million investment and clean criminal record, but there is a "momentous amount of paperwork", which was partly the reason for a slow start to the scheme, with three visas granted in the first six months, said Bernadou.
"Chinese people don't really worry about paperwork. They just want to do business and if in a few years they'd like to migrate, you often find the paperwork is missing," he said.
The Australian government launched the scheme in November 2012, which it expected would bring 700 rich new residents and A$3.5 billion a year in investment into government bonds and compliant funds.