Canada’s new millionaire migration scheme will be tiny, costly and strict
Scheme to take 50 applicants per year seems intended to deter rich Chinese and is 'ridiculously’ restrictive, says leading HK immigration lawyer
Canada has unveiled a keenly anticipated millionaire migration scheme to replace its defunct immigrant investor programme - but with rules so tight and an intake so small it will thwart all but a handful of the 45,000 rich Chinese who were dumped from the old scheme’s queue.
Immigration minister Chris Alexander on Tuesday announced that the intake for the new Immigrant Investor Venture Capital (IIVC) scheme would only be about 50 immigrants and their family members per year, confirming a December 4 report by the South China Morning Post.
Prominent Hong Kong immigration lawyer Jean-Francois Harvey said the scheme was so restrictive as to be “totally ridiculous”.
Alexander said the pilot programme, which opens for applications next month, would require immigrants to hand over an investment of C$2 million for a period of 15 years, and that they be able to demonstrate minimum net worth of C$10 million. They would also have to submit to an audit to demonstrate that their wealth was a result of “lawful, profit-making business activities”, Citizenship and Immigration Canada said in a statement.
“Immigrant investors will be required to meet certain program eligibility criteria related to language and education, and have proven business or investment experience,” the CIC statement said. “This will ensure that immigrant investors will have a strong impact on the Canadian economy, and that those admitted for permanent residence will be well prepared to integrate into the Canadian business landscape and society.”
The new rules are much more strict than those governing the former immigrant investor programme, which was shut down in June, resulting in the scrapping of 60,000 pending applications, most of them from Chinese millionaires.
“While I know they will get their 50 cases a year, it is a totally ridiculous programme,” Harvey, managing partner of the Harvey Law Group, said of the new scheme.