Is it time to end the Significant Investor Visa program?

There have only been 10 visas that were granted since the overhauled Significant Investor Visa program was launched in July of last year, but in spite of that, Mr Steven Ciobo, the minister for the Australian Trade and Investment, has very high hopes for the program. Mr Ciobo expects that the number of individuals interested in the program is going to eventually pick up, and that all the changes made to it are on point.

Fund managers are thinking otherwise, however, saying that the severe decline in the SIV program which had a total of 1,544 submitted applications and 590 visas granted in the last 12 months prior to the changes that were made is because of a number of issues including the new version being much more complicated and also a requirement that the venture capital would have to be paid after 4 years, which is half the industry’s normal investment cycle.

A huge number of large asset managers who are active with the SIV program’s prior version have not been able to produce products that adhere to the new model. A few smaller firms are held off because of how expensive the anti corruption checks on prospective clients is. Aside from that, given that there is now the 4-year turnaround rule in place, it is also quite challenging to find investments of emerging companies which make a fast return and can be quickly sold. This, according to a report released by The Australian.

The Australian Productivity Commission has called to abolish the Significant Investor Visa program in 2016, as they believe that it may come out with social impacts that are far less favourable, partly because the holders of the investor visa are not asked for a requirement to speak in English, which is a standard qualification for most Australian visas. The investor visa program of Canada was thrown out back in 2014 as the country did not see a lot of economic value in it while the United Kingdom tightened its own investor visa program just recently after discovering that it had been exploited by its clients.

However, Mr Steven Ciobo, the Trade and Investment minister of Australia maintains that SIV is a program that the government remains firmly committed to. ”People want to take a little while to make sure all changes are understood,” Mr Ciobo stated. ”The previous program also started low and grew steadily.”

Source: MigrationAlliance.com.au