Canadian Immigration in 2012: In the era of high prices for investment immigration, Canada’s immigration threshold has been significantly raised

Canadian Immigration in 2012: The threshold for Canadian immigration has been significantly raised in the era of high investment immigration prices

One afternoon in mid-April, Mr. Yang, who lives in Xishan District, Kunming, received a text message: "Urgent Notice: The Canadian immigration fee will be increased to $1.5 million, Quebec immigration will be closed within 2 months, and the U.S. immigration fee will be increased to at least one million. "The text message was sent by an immigration agency, with contact information attached:" 3644×××”.

Mr. Yang has never thought about immigration, and has never paid attention to the information released by immigration agencies. His first reaction when he saw this text message was: "Is this another scam?"

In fact, although the news he received about "increased immigration fees" was slightly sensational, But it's not false information. Recently, the immigration policies of some immigration hotspot countries have indeed changed, and the cost of immigration has also increased, and the amount is beyond the reach of ordinary people.

Canada’s “Tightening” Investment Immigration Policy

On March 21, the Canadian Immigration Bureau of Quebec announced new investment immigration review reform measures, setting application limits for investment immigrants: since 2012 From 7 pm on March 21, 2013 to 7 pm on March 31, 2013, only 2,700 investment immigration applications will be accepted from all over the world.

As soon as the news came out, various domestic immigration agencies launched a fierce competition for these 2,700 application places. All "parts" in this business chain must work overtime and get things done quickly. Metro Times reporters learned from some immigration agencies in Kunming that the Chinese investment immigration application materials that previously took 2 to 4 weeks to translate are now required to be completed as soon as possible within 1 week; the original third-party evaluation agency was required to issue proof of the applicant’s property and assets. The period of 2 to 4 weeks is now required to be reduced to 1 to 2 weeks.

To apply for investment immigration to Quebec, Canada, applicants need to prove that their property and income sources are legal. This is not simple: in addition to needing to issue a property certificate with a net worth of more than 1.6 million Canadian dollars (according to the foreign exchange market exchange rate on May 5, 1 Canadian dollar = 6.32 yuan. 1.6 million Canadian dollars is approximately 10 million yuan), you must also Attach relevant proof of asset sources such as tax receipts, salary slips, etc. Precisely because time is so tight, it is difficult for ordinary applicants to prepare relevant certificates within 1 to 2 weeks. If we had waited until all the information was ready, the 2,700 places might have been snatched up long ago.

That is indeed the case. Shortly after Canada's Quebec Immigration Service began to implement the new policy, more than 1,200 application quotas were "preemptively booked." As of April 11, the Quebec Immigration Service announced that the 2,700 application quotas were full, and the application door was closed until it is planned to reopen next year.

Shortly after Quebec announced this policy change, the Canadian federal government also took a drastic step and announced that it would refund a total of approximately 130 million yuan (approximately 820 million yuan) in application fees to nearly 300,000 Canadians. Immigration applicants. The purpose is "to clear up the backlog of cases." Canadian Immigration Minister Jason Kenney announced that all backlogged federal skilled immigration applications that were submitted before February 27, 2008 but have not yet been finalized will be cancelled. As many as 280,000 people are affected. If these people still want to immigrate to Canada, they need to resubmit their immigration application.

Those who are preparing to immigrate know very well that if they fail to squeeze into this bus and wait until next year or later to apply for Canadian investment immigration, the threshold will be set higher.

The increase in immigration thresholds is inevitable

In recent years, “tightening” has been the overall trend in Canada’s immigration policy. In December 2010, the asset requirements and investment quota for Canadian federal and Quebec investment immigrants were almost doubled: the asset requirement was increased from 800,000 Canadian dollars (RMB 5 million) to 1.6 million Canadian dollars, and the investment threshold ("no return") ” form, that is, choosing to pay a specified amount of funds in one lump sum to a designated immigration fund) increased from 120,000 Canadian dollars (approximately 750,000 yuan) to 220,000 Canadian dollars (approximately 1.4 million yuan).

However, although the asset and investment amount standards for applicants have been raised, there is still an endless stream of people who want to immigrate to Canada. As of July 1, 2011, Canada's immigration application backlog has exceeded 920,000.

Among them, the most serious backlog is for federal skilled immigrants, with a backlog of more than 480,000 cases. Canada already has the worst backlog of immigration applications in the world.

As early as July 1, 2011, the Canadian Immigration Department implemented a global quota of 700 for federal investment immigrants. However, the response of applicants surprised the Canadian immigration department. On the same day, all 700 places were filled. The suspension of Canada’s federal investment immigration program has made the Quebec investment immigration project even more exciting.

The text message sent by the immigration agency mentioned that "Canadian immigration fees will rise to $1.5 million, Quebec immigration will be closed within 2 months, and US immigration fees will rise to at least one million." The second item has actually become a fact, and “the Canadian immigration fee will rise to $1.5 million” is no exaggeration.

Previously it was reported that the Canadian investment immigration program will be reopened in July this year. The investment amount ("return after 5 years") will be in the form of loaning a specified amount of funds to a designated immigration fund for 5 years. The same amount of principal will be returned later) will exceed 1.5 million Canadian dollars (approximately 9.5 million yuan), and the asset requirement will increase to 4 million Canadian dollars (approximately 25 million yuan). Although the Canadian Immigration Minister later stated that "the Immigration Department has not made a decision yet," he also claimed that the Immigration Department believed that the investment requirement of 800,000 Canadian dollars was indeed too low.

It can be expected that in the future, further contraction of Canada’s immigration policy will be inevitable, and the “rise” and “increase” of investment will also become inevitable.

A series of reactions brought about by the improvement of immigration conditions

Canada is not the only country that has tightened its immigration policy and raised its application standards. In the United States, the EB-5 visa (i.e. investment immigration) bill, which has the shortest approval time and the least restrictive qualifications for investment immigration applications, will expire on September 30 this year. News that "the United States will raise immigration application standards" is constantly heard. One of the most popular statements is: "The United States will increase the minimum investment amount from the current US$500,000 (approximately 3.14 million yuan) to US$1 million (approximately 6.28 million yuan)."

On April 23, the Gallup Consulting Company, an authoritative U.S. survey agency, announced on its website that a set of latest survey results showed that more than 640 million people around the world have the intention to immigrate, which accounts for approximately 10% of the world’s adult population. 13% of the population. Among these people, about 150 million people have expressed their desire to immigrate to the United States; the number of Chinese people who want to immigrate to the United States reaches 22 million, ranking first in the world. Gallup has been conducting surveys on global immigration trends since 2007. Over the years, the United States has continuously become "the country people most want to immigrate to." It seems that the situation of "U.S. immigration payment rising to one million" is just around the corner.

In addition, countries such as Singapore and Australia that are particularly popular with Chinese immigrants have also raised the threshold for investment immigrants in the past two years. Since 2011, Singapore has adjusted the minimum amount of investment immigration from the original S$1.5 million (approximately RMB 7.5 million) to S$2.5 million (approximately RMB 12.5 million).

Major immigration countries’ tightening of immigration channels will naturally trigger a series of chain reactions.

In response to the Canadian Department of Immigration’s decision to invalidate the backlog of federal skilled immigration applications submitted before February 27, 2008, many applicants from mainland China and Hong Kong held a meeting in front of the Canadian Consulate in Hong Kong on April 30* . Some people in the angry crowd held slogans such as "We want justice, no refunds" to express their serious dissatisfaction with Canada's immigration policy, which "changes at will". On the same day, many immigration applications were held simultaneously in more than ten cities in the United Kingdom, India, Pakistan and other countries. But *after all*, their most pragmatic approach is to quickly prepare materials and submit applications to avoid being squeezed out next time.

As one of the major immigrant-sending countries, China has been particularly affected by changes in other countries’ immigration policies. An example is: On April 24, Sichuan Airlines held a Vancouver route promotion conference and announced that it would launch the Chengdu-Shenyang-Vancouver international route on June 22. This route will be the first route to North America in the western region and will radiate to the entire southwestern region of China, including Yunnan. Advertisements for the new route are widely publicized in the Kunming market, which also shows that there is demand potential in Kunming.

Kunming people with immigration plans:

Immigration is for the education of the next generation

On the afternoon of April 26, an immigration lecture was held at Shuncheng West Tower 12 Held in a hall on the first floor, the reporter listened as a potential immigration client. The speaker, Wang Qing, is from Beijing. She is the chief consultant of an immigration agency and the project manager for the United States and Canada. On that day, in addition to reporters, 18 people came to listen to the lecture, including 2 elderly people, 13 middle-aged people, and the remaining 3 young people around 30 years old.

The speaker asked the audience about their country of immigration intention, and asked everyone to raise their hands. The largest number of people want to immigrate to Canada, followed by the United States, while other places such as Australia, the United Kingdom, and Singapore are only destinations for individual people.

"The threshold for immigrating to Canada is getting higher and higher!" During the lecture, Wang Qing pointed out the current immigration situation and displayed various data changes in the immigration market in recent years on a PPT. She used the word "severe" to express her pessimistic view of Canada's federal and Quebec immigration policies, and reminded everyone to speed up the submission of application materials and even adjust their immigration plans. "The reason is actually very simple, that is, there are more and more applicants."

Wang Qing's change in work intensity can also reflect that "more and more people in China are trying to immigrate." "In 2007, I was working a leisurely job from nine to five. I didn't have to work overtime at all, and I could sign a few contracts every month." But this situation is obviously no longer applicable. She now "has to work overtime and deliver the goods to customers as soon as possible." application".

Since the reporter set the “immigration target” to Canada and appeared relatively young among the audience, he received an “extra reminder” from Wang Qing: “Investment immigration to Canada requires meeting the required asset conditions.

In addition, you must have more than two years of business management experience." She pointed to the direction where the reporter was sitting and said, "I said this for a purpose. I don’t know what your specific situation is, but you should pay attention to this.” In her opinion, the reporter obviously does not look like someone with “more than two years of business management experience.”

"But isn't Canada's immigration policy "one person immigrate, the whole family immigrate"?" the reporter asked.

“If you are applying for immigration with your parents, the children are required to be no more than 21 years old.” Wang Qing explained.

At the lecture, in addition to paying more attention to specific investment projects, the audience also focused more on the specific conditions of the immigration target countries, and their main concern was the education situation. “How many students are there in each class?” “What does the curriculum include?” “Are there other Chinese students in the school?” These are all questions they are concerned about. For them, the education of the next generation is a reason to immigrate abroad. During the conversation, they were generally dissatisfied with the teaching quality of domestic schools. In addition to the low quality of education, the arrangement of more than 60 to 70 students per class in domestic schools is also difficult for these parents to accept. Considering the future of the next generation, they decided to send their children to foreign countries for education.

In 2007, the "Global Politics and Security Report" released by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences pointed out that China is becoming the world's largest immigrant exporting country. The number of Chinese immigrants around the world has reached 35 million, accounting for approximately 18.3% of the total number of international immigrants.

In April 2011, the "2011 China Private Wealth Report" released by China Merchants Bank and Bain & Company showed that among business owners with personal assets exceeding RMB 100 million, 27% have immigrated and 47% are in the process of immigrating. Considering immigration; among those with personal assets exceeding RMB 10 million, nearly 60% have completed investment immigration or are considering it.

After the immigration lecture, the reporter tried to communicate with other audience members and wanted to "familiarize themselves with the immigration process and what issues should be paid attention to," but it was not smooth. Helplessly, when the reporter revealed his true identity, a Mr. Lin, who clearly knew all the immigration issues well, said that he had "just begun to understand" and then left.

This mentality is not difficult to understand. Anyone who can invest and immigrate abroad has a wealthy personal property and can basically be called a "rich person". In recent years, in ordinary people's minds, the immigration of wealthy people abroad always brings about speculations such as "the source of their assets is unknown and their money is taken away". In addition, the gap between the rich and the poor has widened in society in recent years, and the sentiment of "hatred of the rich" has been growing again and again. It is reasonable for the rich to have an increased "consciousness of self-protection".

Immigration Story

Already registered as a “foreign household registration”, but still Chinese at heart

Although there are many Chinese immigrants, they mostly appear in numbers and rarely appear. In the public eye. It's hard to find someone who's willing to tell you their immigration story. After many twists and turns, the reporter finally found an immigrant from Yunnan who was willing to "have a chat."

The "fairly smooth" Canadian immigration process

Wang Da, 42 years old, has sparse hair and a slightly chubby figure. He is a typical middle-aged man. He grew up in a rural area in Yuxi. After graduating from middle school, he worked with relatives on construction sites. From foreman, small foreman, foreman to project contractor, the process of "upgrading" also completed his initial accumulation of capital.

In 2004, Wang Da stayed in Beijing for a while and "made some friends." At that time, friends were optimistic about the housing market in Beijing, so he followed suit and bought two houses in Beijing. At that time, the price was only a few thousand yuan per square meter, but now, those two houses alone are enough to make Wang Da a multi-millionaire.

After no longer contracting engineering projects, Wang Da started a building materials business in Kunming, and later expanded his business to Beijing. He hoped to have a Beijing household registration, but later a friend told him: "Beijing household registration is not easy to achieve, but investment immigration is much easier."

At that time, his son's education problems had also been worrying Wang Da. . "Then immigrate!" Through a friend's introduction, Wang Da met the owner of an immigration agency. It was also from this time that he began to understand something about immigration. The more he learned about it, the more enthusiastic he found himself about it. According to him, "I began to truly understand the benefits of immigration." He also had frequent contact with several immigration agencies.

After repeated weighing and comparison, Wang Da chose Canada as his immigration destination. “I meet all the conditions for immigrating to Canada, and considering that my children’s education from elementary school to high school there is free, and The whole family can enjoy free medical care and other benefits. We think this is a very cost-effective option.”

The process of preparing materials, submitting applications, and interviewing is not a lot of trouble, but the process of transferring money is a hassle. Wang Da tried his best. The investment form Wang Da chose was "return after 5 years", which required him to transfer an investment of 400,000 Canadian dollars (approximately 2.5 million yuan based on the current exchange rate) to a fund account designated by Canada. After 5 years, this amount The money will be returned without interest; he also has another option, which is to pay a one-time payment of 120,000 Canadian dollars (about 750,000 yuan based on the current exchange rate), but will not receive any refund. This form is usually directly understood as "Spend 120,000 Canadian dollars to buy a Canadian household registration for the whole family."

Transferring 400,000 Canadian dollars is not an easy task. Wang Da struggled with several banks for almost ten times, because according to regulations, a cross-border remittance in China cannot exceed 50,000 Canadian dollars. "What a toss-up!" Recalling it, Wang Da still couldn't help but sigh.

After passing the physical examination, Wang Da and his family obtained Canadian immigration visas. The whole process went smoothly.

“In recent years, there have been more and more immigrants from China.”

Six months after immigrating, at the end of 2009, Wang Da decided to buy a house, a villa, in Canada. This cost him 6.8 million yuan.

Wang Da said that when he decided to buy a house, it was more for investment. "Did you know? Vancouver's overall housing prices have basically never fallen after the financial crisis. Not only have they not fallen, but they are also on the rise."

Looking at it now, Wang Da's vision is indeed good. Over the next two years, Vancouver's housing market continued to improve. In 2011, Vancouver jumped into the ranks of the global real estate market with the highest housing prices, and outside analysts generally believe that it was mainly because Chinese buyers flocked to Canada in large numbers, pushing up local housing prices in Vancouver.

"There have indeed been more and more immigrants from China in recent years. As far as I know, there are especially many immigrants coming to Canada. Take our community as an example. It is estimated that most of them are Chinese." Although he bought a house, Wang Da did not just stay in Canada. His son is studying in Canada and his wife often lives there. He himself often needs to fly back and forth between Kunming, Beijing and Vancouver. Because his business is still in China. "There are many situations like mine! Almost all immigrant friends I know are in this situation. It can be said that there are basically no cases of people leaving China completely after immigrating." He said calmly.

There are many details that Wang Da is unwilling to disclose. He believes that those are personal privacy. But there is one thing he is proud of. He seemed to reveal it to reporters in a somewhat ostentatious manner: many people around him have no idea that he has immigrated. (Reporter Li Yiqiang)

Instructions for Canadian Investment Immigration

Federal Investment Immigration: The total assets under the name of the couple exceed 1.6 million Canadian dollars, and the assets must be obtained through legitimate business efforts, and need to be submitted Company documents or legal proof of source of funds. It is required to have more than 2 years of company management experience in the last 5 years. If you are a company executive, you are required to have at least 5 employees below you. Applicants must invest 800,000 Canadian dollars in accordance with the requirements of the Immigration Bureau, with an investment period of 5 years (the government will return the principal after 5 years, but without interest) or invest with a loan, and pay the interest of 220,000 Canadian dollars to a company designated and guaranteed by the Canadian government. Fund, with a loan of C$800,000 through the Fund. Applicants are required to have no criminal record and be in good health.

Quebec investment immigration: The requirements for Quebec investment immigration are basically the same as those for federal investment immigration, but an interview is required. This province is a province with independent immigration selection rights.

Saskatchewan Investment Immigration, PNP Manitoba (referred to as Manitoba) Investment Immigration, and PEI Prince’s Island Investment Immigration Program: all three places require you to apply for a visa first, conduct a business inspection, and Submit a complete business plan. You need to pay an investment and entrepreneurship deposit of 75,000 yuan to the local immigration bureau, invest in a business of at least 150,000 Canadian dollars (the investment and entrepreneurship deposit can be returned after the investment), open a new business or purchase an existing enterprise, if it is to invest in an old company , must hold more than 1/3 of the shares or more than 1 million Canadian dollars, and must also participate in daily management work. (The specific amount, applicant’s age and language proficiency requirements vary slightly)