Image via WikipediaA report issued by China Merchant Bank and global management consulting firm Bain & Company indicates about 60 percent of China's multimillionaires are considering becoming or have already become immigrant investors. As Zhang Cheng reports, most immigrant investors are heading to developed countries.
More Chinese are turning to investment immigration for visas to reside in developed countries such as the United States and Canada.
To get a visa, they must invest in certain funds or business programs in the country so they eventually can become permanent citizens.
Huang Xiaoliang, an attorney in her thirties, is considering becoming an immigrant investor.
"I used to study abroad, and I like the lifestyle. You will have less pressure in your work and social life. As an attorney, it is more difficult for us to do skills-based immigration."
Skills-based immigration means a citizen of a foreign nation is granted permanent residency in another country because he or she possesses in-demand professional abilities and language proficiency.
Huang Xiangliang says she is still thinking about which country she would like to immigrate to and the field in which she would like to invest.
Robert Mu, a registered immigration lawyer from AAE Group, an investment immigration consultancy, says most of his clients choose to do invest immigration in the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and the UK. They choose different fields according to each country's relevant regulations.
"Different countries have different policies. For example, in Canada, they just invest in government-approved funds, then the funds will invest in some projects to support local economic development. But for U.S. immigration, investors can only invest in U.S. Immigration Bureau-approved projects. In Australia, they can just buy bonds issued by the state government."
Mu says Chinese immigrant investors usually come from wealthy provinces or municipalities, including Guangdong, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Shanghai.
Song Quancheng, Director of the Institute of Immigration Studies at Shandong University, explains the immigration trend.
"Internationally speaking, immigration is a result of globalization. Globalization leads to the flow of capital, technology and commodities, and population flow contributes part of it. Domestically speaking, people are pursuing an even better lifestyle. At the same time, some people, especially rich people like multimillionaires, are worried about maintaining the value of their fortune in China, so they choose to transfer it abroad."
The report by China Merchant Bank and Bain & Company indicates the risk appetite of wealthy Chinese has fallen. Nearly half of those surveyed said they wanted to disperse investment risk.
For CRI, this is Zhang Cheng.
