We are living in a fast-changing world, with migration policies being tough by every passing day, where making a migration decision sooner rather than later is beneficial for many reasons.
I realize that the time you take to consider is understandable because this is a life-changing decision and will have a lifelong impact on your family, your kids’ education, your business, your taxable income, your investment, and your retirement life. Learning from experience, by the time some investors when they make the decision and have their documents ready for submission the program in consideration probably be closed.
I have served over 300 families from 34 different nationalities & background and my advice to my clients is always to seize investment opportunities ahead of time, below are a few examples that show how quickly things have change about immigration, and potentially transform a move from feasible to impossible.
Change of policies
Recently we have seen a proposed suspension and policy change with Portugal golden visa, at this point nobody including the Government and or the Parliament knows what the exact content of the final amendment to the law will be, will there be a transition period? will new golden visas be granted? how much time do applicants have? As of the golden visa already granted, their renewal will be conditioned to the owner’s owning a permanent home or of his descendant, or the if the property is placed on a long-term rental. In a televised press conference held on 16th February Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa did not discuss any changes to other immigration programs such as D2, D7, and or the Digital Nomads (I will be happy to assist if you are interested in one).
For Portugal golden visa, I believe the investors must consult the experts on how and when to make a decision and ask for the risk of unknown.
Few of the other programs that has the policy change are:
- Overseas Representative visa / Sole Representative – Policies changed, and limited to overseas newspaper, news agency or broadcasting organization.
- Malta citizenship by investment – Policies changed
- Montenegro citizenship by investment – Increase on contribution / investment value and policy change.
Increase in the Investment value
In recent two years below programs have increased the investment value
- Greece golden visa – Increase on investment.
- Montenegro citizenship by investment – Increase on contribution / investment value and policy change.
- Turkish citizenship by investment – Increase on real estate investment
- EB-5 (USA) – Increase on real estate investment
Political Instability
Applicants from political unstable countries such as Sri Lanka, Ukraine, Pakistan, and India faced delays with opening their foreign bank accounts, change of status from the whitelist to gray with Financial Action Task Force (FATF), restriction and limitations of funds transfers from countries such as Bangladesh, Belarus, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Russia, Lebanon, and many others, or suspending the processing of applications from Russian citizens due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Further tax on investment
India, being one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, is also one of the largest EB-5 investor markets. Its Union Budget 2023, the central government introduced proposed a new income tax bracket on outward transfers, which for EB-5 investments would include a 20% tax-collected-at-source (TCS), the regime may comes into effect in July 2023.
In Summary, making an immigration decision sooner will provide you greater certainty, peace of mind, flexibility with different investment opportunities, and about their future plans. And that’s where I can help you understand your need an propose a program that suits your needs.
The Author
Imran Mirani
Head of RCBI / Business Migration
Investment Migration Council Member
