Long delays in Australia’s Golden Visa Program have led a large number of migrants from China to protest in Sydney after the scheme brought disappointment to them.
The Business Innovation and Investment Scheme (BIIP), known as the Golden Visa Program was first introduced in 2012 in Australia as part of the country’s efforts to bring to attract wealthy foreign investors, VisaGuide.World reports.
However, the government of Australia in March this year considered that the scheme didn’t bring a significant contribution to the country’s economic sector.
The 188 Visa is a temporary Business Innovation and Investment Visa that is granted to internationals who plan to make an investment in this territory, open a new business, or run their business there.
In order to benefit from this kind of visa, interested persons are required to have a specific amount of personal as well as business funds and also must be invited before they can apply.
When Australia’s Labor government came into power 13 months ago, shifted priority to facilitate shortages of critical skilled workers. As a result, the majority of BIIP visas are taking a long time to process, or about three years.
A report of SBC says that the Department of Home Affairs stressed that the government would process all visa applications in line with priority and planning levels, declining to comment regarding the complaints from BIIP holders, when asked about this issue.
In addition, the Department of Home Affairs said that a new migration strategy would be released this year, which will also include radically reshaping the Golden Visa Program.
Such delays have raised concerns that the government of Australia might abolish this program, according to the managing director at residence and citizenship planners Henley & Partners Australia, Tony Le Nevez, whose clients have made investments of at least $5 million each in this territory.
“I just don’t think the investor program is on their radar at the moment – they might overhaul it down the track. In the meantime, I think they might just keep a small window open,” Le Nevez pointed out in this regard.
During the spread of COVID-19, all categories of Australian visas were subject to backlogs. While the country’s government rescued processing times as the epidemiological situation improved, the wait for more than 3,000 BIIP holders as well as their family members, many of them nationals from China has only marked an increase.
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