This has been a matter of concern for me and most other
right thinking British expatriates for a long time.
If you are Russian and you have £1 million or more you can
buy your way into the UK and obtain a British Passport very quickly.
Very unfair for expat British passport holders who wish to
return to the UK and are married to a non-EU citizen. More on that later.
A British Tier 1 (Investor) visa allows wealthy foreigners
to fly into London if they have £1 million or more of their own money. They
need to invest £750,000 of this into British government bonds, share capital of
a company or even just loan capital in an active British company. In return
they will obtain residency for their dependent family members also and retain
control of their money. If the investment remains in the UK the ‘investor’ can
then obtain permanent residency and after 5 years a British passport. Moreover,
for those who can invest £5m or even £10m the waiting time for permanent
residency and a British nationality is reduced to 3 years and then 1 year for
the really big investor.
Some critics of the evil empire (oh sorry I meant Russia),
claim that the vast amount of Russian money in London is having an impact on
decision making by the British government regarding the introduction of
sanctions against Russia in response to the attacks on Ukraine and the
invasion of Crimea. But to be fair I recently read an analysis which showed
Russian investors to be only around 1% of activity in the ‘City of London’.
But I think we all know there are a lot of rich Russians now living permanently
in the UK and mainly in London.
One of the greatest benefits from obtaining an investor visa
is that there are no English language requirements. No tests are required. So
provided you have £1m plus you can get into the country and be awarded a
residents permit without uttering a word of English.
The unfairness of this system is mind boggling. A foreigner
can enter the UK with his/her family without any restrictions if they have a
£1m + investor visa. But a British citizen who has been living abroad for many
years and married to a ‘Non-EU Citizen’, will face many barriers when he/she is
seeking to enter the UK with his spouse for permanent settlement. British
citizens must be able to show a minimum income of £18600 per annum from a job
based in the UK or show significant savings to ensure their spouse will not be
a burden of the state. The amount increases if they have dependent children.
Moreover this income level must be shown to have been achieved for at least six
months before the spouse is allowed to join the British citizen in the UK. What
the UK government will also fail to take into account is any income generated
within the EU or rest of the world. So
take for example the case of Steven and Sarah* who have been living in the UAE
for the past 8 years. Steven is a British citizen and Sarah is a Canadian
passport holder. They have built up a successful business in Dubai which
produces an annual personal income to them of over $50,000 (£29500) They can
still own and control the business even when they live back in the UK, but the current rules say they cannot enter the UK. Income must be earned in the UK
only. )* names have been changed)
There is a great conflict between British law and EU law and
both laws are not good for the British citizen who wishes to live in the UK
with his Non-EU spouse. However, if the same British passport holder was a
citizen of another EU country then life gets much easier. Any citizen and his/her family from an EU
country can enter the UK to find work or stay permanently without any questions
from the UK Immigration Authorities. Is it any wonder that many British
passport holders seeking to return to the UK are obtaining citizenship from
other EU countries first. Ireland is
one friendly EU country who helps to do this.
Take another example. Peter and Tanya (not their real names).
Peter is British and has lived in Ukraine for over 10 years. He married Tanya a
Ukraine citizen in 2006. Ukraine is a non-EU country. They live in Kyiv but have decided to
relocate to the north of England. Peter does not have any job or business in
the UK at present but he intends to set up his own business on return. Until he
can show his income is at least £18600 per year, Tanya will not be allowed to
join him in the UK. However let’s say for example that Tanya was married to a
man from Poland, an EU country, they would both be able to enter the UK without
any questions.
Let’s face it we all know that the British government
introduced these new restrictions to reduce the high number of so called
British citizens from bringing their wives/husbands and children into the UK
from Asian countries and being a drain on state benefits, schools, hospitals
etc. (Note that I can be non PC.) J But the system has affected the wrong people
as usual.
The British are not the only ones to offer investor visas.
Two faced British people are quick to criticise other countries like Bulgaria, Spain,
Malta, Cyprus and Latvia for introducing investor visa systems. These are all
EU countries and a passport from one of these countries entitles the holder to
go and reside in ANY EU country including the United Kingdom.
There are far too many Russians living in London and the
rest of the UK already via the investor visa route. So my advice is, why not
jump on the band wagon if you have £1m or more and go to live in the UK. If the
British government are low enough to grant so many visas to Russians they will
do it for anyone.
Personally I would recommend Cyprus as the best country for
an investor visa leading to citizenship. Please contact me should you need
further details. J
gerald.bowers@bbcu.com.ua
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