Since the beginning of China's reform and opening-up, the country has experienced three major waves of immigration. The first wave occurred at the beginning of the reform and opening-up in the last century. As the country opened its doors, China began its first large-scale migration, with many people going abroad to work or immigrate, including many who went to Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Southeast Asia, Europe, and the United States, along with a large number of international students. The second wave of immigration lasted from the late 1980s to the end of the last century, a period during which many developed countries began to open their doors to absorb a large number of skilled immigrants from China. The third wave of immigration is the one currently underway, characterized by elite immigration, including a large number of investment immigrants. Today's investment immigration is very different in nature from the past; while it was previously for survival and development, it is now pursued by the wealthy class for business investment, quality of life, freedom of travel, and access to high-quality foreign medical care and education. Most investment immigrants choose to continue living and working in China while holding international status.
Among all immigration policies, investment immigration is the most convenient method. For any country, investment immigration policy is highly sensitive and is often influenced by the public opinion of voters, political party competition, as well as economic and political situations in the host country, rather than being controlled by the personal will of national leaders. In general, current investment immigration shows two new trends: one is the increase in investment amounts, such as the significant hikes in Australia and the United Kingdom over the past few years; the other is that due to the potential threat of terrorism and domestic economic and political factors, many developed countries are tending to tighten or even close their investment immigration policies.
Since its establishment in 1998, Worldway has been professionally engaged in investment immigration, accumulating rich experience through the observation and analysis of policies in many countries. We have accurately predicted changes in passport policies for several Commonwealth countries, correctly judged investment immigration policies in countries and regions such as Canada and Macau, and recently accurately forecasted the closure of the Hong Kong investment immigration program.
In view of this, for investors, it is better to act early than late for investment immigration. Completing the process earlier allows one to avoid risks brought about by policy changes while enjoying the benefits of the investment sooner. If one is in a country where the policy is undergoing changes, any luck or hesitation is highly likely to result in missing the best opportunity for investment, or even losing the opportunity altogether. Such situations occurred in Macau in April 2007, and the same was true for Hong Kong on January 15th recently: once the new policy is announced, applications are immediately suspended, which has a significant impact on individual investors and their families.
Which country is most likely to be the next to "change policy" for investment immigration? Worldway experts point out that the U.S. EB-5 investment immigration program, which has maintained a $500,000 investment threshold for many years and is facing expiration and adjustment on September 30th of this year, will face a "troubled autumn" in 2015, with the emergence of visa backlogs and a high probability of increased investment thresholds. At the same time, the "buy-to-live" immigration programs launched by European countries like Portugal in recent years are also affected by various factors; these "short-lived" policies, originally intended to boost the economy, will see an increased possibility of further changes. Therefore, Worldway advises investors to seize the precious current opportunity and complete their investment immigration applications as soon as possible.
