The year 2016 was full of ups and downs in the immigration sector. As we enter 2017, what changes will occur in the development of investment immigration, and what trends will it follow? Worldway Group has taken the pulse of the industry and, based on policy dynamics across various countries, authoritatively releases the 'Six Major Immigration Trends for 2017'.
Trend 1: Internationalized Lifestyles Will Become a New Trend in Investment Immigration
As China's economy integrates more deeply and broadly into the global economy, the international vision of Chinese investors and entrepreneurs is increasingly being enhanced and expanded. Adapting to the trends of economic development, Chinese investors and entrepreneurs are paying more attention to internationalized lifestyles. Investment immigration is no longer like the immigration of the past, where people left their homes for the sake of survival; rather, in the new year, more investment immigration is being made selectively for the sake of an internationalized lifestyle. If technical immigration resulted in a brain drain, then most of the talent involved in investment immigration has not been lost; their careers, mainstream lives, and roots remain in China. They may choose educational opportunities for their children on a global scale, or choose a second home overseas for personalized reasons such as health. An internationalized lifestyle will become an important motivation and a new trend for investment immigration.
Trend 2: The Middle Class Accelerates Overseas Investment, and the Trend Toward Middle-Class Investment Immigration Will Become More Evident
Investment immigration is no longer the exclusive domain of high-net-worth individuals. Middle-class families who have profited from real estate and stock market investments are beginning to join the ranks of investment immigrants. According to Forbes, international asset allocation has gradually entered the vision of China's middle class, and the acceleration of overseas investment by middle-class individuals has become an important force in international asset allocation. In the new year, more high-end groups within the middle class will no longer be satisfied with domestic education standards, living environments, and investment opportunities, and will instead attempt to improve their quality of life or create broader choices for their children's future through investment immigration. At the same time, as more countries relax their investment immigration policies, it provides feasible possibilities for middle-class immigration investment. Middle-class individuals will be more cautious and pay more attention to investment risks; they hope to obtain immigration status through investment, but they do not wish to bear the risk of investment losses because of their immigration status.
Trend 3: Combining Immigration Investment with Asset Allocation Will Become an Important Trend in Immigration Investment
Immigration investment is not capital investment aimed at profit maximization; it is a special type of capital investment where the purpose is to obtain immigration status—that is, investing for a "Green Card," which is what is commonly referred to as the "Green Card Gravity" of investment immigration. Because Chinese investors' asset allocation has no longer been confined to China over the past two years, driven by the general trend of "going global," Chinese investors' asset allocation has begun to target overseas markets. In the new year, as the globalization of Chinese investors' asset allocation accelerates, a trend of combining immigration investment with asset allocation will emerge. Cross-border allocation of personal assets will become a new motivation for immigration investment, following "Green Card Gravity." These investors are not investing for the sake of immigration, but are obtaining immigration status as a byproduct of asset allocation. For these investors, immigration investment projects with asset preservation and appreciation functions will be more popular. For example, U.S. investment immigration will pay more attention to the asset preservation and hedging functions of U.S. dollar assets in EB-5 projects, while European investment immigration will pay more attention to agricultural land investment projects with appreciation and preservation functions, or manor real estate projects with land investment characteristics, etc.
Trend 4: The Diversification of Choices for Immigration Destination Countries Will Become the New Normal for Immigration
Because the benefits that investment immigration brings to the economic development and employment of the host country are significantly greater than the drawbacks, in recent years, while traditional immigration countries like the United States, Canada, and Australia have tightened immigration policies and raised investment thresholds, some European Union countries and certain Commonwealth island nations have successively released relaxed investment immigration policies, providing unprecedented diverse choices for investment immigration. In the new year, investment immigrants will make choices about their destination countries based on their own and their families' personalized needs. These personalized choices may be due to arrangements for children's education, a weighing of investment capabilities, needs for asset allocation, considerations for health and medical care, choices for retirement and vacation, or even just because they have an indescribable preference. Although the United States will still attract the largest number of immigrant investors globally, and the EB-5 Regional Center Program will continue to be the immigration project that attracts the most capital, the diversion of investment immigrants will irreversibly become the new normal for immigration, and it will no longer be a rare phenomenon for an investor and their family to hold two or more immigration statuses.
Trend 5: Investment Immigration Projects Without 'Immigration Prison' Requirements Will Become the Mainstream Trend of Immigration Investment
Adapting to the trend of internationalized lifestyles and the globalization of asset allocation, immigrant investors will be more inclined toward projects without strict "immigration prison" (residency) requirements when choosing immigration projects. Through investment immigration, they can truly realize the freedom of an internationalized lifestyle and cross-border asset allocation without having to pay the heavy price of saying goodbye to their home country, severing family and friendship ties, relocating their careers, or changing their cultural and linguistic environments. Investment immigration is increasingly becoming like business trips accompanied by family, casual family vacations, visits to see children, or health trips to breathe clean air.
In the future, investment projects without immigration prison requirements will become the mainstream choice for investors. For U.S. EB-5 investment immigration, Commonwealth projects that provide passports for the whole family in one step, and countries that allow investment immigration through the purchase of real estate in the EU, investors can maintain their immigration status through simple and convenient methods after obtaining a passport, green card, or residence permit, without affecting the investor's life or business operations in China.
Trend 6: U.S. Investment Immigration Will Show a Trend Toward High-End Development
The U.S. Investment Immigration EB-5 Regional Center Program has been extended again, but proposals to increase the price of EB-5 investment have never ceased, and price increases have almost become a consensus among the U.S. Congress, the administration, and the industry. The raising of the investment threshold will have a crowding-out effect on some small and medium-sized investors. But at the same time, as the Federal Reserve raises interest rates and the U.S. dollar enters an appreciation channel, it will create a new attraction for high-net-worth individuals. The implementation of the CRS (Common Reporting Standard) for tax financial information exchange in 101 tax jurisdictions will change the tax planning and immigration orientation of high-end investors; the new tax reduction policy that Trump is about to introduce, especially his proposal to abolish the estate tax, will eliminate the concerns of high-end investors and accelerate the dollarization of their asset allocation.
In the past, due to the U.S. global taxation policy, many high-end investors, especially super-wealthy investors, were often intimidated by EB-5 investment. In the new year, this situation will undergo a fundamental reversal. With the continued appreciation of the U.S. dollar, the implementation of CRS in 101 tax jurisdictions, and the introduction of Trump's new tax policy, EB-5 investment will become increasingly attractive to high-end investors, and even super-wealthy investors, thereby gradually presenting a new trend of high-end development for EB-5 investors.
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