Original NetEase Article Link》》http://edu.163.com/13/0131/16/8MIH762K00294III.html
As policies in traditional immigration destinations such as Australia, New Zealand, and Canada have tightened, Cyprus investment immigration—characterized by simple investment methods, fast approval speeds, and no residency requirements—has rapidly gained favor among Chinese investors. However, this has been accompanied by instances of visa denials for Cyprus investors and the inability to recover investment funds. Why does this happen? How can these risks be avoided? On January 31, Dr. Winner Xing, President of Worldway Group (www.worldwayhk.com), visited the NetEase interview studio to share insights based on Worldway Group's extensive experience in European immigration programs, helping investors understand the risks to be aware of on the path to European immigration in 2013.
Dr. Winner Xing, President of Worldway Group, pointed out that all investments carry risks, especially immigration investments, which involve investing in an unfamiliar country. There are certainly risks involved. Furthermore, immigration investments must comply not only with the investment regulations of that country but also with its immigration laws. If you only pay attention to investment regulations and ignore immigration laws, your investment will be a failure. Given this situation, we believe there are several risks that investors should be reminded of:
First, your immigration application must be entrusted to a Chinese immigration agency with legal qualifications. In China, the immigration agency business is a regulated industry managed by the Exit-Entry Administration of the Ministry of Public Security. Only companies that have been approved by the Exit-Entry Administration and have obtained a license are permitted to conduct this business in China. They are subject to annual inspections, and all company employees must be registered with the Exit-Entry Administration, including their household registration, national ID, and criminal record checks. Additionally, a significant amount of security deposit must be frozen in a bank.
Only by operating under the management of national regulations can the interests of our investors be well protected. If you seek out companies without qualifications to handle your immigration, you will not receive legal protection because the agreement you sign with an unqualified company is an invalid agreement, and invalid agreements cannot be protected by law. Many problems arose in Cyprus investment immigration last year, with many clients being denied visas and unable to recover their investment funds. A large part of the reason was that they chose companies without immigration qualifications. Their immigration goals were not met, and their assets suffered losses. This is the first risk we must guard against.
The second risk to guard against is that the attractive European immigration programs in Cyprus and Portugal both involve property purchases. When buying property in two different countries, you must entrust a lawyer to handle your purchase procedures. First, the lawyer has the responsibility to verify the property's ownership, check if it has been mortgaged, and determine if there are any other associated payment or compensation obligations. Second, they must help you draft or review the purchase contract to ensure it is free of commercial traps and serves the investor's interests. Therefore, whether you are buying property in Portugal or Cyprus, you must hire a professional lawyer to handle the procedures. In our experience with Cyprus business last year, we found that some investors, in order to save money, blindly listened to the claims of some real estate companies and skipped legal fees. The result of skipping legal fees was having no lawyer to oversee the process, relying entirely on the developer's word. Consequently, some investors bought properties only to find they were mortgaged, or they bought off-plan properties that had no planning permission. Without planning permission, the property cannot be recognized by the government, which caused significant losses to investors. This is the second risk we should be aware of.
The third risk is that our immigration investment is about obtaining immigration status through investment. Therefore, when listening to project introductions from immigration companies, you must ask whether it complies with the "Immigration Law" and what the "Immigration Law" stipulates. Ask them to show you the "Immigration Law." In Europe, there are only the six countries I mentioned earlier that have immigration acts; other countries do not have investment immigration acts. If you pursue those without investment immigration acts, treating a commercial project as an immigration project, you will not achieve your investment goals. Therefore, you must look at what its "Immigration Law" stipulates and not blindly listen to the one-sided words of a single company or consultant. Only by considering these three aspects can we significantly reduce the risks of our investment.
Regarding the topic investors are concerned about—how to ensure the property we buy is at a fair market price during the property-buying immigration process—Dr. Winner Xing, President of Worldway Group, stated: First, the lawyer hired when buying a house is a buyer's lawyer, not a seller's lawyer. The buyer's lawyer serves the buyer. Therefore, choosing a house is not something the lawyer does for you. In terms of interests, the lawyer has no interest relationship with the developer. Their only interest comes from the legal fees paid by the investor. Therefore, they will stand from the investor's perspective to audit the property. However, if you do not pay attention to this issue and, in order to save legal fees, you ask the seller's lawyer to handle the procedures for you, because the seller's lawyer is responsible for the seller and not the buyer, there may be traps.
Therefore, if you pay legal fees, and the lawyer discovers during the audit that the property price is inflated, they will suggest you terminate the transaction. Of course, Worldway Group is the only company in Cyprus that has established a customer service center. Our customer service staff will also help everyone select developers. The developers we choose are all local, powerful, reputable, and credible developers who will not damage their entire business for the sake of a single property transaction.
