UK tier investment program to rich foreign nationals has not lost its shine and popularity. UK tier1 investor program grants fast track residency to those bringing 2 million pounds into the UK. Since the Brexit, the investor program has become cheaper to rich foreigners seeking entry clearance, because of the falling pound and London’s attractiveness to do business in the United Kingdom.
The UK Home office immigration statistics, show United Kingdom granted 4519 tier1 investor visas to high net worth individuals until Sep 2016, compared to 6,861 in Sep 2015. This is a 34% drop from previous. This is attributed to reflecting changes introduced to the category in November 2014 (investment increase) and fewer grants to dependents in routes now closed to new applicants.
It is not clear how many of 4519 visas were main applicants and family members. If 4,519 persons invested in £2m pounds, then 9 billion pounds would have been poured into the UK economy.
UK program is still open to foreign nationals, requires £ 2 million pound investment under the following conditions:
- have money of your own, under your control, held in a regulated financial institution, and which is disposable in the UK, amounting to not less than £2 million.
- have opened an account with a UK regulated bank for the purposes of investing not less than £2million in the UK.
One main disadvantage with UK tier1 program is one must spend atleast 9 months every year in the UK and must not be absent of UK for more than 6 months. UK tier1 program has become more cheaper, thanks to falling value of British pound after Brexit vote. UK indefinite leave to remain (ILR) is only possible after 5 years of uninterrupted living, which the leads to British citizenship in about 6-7 years. UK voted on June 23, 2016 referendum to break up from the European Union.
UK also has a cheaper version of tier-1 entrepreneur program requires only £ 200,000 pounds investment in businesses to immigrate to UK.
A guide on UK Tier1 program published in UK government website
Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/immigration-statistics-july-to-september-2016/work
