Will the Olympic Legacy drive immigration into the UK?
We are regularly asked for our advice on Emigration opportunities into Western Europe and North America, and a particular favourite with our Russian clientele is emigration into the UK. The perceived success of the recent Olympics may increase the demand for immigration to the UK over other parts of Europe.
Let us look at some of the reasons why this is popular, how immigration is possible and some of the pitfalls which should be considered.
Firstly, the UK is popular due to its perceived high educational standards (the fact that English is world business lingua franca does no harm at all either!). In addition there is both a relatively high quality of life, with a cosmopolitan mix of nationalities in the country and a potentially attractive tax regime for those structuring their affairs correctly.
Also importantly, acquiring a UK passport can take the fairly short period of time of 6 years, and the process can be relatively simple.
What I will look at specifically is the ‘investor immigration visa’ structure, which allows for HNWI (high net worth individuals) entry into the UK in return for a large investment placed to the benefit of the UK.
In basic terms this means a sum of £1 million should be ‘invested’ in a UK institution. Now this could mean a share/stock portfolio, buying UK government bonds or simply on deposit in a UK bank. It DOES NOT include buying property in the UK, and a number of other structures (such as corporate/trust/foundation vehicles) and advice should be sought as to what is, and is not, a qualifying investment.
The above agreement is only (the financial) part of the bargain. Another criteria before one qualifies for a UK passport is to be resident in the UK for a period of up to 6 years until both the residential and financial criteria have been accepted by the UK Immigration Service.
This has certain restrictions, i.e. one MUST be resident in the UK for fairly long periods at a time, and thus its not always possible to return to the emigrants de facto country. This obviously poses problems for those Russian clients who wish, in the interim, at least to remain working/living/studying in Russia.
One way to get around this is to send the spouse (usually the wife) to the UK to live, perhaps with the children, who may simultaneously be being educated at some of the premier British schools. This way, the spouse then qualifies for the UK immigration programme and can at a subsequent point, ‘invite’ her husband to join her in the UK and he would also then qualify for a UK passport.
Of course, there are logistical issues here which may not be comfortable for some people, in that the spouse MUST be seen to be the owner of the sum placed into the UK to qualify for the financial part of the transaction.
Even this hurdle can be overcome, in a quite ingenious way. For example, we work with financial institutions who are willing to use Russian clients real estate portfolio in Moscow as collateral for a 6 year loan to the client, in the UK, and so would qualify for the Immigration Visa without using their own assets. This loan would simply be repayable to the lending institution at the end of the investment immigration period, minus the interest payments for the loan and administration and transaction fees.
If you are interested in finding out more about immigration to the UK, or any other country, please come and see us.