CANADA PULLS THE RUG FROM UNDER MIGRATION INVESTORS - AN OPPORTUNITY FOR PORTUGAL

Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced last week that their controversial investor scheme in existence since 1986 is to be scrapped. Under the scheme, would be migrants worth a minimum of C$1.6 million loaned the government C$800,000 interest free for a period of 5 years in exchange for a pathway to Canadian citizenship. The simplicity of the low cost, risk free scheme made it hugely popular among migration investors. But the Canadian migration scheme ran into trouble because it was seen to devalue Canadian permanent residence whilst being not sufficiently lucrative by comparison with other traditional countries such as the US and UK.

Quebec nevertheless retains its investor migration scheme but this has been capped at a modest 1750 applicants per year with a maximum of 1200 applications from any one country.

Citizenship and Immigration Canada said that the investor queue stood at 65,000 and 70% of the backlog, as of January was Chinese. These applicants will have their applications “eliminated” and their fees returned.  This, after having waited for a positive outcome for nearly two years since applications to the Canadian scheme was frozen in 2012.

So this is an opportunity for Portugal to solidify their Golden Visa Programme which was launched last year. The Portuguese Authorities have manifested their support and as yet less than 1000 residence visas have been issued as the Programme gets under way.

The Portuguese Programme is fast establishing itself as the European migration scheme of choice: the investment component is serious in a country where there is no oversupply of property and an established rental market – €500,000 or approximately C$40000 short of the Canadian requirement is all that is needed.  The conditions for the granting and renewal of visas are sensible and not onerous: no criminal record and 7 days’ annual stay.  Nor is the application process complicated or lengthy. In most cases a visa can be obtained in a period of three months.

And it should not be forgotten that the Golden visa remains Gold throughout the Schengen area. So disappointed would-be Canadian investor migrants would do well to look to Europe and more precisely to Portugal - the first European country to introduce an attractive workable migration scheme.

NDR was involved with the Golden Visa Programme from the outset and with its breath of experience in dealing with foreign high net worth private clients it is absolutely no surprise that twelve months on it is the lead firm in this area of work having represented more successful applicants than any other law firm in Portugal.

Rosemar de Rougemont - Senior Partner
r.derougemont@ndr.pt