20-02-2014
Recently, the Canadian federal government froze and cancelled the Immigrant Investor program. The program was designed to entice rich foreigners to come to Canada and lend their money to the Canadian government. Specifically, the program targeted business people with a net worth of a minimum of $1.6 million. These individuals were required to lend $800,000 to the Canadian government for a span of five years; the money would be used for investment across the Canadian economy. The majority of applicants for this program were wealthy business people from main land China.
Unfortunately, the program had a backlog of eight to nine years per applicant and was also prone to corruption and fraud. According to Chris Alexander, Minister of Canadian Immigration, the program was cancelled to prevent individuals from obtaining Canadian passports whom did not have the intention of living in Canada.
At the same time, the South China Morning Post quoted Alexandra saying, “What we are saying to them is that all of our other immigration programs are available to you. Find the one that fits best for your situation”. It is clear that the Canadian Federal government wants the wealthy Chinese business class to feel welcome in Canada. When speaking with the Chinese news paper Alexander welcomes interested applicants to apply to the new Immigrant Investor Venture Capital Fund plan or a business skills option which should be implemented later in the year.
Both of the new business application programs were introduced in the recently released federal budget; the same announcement that canceled the Immigrant Investor program. FWCanada will release more detailed explanations for these new programs as soon as more information is available.
