Sydney, Australia

Australia announced its decision to end a major visa programme that was targeted at attracting wealthy investors.

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Affluent overseas investors were granted the right to live in the country under the plan dubbed as "golden visa" scheme.

The Australian government decided to terminate it in an immigration overhaul after it was found that the visa programme was not delivering the desired economic outcomes.

Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil, on Monday (Jan 22), released a statement saying, "It has been obvious for years that this visa is not delivering what our country and economy needs."

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“The investor visa is one of many aspects of the system which are reforming to create a system which delivers for our country,” the Home Affairs Minister added.

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Australia’s centre-left Labor government, in the month of December, unveiled a new immigration plan that was designed to reduce the number of new arrivals in the country to pre-COVID levels.

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It also focused on creating more visas for the skilled migrants who were capable "of making outsized contributions to Australia" and could fill up the growing gaps in the world's sixth-largest country's economy.

The scheme has over the years been critiqued over "corrupt officials" exploiting it to "park illicit funds".

Unlike other visa schemes, the golden visa did not require people to speak or learn the English language and did not have any age limit. However, it was mandatory for the people seeking permanent residency to invest a total of $5 million in Australia.

85% of successful applicants came from China

The critics have long argued that the visa scheme created a swift path for Chinese millionaires into the country, who comprised more than 85 per cent of the successful applications.

As per local media reports, the visa subclass was given the number 888, which stands for ­triple good luck in Chinese ­numerology.

First launched in the year 2012 by then-Minister for Immigration and Citizenship Chris Bowen, the Business Innovation and Investment Program (BIIP) was first divided into two categories, the Business Innovation Stream and investor streams.

As per the Home Affairs Department, since 2012, over 100,000 overseas migrants have made use of the program to gain residency in the country.

O’Neil in the year 2022, had hinted at plans to review the visa scheme.

“It’s actually costing us on average for every person, because these are people who are generally coming in at quite a late stage of their life, often at the end of their business career and coming to Australia, basically to settle down and retire,” she said at the time.

(With inputs from agencies)