UK to relax visa norms for ‘super rich’
by Florence Gibbs - February 8, 2011
United Kingdom, 8th February: In a bid to allure wealthy investors into the UK, the nation is all set to ease visa rules for the ‘super rich’ shortly.
This is despite the UK government’s much hue and cry over the increasing levels of UK immigration leading to extremely tough visa norms for the ordinary people wanting to get entry into the UK.
The new rules for the wealthy potential immigrants wanting to get into the UK and live there will allow enable them to get rights to become permanent residents of the UK without any need to pass through tedious rules.
The UK Home Office intends to propose several changes to the rules of the UK investor visas to help multi-millionaires from the various nations of the world to establish businesses in the UK.
The proposals will, however, need to get the nod of the Parliament before getting into effect not before than April 2011.
If approved by the Parliament, the rich foreign investors ready to make investments to the tune of millions of UK currency in the nation will be required to stay in the nation for a minimum of 6 months instead of nine months in order to get qualified for a UK visa.
Moreover, the waiting period for getting UK permanent residency will also be reduced significantly. As per the official sources, the investment amount for investors becoming qualified for UK permanent residency within a period of two years has been fixed at £10 million.
And those willing to invest £5 million in the UK will be eligible to get UK permanent residency in three years. The foreign investors ready to spare funds worth £1 million will, however, be required to wait for a period of five years before getting UK permanent residency.
The present UK immigration rules require a foreigner coming to the UK on investor visa to stay her for a minimum period of five years before becoming eligible for UK permanent residency.
Another benefit likely to be provided to the foreign investors coming to the UK will be to bring an extra worker from abroad provided they are willing to invest an additional amount of £50,000.
It may be worth mentioned that the ‘super rich individuals’ have been already exempted from the annual UK visa cap announced by the UK government recently.
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