Total number of visa applications for the UK by the rich foreigners has decreased after the government of the UK has doubled the needed threshold of investment from one million to two million previous year.
In the initial nine months of this year 2015, there were merely136 applications for tier 1 investor visas, for which the citizens from the non European Economic Area and the Switzerland could apply given that they have the a minimum of two million pounds of investment funds, when compared to around 780 applications in the same period previous year, making it a decrease of around 83%.
The visa applications numbers under this scheme of Tier 1 investor visa had earlier improved every year from 180 applications in the year 2009, the initial full year in which the scheme was running to the record 1,290 applications in the year 2014.
The 2014 crest in the applications was partially driven by over 510 applications that was obtained in the conclusion quarter of the year 2014, about four times the number obtained in the initial nine months of this year 2015.
The decline in the applications had been mainly from the investors of Russia and China. In the previous three months of the year 2014, there were 265 applications from China compared to merely 20 in the first half year of 2015. Likewise, there was just 65 applications from the Russian investors between 1st October and 31st December 2014 when compared to merely 20 in between start of this year till June month.
The property market of the London has experienced the same decline this year in the investments from the Russia and Asia.
The UK Home Office had given no reason for increasing the threshold of investment to two million pounds. However, the sources closed to its policy had revealed that the reform was mainly because of upward pressure on the prices of property.
In addition the change to this Tier 1 visa rules, the drop in numbers from both the nations is likely to have been affected by the slowdown of economies of China and Russia and deteriorating of their currencies against the British currency.
According to the experts, the government of the UK had currently launched additional strict checks on the individuals who apply for the investment visa of the UK and that have also put an effect to the decline in the applications.
According to an information, the collapse of nationalities of around 3.350 applications to the visa scheme between its start in the month of June 2008 and end of this year’s June had illustrated that the people from China accounts for 37% of the applicants with around 1,220 applications, Russia with around 705 applications, US with 205 and the UAE with 170 applications.
Between the year 2008 and June 2015, around 91% of applications were issued and 9% of them were denied and remaining were lapsed or withdrawn.
The latest rules that are introduced in the month of November 2014, the least threshold was hiked to 2 million pounds without investing in the firms and primarily engaged in property investment, management and its development.
