Wealthy Chinese investors may find their route to residency easier
I have helped a number of people emigrate from Asia. There is good news for wealthy individuals from China. The Chinese Government is planning on relaxing its control on the RMB to make it easier for overseas investment. As well as opening up new ways to manage wealth it may also bring new opportunities for emigration to New Zealand.
At the moment Chinese individuals are limited by the amount of RMB they can use to buy foreign currency. The current limit on individual cross-border investment is presently $50,000 per year and this limits foreign investment.
A new pilot scheme called QDII2 should remove this barrier for a qualifying domestic individual investor.
It has been indicated that individuals, living in the pilot cities of Shanghai, Tianjin, Chongqing, Wuhan, Shenzhen and Wenzhou, who have more than RMB1 million in assets, will be able to transfer RMB overseas for investments. Total outbound investment will be limited to 50% of the individual’s assets.
A big change is that the scheme indicates that individuals will be able to buy overseas stocks, bonds and real estate. At the moment investors must pick government-approved foreign mutual funds.
These new rules mean that wealthy Chinese individuals will able to explore emigration to New Zealand via the investor class and gain residency status. The Investor 1 Category requires a minimum investment of NZ$10 million for at least three years and the Investor 2 Category requires a minimum investment of NZ$1.5 million for at least four years.
Alternatively, should an applicant wish to set up their own business in New Zealand the Entrepreneur Work Visa may be the route to residency. People who are granted an Entrepreneur Work Visa will be able to apply for an Entrepreneur Residence Visa once they have run their businesses for 2 years (or 6 months if they meet extra conditions).
Wealthy Chinese investors may now seriously consider residency in New Zealand if they can meet the investor category requirements. I may see a large increase in residency applications from China once the rules change. Key to any application is getting it right and ensuring all of the correct documents produced in the right way.