Fast tracking migration to another country

Why people want to emigrate – One is easier access to quality education. Foreign universities are easier to get; quality of education in many of them are very good, quality of faculty as well as the pedagogy is great. The facilities are good and those who want to do research, especially in scientific stream find this attractive.

There is another major benefit of immigrating into a country. Once a citizen, the education costs in many countries go down dramatically. It can be less than 50% of the cost international students would otherwise pay. This makes it very attractive as there will be a huge savings on the education costs. Those parents who have more than one child will find it even more attractive as the savings will be even higher.

The other more important aspect that plays a role is to settle abroad. In fact, many opt for education abroad with the express objective of trying to settle abroad. This is the reason why many send their children abroad, paying crores of rupees, which would not make sense if one were to evaluate purely from a return on capital employed.

Sometimes even the families themselves want to settle abroad. This may be for better standard of living and quality of life, better facilities, better prospects, to be near their relatives who are already settled abroad, passport of host country that allows visa less travel to hundreds of countries etc. When someone migrates as a family, they may already be wealthy, may be able to find an employment or start a business in the host country.

But immigration into many countries is time consuming and the queue can be long. To get into a country faster, there is a fast-track avenue available today – Immigration by Investment.

Immigration by investment – Many countries ( about 25 countries ) have immigration programs that allow a family to emigrate to a country on priority. For this, a certain level of investment would need to be done in the host country. Under this program one would be able to emigrate between 3-24 months into the host country and become a citizen of that country or be able to participate in a Golden Visa Program which provides residency on investment and after several years it would culminate into citizenship.

Countries like US, UK, Canada, Cyprus, Grenada, Greece, Portugal, Spain, Malta etc. are some countries that have either of these programs. The amount of investment required can be from $100,000 to about $3 Million. The time durations can also vary from country to country.

Investments done can be in one of the many ways and can vary from country to country. The designated investments required can be in Government bonds, a donation to the government, investment in real estate, investment in designated projects etc.

Again, in some cases one can get the investment back along with a certain return. In others, it can either be a pure donation and in yet others it will be a real estate investment that is a mandatory requirement.

US Immigration program – To understand how an immigration program works, let us take the US immigration program called EB-5. This program allows a person/family ( with children under 21 years of age ) to get a visa which in due course will be converted to permanent residency.

In EB-5, an investment of about $900,000 ( or about Rs.7 crores ) is needed to be made in a designated project. There are many such projects across the country promoted by Regional centres which are organisations approved and regulated by US Citizenship & Immigration Services. Approved projects need to create at least 10 permanent jobs in the designated area.

The Regional Centre would ensure compliance in all areas, including the job creation requirement.  If the investment is outside of a designated area, the investment requirement would double.

Those who want to invest on their own or start a business can do so directly too. But, this is not something that most people can do and hence investment in an approved project is far easier.

Immigration programs of other countries are substantially different. One will have to take help from specialists who provide consultancy in these areas.

Worldwide, immigration by investment is a preferred way to enter the country of their choice. This is slowly gaining traction in India as well as normal migration channels have got far more difficult and the waiting period can be years, even decades!

Immigration by Investment is an option available today. But one will have to carefully evaluate the costs and benefits in such a move before opting for it.