Great Britain will refuse the so-called “golden visa” scheme. The Minister of Internal Affairs of Visi Patel decided to close the route due to the “long-standing concern” about the abuse of the scheme of criminal groups and super-hot billioners from several countries, writes the British newspaper Times.
According to the scheme launched in 2008, applicants make minimal investments in the amount of 2 million pounds in exchange for the right to live in Britain. Later, they can apply for full citizenship and passport, notes Ukrainian UNN.
The decision is made against the background of increased attention to British visa regulations and how visas for level 1 investors, which are issued to super-long billionaires from several countries, can be associated with dirty money.
“There is hope that the law will be used to expose the use of Russian submarine companies to buy British real estate,” the report says.
Great Britain faced criticism because of the statement that it could not properly control billions of pounds of Russian money, which flowed into London over the past two decades. Patel now decided to completely abandon this scheme and, as expected, put forward a decision on visas due to enhanced control after the crisis in Ukraine, writes Times.