Comment by grimlck | Hacker News Reader

Comment by grimlck | Hacker News Reader

You can already get a visa-for-money from most major first world countries, and after a few years, it is easy enough to make the jump towards citizenship. Is it really that big of a jump to get rid of the time component?

For example:

USA

EB5 investor visa: $1,000,000 or $500,000 depending on the area you 'invest' in. One of the easiest ways to get a green card, and from there, citizenship

UK

Tier 1 investor visa: £1,000,000 in 'investment', which can just be the purchase of government bonds. Apply for indefinate leave to remain (green card equivilant) after 4 years. If you invested £5 million, you only need 3 years. If you invested £10 million, it is down to 2 years. The UK non-domicile tax status can also be very very generous to wealthy expats (unless they are American and thus are taxed on world wide income regardless).

Canada

Canada used to have such a program (Immigrant Investor visa for $800,000 CAD for people with net worths of at least $!.6 million), but that was terminated recently. I believe the Quebec version is still open though

In USA's case:

USD $1 million + tax on the worldwide income of a millionaire for 5 years + spending of a millionaire in the national economy for 5 * 182 days + tax on the worldwide income of a millionaire for as long as he remains a citizen plus 10 years afterwards

In UK's case:

£1 million + tax on the worldwide income of a millionaire for 6 years + spending of a millionaire in the national economy for 6 * 182 days

You mentioned 2,3,4 years for the indefinite leave to remain and the powerful non-domicile tax status, all of which are true but irrelevant to this analysis. Anyone trying to gain citizenship through the investor program must be a tax resident for at least 6 years.

In Canada's case:

CAD $0.8 million + tax on the worldwide income of a millionaire for 3 years + spending of a millionaire in the national economy for 3 * 182 days

In St. Kitts's case:

A one time payment of USD $0.25 million

The UK does not tax worldwide income. In fact, if you hold your money in an offshore account, you can declare yourself a "non-domiciled" UK person. This special category exempts you from all tax on foreign income in exchange for a small fee.

It is not for no reason that every corrupt Russian oligarch and oil baron and African dictator flocks to London.

>The UK does not tax worldwide income.

UK does not tax worldwide income based on UK citizenship, but it does tax worldwide income for all UK domiciled residents, which includes all citizenship-seeking immigrants.

Your trivia on the non-domicile status is interesting, but both the grandparent and myself have already mentioned it, and I specifically said that it's "irrelevant to this analysis".

PR is slightly different than getting a passport 'right off the bat' and without any residency qualification like the initial law proposed.

Malta now requires a years residency before you get your passport:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-25959458

>>EB5 investor visa: $1,000,000 or $500,000 depending on the area you 'invest' in. One of the easiest ways to get a green card, and from there, citizenship

I do want to take a moment to point out the ridiculousness of paying half a million dollars or more being one of the easiest ways to get a green card in America.

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