In 2020, rich Indians once more topped the listing of these making enquiries for ‘residence-by-investment’ or ‘citizenship-by-investment’ programmes. The variety of enquiries rose from 2019, stated a facilitating company. Since India doesn’t allow twin citizenship, choosing ‘citizenship by-investment’ means giving up one’s Indian passport.
The mixture of Covid and political turmoil noticed the US, in sixth place in 2019, shoot up to the second slot.
About 7,000 rich Indians left nation in 2019, says report
The third, fourth and fifth spots in phrases of enquiries made had been taken up by Pakistanis, South Africans and Nigerians, respectively. These particulars had been shared with TOI by Henley & Partners, a world agency engaged in residence and citizenship planning.
As per ‘Global Wealth Migration Review’, issued by New World Wealth, a wealth intelligence agency, Indians had been the second largest contingent among the many millionaire class to transfer abroad. Nearly 7,000 rich Indians (comprising 2% of the HNWIs) left the nation throughout 2019. It seems that the curiosity isn’t waning.
“We saw a 62.6% increase in the number of enquiries received from Indians in 2020 as compared to 2019. The base for 2019 was over 1,500 enquiries,” Nirbhay Handa, director and head of world South Asia group, Henley & Partners, instructed TOI.
Investment-linked migration programmes don’t come low-cost, however for a lot of, it’s far more than simply proudly owning a luxurious residence in an unique location. It may additionally imply spreading household property throughout a number of jurisdictions or acquiring higher entry to a area — say European Union.
As per Henley & Partners, the top funding-linked residence and citizenship programmes that Indians enquired about in 2020 had been Canada Residency, Portugal Residency, Austria Residency and Austria’s Citizenship programme, Malta Citizenship and Turkey Citizenship. Historically, US, Canada, UK and Australia have been favourites amongst Indians.
“Canada and Australia are key contenders, (but) the processing time for these programmes has become long and the investment amounts higher over time, so Indian HNWIs understand limitations,” says Handa.
The pursuits of rich people in India and NRIs differ — the latter is extra inclined to go for ‘citizenshipby-investment’ programmes. The former, with abroad enterprise pursuits, usually take a look at European ‘residenceby-investment’ choices. The Portugal Golden Residence Permit Program, which requires a minimal funding of Euro 3,50,000 in actual property, is Europe’s hottest programme. NRIs have a tendency to go for European citizenship programmes.
“Aside from the added benefit of better mobility (Austria’s passport, for instance, offers visa-free travel to 187 destinations), the citizenship programmes offered by Malta and Austria also provide the option of settlement anywhere in EU,” says Handa.
International finance centres like Dubai, Hong Kong and Singapore have a big inhabitants {of professional} NRIs. If they’re unable to get everlasting residency or citizenship in these nations, they maintain their choices open.