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Skilled Migration: Bonus Points for Capital Investment Withdrawn
Author: Alan Collett
Date: Monday, December 03, 2007
In a shock move, all the State and Territory Treasury Corporations that were accepting capital investments from skilled migrants have announced their withdrawal from the program.
By way of background, individuals who submitted points tested skilled visa applications under one of the pre-01/09/2007 categories of visa have been able to obtain 5 bonus points by lodging a capital investment of A$100,000 when invited to do so by the Department of Immigration - as discussed more fully here.
The Department of Immigration has advised today that from Friday 30th November, 2007 no State or Territory Government has been actively participating in these arrangements.
This follows recent newspaper reports alleging a "scam" involving unauthorised loans to some hundreds of applicants.
Of course, many applicantions which have been in process for lengthy periods will not be granted the bonus points because they cannot now find a State or Territory Government that is prepared to continue to participate in the arrangements as described above.
Most applicants, regardless of when they lodged their visa application, will miss out on the opportunity to get the 5 bonus points.
We also understand there is no present intention to identify other securities, which effectively ends these bonus point arrangements immediately.
Those affected should consider approaching a migration advisor to discuss their visa options. This might involve withdrawing the existing skilled visa application and lodging a new application under one of the new post-01/09/2007 skilled visa subclasses under which additional points are available for English language competency - as discussed here.
Go Matilda's team of skilled visa advisors is available to assist if you are someone who is affected by the above - please contact us for a free initial appraisal of your situation. |
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