Migration via investment route catching on among rich Indians
migration market was largely geared towards the US EB-5. Now, residence-by-investment migration programmes in the UAE, Singapore, Greece and other European countries are gaining traction to enhance wealth and global mobility.
The recently introduced Indian ODI (outward direct investment) regulations — which permit direct investments in international entities, subject to certain conditions — have acted as a catalyst for many wealthy Indian families to explore international investment opportunities, says Sunita Singh-Dalal, partner, private wealth & family offices at Hourani & Partners in the UAE.
The first thing on the checklist should be to build a sufficient corpus.
Building your nest egg
India has stringent foreign exchange regulations, says Poorvi Chothani, managing partner of LawQuest, an employment and immigration boutique law firm.
«HNWIs often face limits on the amount of money they can transfer abroad for investment purposes. For example, with the current limit of $250,000 that can be transferred by an individual in a financial year (under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme or LRS) and the restriction on clubbing funds, it could take several years to accumulate $800,000 that is required for an EB-5 investor visa for the US,» she shares.
This could also depend on the number of family members applying for citizenship/permanent residency.
Nakul Beri, senior managing director, global client origination and coverage at Waterfield Advisors, says, «Residence visas are typically given to a family — husband, wife, two children under the age of 23 (or 18 depending on that country's regulations). If you're a family of four looking at an EB-5 visa, you can do it because it's $250,000 per person i.e., $1 million.
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