The British government has been reviewing the visas for investors since 2018, shortly after the poisoning of former Russian agent Sergei Skripal in Salisbury led to a deterioration in relations between the U.K. and the Kremlin. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Tuesday that his government was looking at ways of hitting Russia with economic sanctions if it were to invade Ukraine, and that it was already taking more steps to make the foreign ownership of U.K. assets more transparent.
The Russian government has repeatedly denied that it plans to invade its neighbor.
Read More: U.K.’s Russia Report Demands Major Rethink of ‘Golden Visas’ (1)
Under the Tier 1 visa a person can stay in the U.K. for three years and four months in exchange for the 2 million-pound investment, and can then apply to settle permanently after five years. They can apply to settle after only two years if they spend 10 million pounds.
The Home Office also said it is looking at all Tier 1 visas issued between 2008, when the program was launched, and April 2015, when the process was reformed. After April 2015 applicants had to provide evidence of the source of their funds and a bank letter confirming they had been through adequate due diligence.
Home Office data compiled by Shard Capital shows that there were about 1,400 investor visas issued between 2015 and 2020.
A Parliamentary report from 2020 said there had been “exploitation” of the U.K. investor visa program and that it “offered ideal mechanisms by which illicit finance could be recycled through what has been referred to as the London ‘laundromat’.”
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