Why Chinese Investors Choose Malta for Permanent Immigration?

The concept of residency means something different to different people. For most of the world's affluent, it means protection and development opportunities across regional boundaries. Also, it represents greater freedom and access to an international community. As the global immigration market for the affluent has matured, more and more people are also considering residence & citizenship planning for the well-being of the next generations.

There are many factors that influence the global affluent’s choice of residence program, and these are no longer limited to investment amount and processing time but are increasingly multi-faceted to fit the individuals and family’s needs.

Henry Fan, founder and Ceo of Globevisa, said, The beauty of having multiple residency status is the access to opportunities that may not be available in one’s country of birth. This benefit is obvious in that people are no longer labelled by their place of birth, but are free to choose where to settle. The richness of the different communities enhances people's understanding of other cultures and of themselves.

“In this sense, residency status provides another level of security and a sense of belonging. but ultimately, people need a place in which to be rooted.”

China is gradually recovering from the effects of Covid, and people are lowering expectations of the government's ability to manage crises of various nature, including pandemics, climate change and wealth inequality. Covid is widely regarded as one of the worst crises of recent years, with wide-ranging effects on almost all areas of society, from individual lives to the global economy. A number of government responses to the handling of the public crisis have also accelerated the process by which people are beginning to consider a second residence status.

“Being tied to a country or its government can limit people's freedom”

In the context of a global crisis, many Chinese HNWIs are becoming more acutely aware of the importance of their quality of life, healthcare, security and financial planning.

The security and mobility that residency status can provide are being prioritized, and personal as well as financial security can mean that whatever happens, one can trust the law to protect them and their family. This is particularly important during Covid. Henry Fan commented. Much of this security is based on the reputation of the destination country and the level of compliance with its residence program. According to Henley & Partner's 2023 Residence Programme Rankings, European countries such as Portugal, Spain Greece, and Malta are ranked quite well. The MPRP is impressively ranked in the top 3 for compliance, tax, visa-free and total cost. It is also ranked 7th overall out of the 26 most important residency programmes in the world. Globevisa started promoting this programme in mainland China with its partner, Frendo Advisory from the introduction of the policy in March 2021 and it has been a great success in 2022. The programme offers great value to clients wishing to settle in Malta. MPRP has a direct contribution model which means asset purchase is not part of the application process except where clients choose property purchase over lease. The documentation requirements, therefore, center around the applicants themselves and their source of wealth. Vital to every application’s success is whether the applicant’s source of wealth can be explained and evidenced adequately. says Luke Frendo, the managing director of Frendo Advisory.

“With the experience of handling hundreds of successful MPRP cases, Frendo has established a seamless workflow with Golebvisa to gather all necessary information on applicants’ income and net worth and present them clearly to the authorities. This expedites the application process by minimizing the number of requests for additional documents.” “Globevisa delivers its services with a time-consciousness, this is especially important as many of its clients plan to send their children to attend private or international schools in Malta where delay can disrupt the whole family’s planning. ” Though we insist clients disclose their source of wealth fully and with adequate documentary evidence, we also understand there can be areas where documentary proof is unavailable. It can be because an event occurred decades ago; for example, the property in China making up the bulk of the applicant’s wealth was bought 30 years ago with salaries accumulated up to that point. Another example would be a gift made to the applicant by a family member who already passed away; though the gift itself can be evidenced, proof of the donor’s own source of income is hard to obtain. Fortunately, MPRP’s due diligence is reasonable and substantive it rarely rejects cases solely on documentation formality grounds or due to lack of documentation on a minor issue. But, it’s equally important to note that the MPRP has a high due diligence standard, especially on applicants’ integrity; multi-layered due diligence is performed to ensure the MPRP is not used for illicit purposes by high-risk individuals. The MPRP is a direct investment residence scheme based on government contributions. The government has made significant optimizations in terms of application requirements, investment amounts, and approval times compared to the MRVP. In fact, Globevisa has already obtained Maltese residence status for many clients as early as 2017, as one of the first immigration agencies in mainland China to do so. 7 years of experience were accumulated. At present, we have a team of over 20 MPRP program operators consisting of immigration experts from home and abroad, lawyers, copywriters and reception service staff. We are constantly exploring new options and polishing our existing programs to make them more competitive. What an immigration agency like Globevisa should be doing is exploring all possible ways to help its clients fulfill their dreams. I believe the next hotspots for the MPRP programme will be in South East Asia from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur, from Bangkok to Ho Chi Minh City, and from Dubai to Istanbul, where Globevisa has already set up offices and started promoting MPRP. Despite the majority of MPRP applicants being Chinese, Globevisa has also assisted non-Chinese clients with their MPRP cases.

Resource:

MPRP Official Website Malta Permanent Residence Programme – Residency Malta Agency H&P residence programme index Henley Residence Program Index 2023 | Henley & Partners IMF predicts that this year and next Malta will have the lowest unemployment rate in the EU https://tvmnews.mt/en/news/imf-predicts-that-this-year-and-next-malta-will-have-the-lowest-unemployment-rate-in-the-eu/#:~:text=The%20IMF%20is%20predicting%20that,year%20and%204%25%20next%20year. DBRS agency confirms Malta’s rating as A (high) with stable outlook https://tvmnews.mt/en/news/dbrs-agency-confirms-maltas-rating-as-a-high-with-stable-outlook/