The UK Government has introduced the new points based immigration system which comes into effect from Jan 2021
The most important change introduced in immigration system is, the tier1 investor visa route will be opened up for EU citizens, when the Brexit transition period ends 31 December 2020.
“Short-term work visas in specific sectors (the current ‘Tier 5’) and investor, business development and talent visas (the current ‘Tier 1’) will be opened up to EU citizens.”, said a statement from UK Government
Under the current setup, the tier 1 investor visa route will only accept applicants from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) and Switzerland. This will change from 2021.
The application volumes for investor visas in the UK likely to soar, once subject of EU citizens comes into play.
Last year UK home office introduced startup and innovator visas replacing the entrepreneur visa route. These visa tiers will also opened up for EU citizens from 2021.
The Tier1 investor visa route, dubbed as Golden ticket scheme remains one of the most popular immigration schemes in the world for wealthy investors and families who are able to invest £2 million pounds and seek settlement after 5 years. The scheme is also the fastest golden visa scheme in the world with decisions taken under 3 weeks and entry clearance issued for 40 months.
The tier1 investor regulations require all applicants must open a UK bank account and undergo money laundering checks. There is also points based system and score 75 points meeting the criteria.
To extend Tier 1 (Investor) visas, applicant must have invested not less than £2 million in the UK by way of UK share capital or loan capital in active and trading UK registered companies
These new immigration arrangements will take effect from 1 January 2021, once freedom of movement with the European Union (EU) has ended. It will treat EU and non-EU citizens equally and aims to attract people who can contribute to the UK’s economy. Irish citizens will continue to be able to enter and live in the UK as they do now.
From 2021 when the brexit transition period ends, UK citizens will cease to become EU citizens and must go through ‘other passports’ at airports.
