FOR FOREIGNERS, it used to be that hard work and plenty of patience for bureaucratic red tape would garner access into a coveted country. But, these days, sometimes all it takes to grab that golden ticket is achieving multimillionaire status and promising to make a hefty investment in a new homeland.
过去，外国人要花大力气并对官僚主义的繁文缛节付出极大耐心才能获得在心仪国家的居留权。现如今，若想拿到这张美妙的入场券，某些时候你只需成为一名千万富翁并承诺在这个新家园进行巨额投资即可。
Countries such as the United States, Australia and New Zealand are all embroiled in a global tug-of-war for the wealthy, and each has either rolled out or reauthorized what are known as millionaire visas in recent years. These programs, which are aimed squarely at wealthy investors, fast-track these individuals' path to permanent residency-and sometimes even citizenship. 'Countries are trying very hard to attract foreign millionaires or billionaires, ' says Douglas Goldstein, an international investment adviser and director of Profile Investment Services, which is based in Israel. 'Everyone wants these people to bring their money and spend there.'
美国、澳大利亚和新西兰等国都加入了争抢富人的全球性激烈竞争中，各个国家在近几年或是推出或是重新批准了百万富翁签证计划。这些计划直接针对阔绰的投资者，加快这些人获得永久居留权有时甚至是公民身份的进度。以色列Profile Investment Services公司的董事、国际投资顾问道格拉斯?戈德斯坦(Douglas Goldstein)说：“各国都在极其努力地吸引国外的百万富翁或亿万富翁，大家都想这些富人把钱带到他们那儿去并把钱花在那儿。”
This push comes at a time when the growth in global wealth is shifting to business tycoons and others from emerging markets. The world's 'super rich'-those with at least $100 million in disposable assets-is forecasted to grow between 7 percent and 24 percent through 2016 in Western Europe and North America, much less than the 60 percent forecasted in Latin America, 76 percent in Russia and more than 100 percent in China and India, according to a 2012 wealth report from Knight Frank and Citi Private Bank. At the same time, legal experts and financial advisers say, political uncertainty in some places, as well as the ongoing tremors being felt in the Middle East, has pushed more multimillionaires to seek refuge in nations like the U.S. 'They're coming here for social and economic stability, ' says Bruce Givner, an attorney based in Los Angeles.
这一举措的推出正值全球财富流向新兴国家的商业巨头和其他人士之际。莱坊(Knight Frank)与花旗私人银行(Citi Private Bank)2012年的一份财富报告称，预计到2016年，“超级富豪”――拥有至少一亿美元可支配资产的人――在西欧和北美将增加7%至24%之间，这大大低于拉丁美洲60%、俄罗斯76%以及中国和印度超过100%的预测增速。与此同时，法律专家与理财顾问称，某些地方政治的不确定性，以及中东地区可感觉到的持续动荡促使更多富翁转向比如美国这样的国家寻求庇护。洛杉矶律师布鲁斯?吉夫纳(Bruce Givner)说：“他们来到这儿是为了寻求社会与经济的稳定。”
To grab some of this wealth, officials in Australia say they launched their so-called significant investor visa last year to try and 'attract prominent business people and investors from across the globe and increase economic growth.' Folks who want to soak in the Sydney sun and become permanent residents can do so in exchange for meeting certain criteria, including investing at least $4.7 million in financial products like bonds and managed funds, as well as companies based on the far-flung continent. The program has already attracted more than 170 applicants-who are mostly from China-and similar ones elsewhere have also seen a surge in demand of late. Last year, around 7, 600 foreigners applied to the immigrant investor program known as the EB-5 in the U.S., more than double the number who did so in 2011.
为了争抢这些富人，澳大利亚的官员称，他们在去年推出了所谓的重要投资者签证，以此进行尝试并“吸引全球各地的杰出商界人士与投资者及促进经济增长”。想要沐浴在悉尼的阳光下、成为当地永久居民的人，可通过满足某些条件来换取愿望的实现，包括在债券和管理基金等理财产品以及总部位于这片广袤大陆的企业至少投资470万美元。该计划已吸引了逾170名申请者(其中大多数来自中国)，对其他国家类似计划的需求最近也迅速增长。去年大约有7,600名外国人申请了美国名为“EB-5”的投资移民计划，申请人数是2011年的两倍多。
Like the gold 'flash pass' available at some amusement parks, investors can pay extra to skip ahead of others who are already fast-tracking through a line. In the United Kingdom, around $1.5 million in investments helps qualify for permanent residency after five years, while spending about $15.6 million cuts that wait to just two years. A bigger investment can also make it easier to get that coveted stamp of approval from an immigration and customs office. A 'regular' investor visa in New Zealand requires, in part, that foreigners hold at least three years of business experience, speak English and be younger than 65 years old. But the country's government legislated easier requirements two years ago. Now, an upgrade to investor 'plus' status-which is obtained by spending an additional $6.8 million or so on top of the $1.2 million that regular investors pay-means applicants can have zero business experience, speak any language they want and be an octogenarian, or any other age for that matter. Welcome to Kiwiland.
与某些游乐园可购买“快捷金卡”的做法类似，投资者可额外付费插到已一路加快办理手续的其他人的前面。在英国，投资150万美元左右的投资者可在五年后获得永久居留权，而投资约1,560万美元可将等待期缩短至仅仅两年。大手笔的投资还可帮助投资者更容易获得那枚他们所盼望的移民与海关机构的批准印章。新西兰的“普通”投资者签证要求外国申请者必须拥有至少三年的经商经验、会说英语并且年龄在65岁以下等条件。不过，该国政府在两年前立法制定了更简单的要求。现在，新升级的“优先”投资者地位――比普通投资者投资的120万美元再多投资680万美元左右可获得该地位――意味着申请者可以完全没有经商经验，可说任何一门他们想说的语言，而且也可以是八旬老人或任一岁数的人。只要满足了投资金额条件，那么欢迎来到新西兰。
As alluring as these visas may be to some, they can also lead to certain legal hassles. Some individuals have underestimated how difficult it is to retain their residency status once they're actually in a new country. In the U.S., some investors have failed to create the minimum number of jobs-10 full-time positions within two years-they need to continue their stay here, so they've been sent packing along with their family back to the motherland. 'Some people are basically buying green cards, and then they're losing them, ' says Lauren Cohen, the Florida-based attorney behind e-Council Inc., which helps craft business plans for wealthy folks who are trying to get these kinds of visas.
尽管这些签证在有些人看来可能十分诱人，但它们同样也会引发某些法律纠纷。有些人低估了在真的踏上新国度后保留永久居留权的难度。在美国，有些投资者未能满足继续留在那儿应创造的最低就业岗位的要求――在两年内创造10个全职就业岗位，因此他们连同自己的家人都被送回了原国。e-Council公司常驻佛罗里达的律师劳伦?科恩(Lauren Cohen)说：“有些人基本上就是买了绿卡，然后又把它们丢了。”e-Council是一家帮助试图获得此类签证的富人制定商业计划的公司。
What might seem like a good deal on the surface could also prove financially frustrating-if not disastrous-in the end. Some governments have waited until billionaires have died, for instance, then used the foreigner's residency status in their country to make a grab for taxes owed on the estate, experts say. In one of Goldstein's cases, a client considered giving up his U.S. citizenship because he felt tax requirements here were too onerous. The multimillionaire then began negotiating for a special visa from officials in Cyprus, who offered him residency for a $15 million deposit in one of their banks. (In the end, he never took the bait.)
表面看来或许划算的买卖最终可能会造成令人懊丧(如果不是灾难性的话)的经济损失。例如，专家们称，等到亿万富翁去世后，有些政府会利用这些外国富人在该国的居留身份来征收遗产税。在戈德斯坦经手的一桩业务中，客户因为觉得美国的税收规定过于繁重而考虑放弃美国国籍。这名千万富翁随后开始与塞浦路斯的官员接洽，希望获得一种特殊签证，但那些官员要求他在塞浦路斯一家银行存1,500万美元后给他提供居留权。(最终他没有上钩。)
Hiring a legal expert to help with all the required paperwork adds up, of course. Yet it might prevent issues other investors have faced. Earlier this year, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed its first lawsuit against an EB-5 project, alleging that promoters were seeking foreign investors for a Chicago-based hotel and convention center and fraudulently sold more than $145 million in securities to around 250 investors primarily in China as a way to secure residency in the U.S.
当然，聘请法律专家协助处理所有必需的文书工作会增加费用，但是它或许能预防其他投资者曾面临的问题。今年早些时候，美国证券交易委员会 (Securities and Exchange Commission)提请了针对EB-5项目的第一起诉讼，指控推销人员为一家位于芝加哥的酒店与会务中心寻找海外投资者，以宣称可获取美国居留权的虚假宣传向主要来自中国的约250名投资者售出了逾1.45亿美元的证券。
Indeed, experts say, to some degree these programs have become a victim of their own success. Canada's stack of immigrant investor visas got snatched up within 30 minutes two years ago, and while there were only 700 available to begin with, the country stopped taking new submissions last year to focus on a massive backlog of applicants. (Turns out, there were more than 88, 500 at one point.) Meanwhile, in Singapore, the bar was already considered pretty high, as investors had to spend a minimum of $8 million and hold assets worth about $16 million. But a steady influx of rich outsiders contributed to a run-up in the city-state's real-estate prices, and the government there discontinued the visa program last year to 'reduce the upward pressure on local property prices from foreign investors, ' according to a report from PricewaterhouseCoopers-proving that perhaps, sometimes, there can be too much of a good thing.
有专家指出，这些计划确实在某种程度上成为了它们自己的成就的受害者。两年前，加拿大的一批投资移民签证在30分钟内便被抢光，去年全年仅有700个名额可供申请，不过加拿大还是在去年停止受理新申请，以便集中处理以前积压的大批申请。(最后发现申请人数一度超过了88,500人)。此外，新加坡的门槛被认为已经是相当高的了，因为投资者必须要投资至少800万美元并拥有价值1,600万美元左右的资产。然而，普华永道 (PricewaterhouseCoopers)的一份报告指出，国外富人源源不断的涌入推动这个城邦国家的房产价格不断攀升，导致该国政府于去年中止了投资移民签证计划，以“减轻国外投资者对当地房产价格造成的上行压力”。这件事情表明，有时候好事过头反而可能成为坏事。
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