Figures Reveal Sharp Drop in Number of Chinese Investor Migrants Since 2019

November 29, 2021November 29, 2021 Christian Henrik Nesheim china, chinese, citizenship by investment, club, data, golden visa, residence by investment, statistics

Editor

Christian Henrik Nesheim

It doesn’t merely seem as though Chinese investor migrants are becoming fewer; data covering 2020 and YTD 2021 confirm it.

Earlier this month, we published an article that asked (and attempted to answer) the question: Where Are All the Chinese Applicants? The 3 Factors Killing the Mainland IM Market

We’ve since reviewed the data to gain a more complete understanding of the application and approval volume trends among Chinese investor migrants in 2020 and 2021. The numbers paint a picture of a precipitous decline in applications from the country.

This is in sharp contrast to American investor migrants, who have quickly become a sizeable contingent in the market and are likely to set new records this year.

Among the preponderance of investment migration programs for which we have reliable data, the number of approved applicants of Chinese nationality contracted markedly between 2019 and 2020 and, based on (limited) preliminary data, looks to sink even further in 2021.

Among the 12 programs for which complete 2019 and 2020 data is retrievable, only three showed an increase in Chinese investment in 2020 compared to the preceding year; South Korea saw the number of Chinese applicants for its investor visa more than double during the period, the UK's Startup/Innovator visas approved 44% more Chines in 2020 than in 2019 (starting from a low base as 2019 was that program's launch-year), while Saint Lucia's CIP saw a 20% uptick during the fiscal year that ended on June 30th, 2020.

The sharpest drop-off appears to have been observed for the Canadian Startup Visa program, although these data must be taken with a pinch of salt as we only have data for the first half of 2020 for this program.

The Spanish and Greek golden visas, as well as Australia's BIIP (which includes the SIV) lost about half their Chinese volume during the period, while the US EB-5 program and the UK Investor Visa lost some two-thirds.

We have only very limited data for 2021 so far. Programs for which we have no 2021 data whatsoever include the CIPs of Antigua & Barbuda, Saint Lucia, and Vanuatu, as well as the residence programs of Australia BIIP, US EB-5, and US E2 (though China is not a treaty country, a handful Chinese nationals are listed as receiving these visas each year).

Among the programs for which preliminary 2021 data are available, we've plotted the trajectory to forecast figures through the end of this year and compared these to 2020-numbers. Again, most programs - with notable exceptions - can expect a further decline in Chinese investor migrant approvals also for 2021.