According to the couriermail.com.au, thousands of foreign millionaires can skip the long immigration queue through investment visas and buy direct access to Australia. Figures show that investment visas have injected 11 billion yuan into the Australian economy.
But the productivity commission recently found that investment visas could trigger fraud and have little benefit for Australia, and the Tam Pao government is reviewing the visa category and may eliminate it altogether.
Hundreds of applicants are reported to have been denied investment visas because they were unable to provide proof of their sources of funding.
Some applicants have had trouble transferring money overseas, while others have been found to have provided false documents and were reportedly involved in unacceptable criminal activities, including bribery, insider trading or fraud.
Applicants need 5 million yuan to apply for a major investment visa, which began in 2012. Since then, nearly 2000 millionaires have successfully applied to Australia through one of the fastest forms of immigration.
So far, these tycoons have injected 9.87 billion yuan into the Australian economy through major investment visas. Under the visa, applicants need to invest in Australian stocks and corporate projects receive bonds before applying for permanent residence four years later.
During this period, they spend 40 days a year in Australia, but are guaranteed by state or territorial governments before they can apply.
Chinese investors account for a large proportion of applicants.
Another type of investor visa review process is relatively slow, over a five-year period, 705 investors injected 1.057 billion yuan into the economy. According to the visa requirements, applicants need to invest 1.5 million yuan, 2 years later can apply for permanent residence.
Over the past five years, more than 6530 families of initial applicants for both visas have also arrived in Australia, according to the Home Office.
According to data provided by the Home Office to Parliament last year, 2025 more applicants were rejected, mostly because they were unable to provide a clear source of funding.
The Ministry of the Interior is currently reviewing the categories of business investment visas. The productivity commission proposed as early as 2016 that the government should abolish major investment visas, and that high-end investor visas, which require applicants to invest 15 million yuan, should also be abolished. So far, the government has not issued high-end investor visas.
The Austrac also expressed concern about major investor visas, saying it was difficult to determine whether the applicant's money was legal.
But (Richard Yuan, Yuan, president of the Australian Chinese Entrepreneurship Club, told Australian News Corp that these investors had made a significant contribution to the Australian economy.
He added that given the ongoing trade war between the United States and China, it should be easier for wealthy investors to apply for visas at a time when the Australian government is considering changing visa requirements.
"We need these funds, and now is a good time to discuss the issue. Australia has a lot of potential to benefit from the visa program. "
Richard Yuen added that the government must remind these applicants that their investment in Australia could be lost. Nearly half of the investors who have been granted visa applications have suffered from a lack of management, he said.
Liberal Federal Councillor Jason Wood also said he fully supports the government's retention of investor visas.
"these people have contributed to the Australian economy and created jobs for Australians, and I fully support the acceleration of their visa application process. For me, this is bringing money home, and even if we don't, other countries will do the same. "
"We have granted so many humanitarian visas, and this is a reasonable way to balance," Wood added.
Wood argues that the first thing to change the immigration bill is to repatriate migrants who commit violent crimes, not just one year in prison.
Labour immigration spokesman Shayne Newmann accused Home Secretary Dutton of ignoring the "real problem" of Australia's immigration plan. It has been more than 600 days since the Productivity Commission issued its report, and the government has yet to respond.
Last year, the Home Office acknowledged in the Senate that investment visas could be "serious economic fraud."
Alan Tudge, the minister for nationality and multiculturalism, said he had reservations until the results of the review came out.
The purpose of the review was to assess whether existing visas "will allow Australia to attract the best business immigrants, entrepreneurs, investors and talented people," Tudge said.
Phillip Silver, an immigration agency in Sydney, said the sources of funding applicants needed to provide proved to be very harsh. One of his closest clients was asked to provide evidence as early as 1990.
In fact, many applicants don't really want to live in Australia, Silver said. They see the visa as a shortcut for children to be educated in Australia and live in Australia.
At the same time, several federal lawmakers from the Union Party expressed support for the Liberal Senator Deam Smith's proposal, hoping to conduct a year-long review of Australia's population and immigration levels.
