Westkin Associates: Home Office Announces Sweeping Reforms of Golden Visa in Crack Down

Following criticisms from campaigners and recent revelations that the Home Office failed to conduct adequate checks on Golden Visa applicants whom are granted a straightforward route to British Citizenship by investing £2 million, the Home Office has announced their intentions to significantly increase the due diligence procedure that migrants must meet.

The proposed changes of requiring independent wealth audits of each applicant for the Golden Visa is one of several instances of the Home Office tightening perceived lax rules since introduction of the Tier 1 Investor visa.

When the visa was launched, individuals only had to demonstrate that they had held the funds for 90 days, there was no further questions on the source of wealth or even that the migrant had a clean criminal record. Later changes to the Golden visa introduced criminal records checks as well as the requirement for the individual to have opened a UK bank account.

In March 2019 the Home Office made further changes to the visa by requiring the source of funds to be demonstrated for two years rather than the previous 90 days. However individuals were still able to bypass this requirement by showing that the funds had originated from a transaction such as the sale of an asset or a gift.

The latest announcement from the Home Office is that they are planning on introducing a requirement for applicants to have an independent wealth audit, this will provide a detailed analysis of the individuals source of funds but also their wider source of wealth, which the current system does not check, rather just focusing on the funds that are being used as part of the application. These auditors are likely to be prescribed by the Home Office and would to charge a hefty fee for their services. It remains to be seen whether these proposed changes will have a positive impact on the much maligned Golden Visa.  

Westkin Associates remains committed to representing applicants from all parts of the global community, from our new offices in Maddox Street, Mayfair London.

Contact Information

Amir Zaidi

Director

Amir Zaidi

(44) 207 118 8005

info@westkin.com