Canada scraps investor visa, affects tens of thousands Chinese

Just over a week ago, tens of thousands of wealthy Chinese citizens had their applications for Canadian residency terminated - after the government announced the cancellation of the Immigrant Investor Program.

Tens of thousands of Chinese investors have had their applications for Canadian residency revoked after French government announced the cancellation of its immigrant investor program. The program had allowed foreign nationals to receive Canadian residency by agreeing to give the government a substantial interest-free loan.

Hong Yang has been a real estate broker in Toronto for more than 10 years. He's helped countless immigrants from China and elsewhere find a Canadian home. But his steady flow of foreign customers is slowing as the Canadian government overhauls its immigration rules.

"I can feel the policies changing. I can feel it. Less and less people coming from China." Hong said.

After running the immigrant investor program for 28 years, the Canadian government canceled it on February 12th. It offered permanent residence to foreigners prepared to lend the government 800,000 Canadian dollars interest-free for five years. That's around 722,000 US Dollars. It was designed to attract business talent and help grow Canada's economy. Wealthy foreigners came in their thousands, driving up the cost of housing in the process.

"It definitely affected property prices and appreciation of the market - especially in Vancouver. Affordability of real estate in Vancouver is, I think, already ridiculous." Hong said.

When Ottawa killed the program, roughly 70% of applicants were Chinese nationals. Some estimates put that number around 45 thousand people. What motivated them to seek residency in Canada varies - but some immigration lawyers say it was an effective way to move cash and assets out of China.

"They needed a place to park that capital. They also need a place in which to have some sort of insurance policy, so in case of trouble in China, they would have the door open in Canada to move immediately back and have property and just enjoy their capital." Sergio Karas said.

The scheme developed a bad reputation as a way to "buy" a Canadian passport. Stories even emerged of unscrupulous consultants offering criminals and corruption suspects an easy way into the country. Some immigrant investors moved their families to Canada, but then returned to China with no intention of moving their businesses here, or paying Canadian taxes.

"The reason why they pay less is maybe, because Canadian and Chinese government have different policies because some already pay tax in China, because they have business in China, so they pay taxes to Chinese government. So maybe they pay less to Canada." Business consultant Mike Wang said.

As concerns mounted, the government suspended all new applications in 2012. Thousands of cases went unprocessed and have now been canceled.