Russian it through: the sudden demise of the Investor visa

Free Movement

Closing the Investor visa route to new applicants with immediate effect was necessary, the Home Secretary said this week. If potential applicants had been given a decent period of notice, it might have attracted a last-minute flood of undesirables who “may not comply with the requirements of the Immigration Rules or who may pose national security risks”.

To which Sophie Barrett-Brown and Hazar El-Chamaa, my guests on the podcast this week, respond: why would you be granting visas to people who don’t qualify or threaten national security? The Home Office had plenty of existing powers to turn away applicants who can’t prove their money is clean or who seem that bit too close to the Kremlin. Shutting the whole thing down is disproportionate; doing so immediately, a blow to the UK’s reputation as a stable jurisdiction under the rule of law.

But we are, as so often, where we are — so what are the options now for bringing the world’s wealthy into the UK? The Home Office says that changes to the notorious Innovator route will help attract the right sort. The experts are… not convinced.