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Chinese are big customers for schemes selling foreign residency

economist.com

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Re: Chinese are big customers for schemes selling foreign residency

#111

Post by vinay427 »

moftz wrote: post #62
coolspot wrote: post #17

It is large industry. More than one of my acquaintances got their green card and then citizenship by paying $20-$30k for fake marriage to a US citizen.

Greece has a program where you invest 250k euros (real estate is a common one) and you get a residency permit good for 5 years and can be renewed as long as you still own that real estate. After 5 years you can apply for a permanent residency, five years of that you can apply for citizenship. Now, Greece isn't the best country but even as a resident you and your family get total access to the rest of the EU.

You have to live in Greece to eventually qualify for citizenship, which isn't exactly "access to the rest of the EU" if you want to pursue that route.

https://www.goldenvisas.com/citizenship-by-investment-greece

> Because of the need to reside in the country the Greek golden visa program is considered a residency investment program rather than citizenship by investment. However the option for citizenship is there for those committed to living in Greece.

Re: Chinese are big customers for schemes selling foreign residency

#112

Post by jnbiche »

BooneJS wrote: post #46

Our son used to go to a HS in the east bay where foreign nationals would pay residents of the high school to essentially adopt their kid so they could enroll, take every AP and Honors class possible, and get into a UC campus. It’s crazy. We actually hated the public schools and moved away.

> east bay where foreign nationals would pay residents of the high school to essentially adopt their kid so they could enroll

"Essentially adopt"? That's kind of like "essentially pregnant", no?

Assuming they weren't legally adopting the kids, it sounds like you're describing an exchange program, which is a time-honored tradition around the world.

Re: Chinese are big customers for schemes selling foreign residency

#113

Post by msie »

andy_bandy wrote: post #48
rapind wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My belief has always been foreign capital (speculation) is bad, but immigration is good. So if you want to move here and bring all that foreign capital great! If you want to speculate or park money in Canadian real estate (empty houses and condos) that's really bad for the locals. It never should have been allowed.

They don't pay income tax. In a country with free medicare and cheap post-secondary education, and many other low income benefits this is a massive problem. "nine of 10 recent Chinese immigrants arrive in Metro Vancouver with enough money to immediately buy homes. But only half hold down jobs during their first five years in Canada, while four of 10 report they’re surviving on low incomes." https://vancouversun.com/o…

You are publishing opinion pieces from Douglas Todd, who is a syndicated conservative author who doesn’t like immigration. I wouldn’t take his articles at face value.

Re: Chinese are big customers for schemes selling foreign residency

#114

Post by DiogenesKynikos »

roywiggins wrote: post #20

Our "First Son-in-Law" has his little hands in this game, too. > the Kushners' company held an event at a ritzy hotel in Beijing to encourage Chinese investments for a development project in New Jersey. > "Invest $500,000 and immigrate to the United States," read a brochure at the event... > A spokesperson for Kushner Companies later apologized for the poor optics, but just two months later, CNN reported that the bus…

There's a very similar story involving the Clintons.

Hillary Clinton's brother, Tony Rodham, and her 2008 campaign manager and former governor of Virginia, Terry McAuliffe, were involved in a Green-Card investment scheme that looks pretty shady. Rich Chinese people were told they were investing in an electric car startup. With political big shots involved, they thought the scheme was legitimate and had political backing. The money disappeared with little to show in the way of actual electric-car development, and the investors sued.

1. https://www.politico.com/story/2017/11/28/greentech-automoti...

2. https://www.politico.com/story/2015/03/report-cites-favoriti...

Re: Chinese are big customers for schemes selling foreign residency

#115

Post by [deleted] »

jlawson wrote: post #93
roywiggins wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Meyer, the sister of Jared Kushner, was speaking at an event in which she was trying to attract wealthy Chinese investors to the 1 Journal Square project. > During the presentation, Meyer reminded investors of her brother's recent role in American politics: "In 2008, my brother Jared Kushner joined the family company as CEO," Meyer told a crowd, adding he "recently moved to Washington to join the administration." >…

Okay, so an innocuous display of generalized status. No indication Kushner would do anything (through any kind of back channel or otherwise) to use his position to aid these investors. No indication he has done anything of the sort. Pretty much as I expected; media telling the truth to leave you believing a lie.

[deleted]

Re: Chinese are big customers for schemes selling foreign residency

#116

Post by msie »

andy_bandy wrote: post #48
rapind wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My belief has always been foreign capital (speculation) is bad, but immigration is good. So if you want to move here and bring all that foreign capital great! If you want to speculate or park money in Canadian real estate (empty houses and condos) that's really bad for the locals. It never should have been allowed.

They don't pay income tax. In a country with free medicare and cheap post-secondary education, and many other low income benefits this is a massive problem. "nine of 10 recent Chinese immigrants arrive in Metro Vancouver with enough money to immediately buy homes. But only half hold down jobs during their first five years in Canada, while four of 10 report they’re surviving on low incomes." https://vancouversun.com/o…

9/10 is taken out of context. It sounds like 9/10 of all Chinese immigrants but that’s clearly not true. Many reading it will be outraged and not investigate further. Mission accomplished for the opinion piece.

Re: Chinese are big customers for schemes selling foreign residency

#117

Post by roywiggins »

DiogenesKynikos wrote: post #114
roywiggins wrote: post #20

Our "First Son-in-Law" has his little hands in this game, too. > the Kushners' company held an event at a ritzy hotel in Beijing to encourage Chinese investments for a development project in New Jersey. > "Invest $500,000 and immigrate to the United States," read a brochure at the event... > A spokesperson for Kushner Companies later apologized for the poor optics, but just two months later, CNN reported that the bus…

There's a very similar story involving the Clintons. Hillary Clinton's brother, Tony Rodham, and her 2008 campaign manager and former governor of Virginia, Terry McAuliffe, were involved in a Green-Card investment scheme that looks pretty shady. Rich Chinese people were told they were investing in an electric car startup. With political big shots involved, they thought the scheme was legitimate and had political back…

There is, I suppose, a limited number of schemes, and most of these people are not that creative.

The main thing missing here is that Kushner has a direct ownership stake. Mayorkas was just, uh, helping out a buddy? It's not great!

(also, a hilarious turn of phrase: "Rodham’s sister was secretary of state")

Re: Chinese are big customers for schemes selling foreign residency

#118

Post by BooneJS »

jnbiche wrote: post #112
BooneJS wrote: post #46

Our son used to go to a HS in the east bay where foreign nationals would pay residents of the high school to essentially adopt their kid so they could enroll, take every AP and Honors class possible, and get into a UC campus. It’s crazy. We actually hated the public schools and moved away.

> east bay where foreign nationals would pay residents of the high school to essentially adopt their kid so they could enroll "Essentially adopt"? That's kind of like "essentially pregnant", no? Assuming they weren't legally adopting the kids, it sounds like you're describing an exchange program, which is a time-honored tradition around the world.

They were legally taking over parental rights which made them eligible for enrollment as residents for all 4 years. This wasn’t an exchange.

Re: Chinese are big customers for schemes selling foreign residency

#119

Post by DiogenesKynikos »

roywiggins wrote: post #117
DiogenesKynikos wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a very similar story involving the Clintons. Hillary Clinton's brother, Tony Rodham, and her 2008 campaign manager and former governor of Virginia, Terry McAuliffe, were involved in a Green-Card investment scheme that looks pretty shady. Rich Chinese people were told they were investing in an electric car startup. With political big shots involved, they thought the scheme was legitimate and had political back…

There is, I suppose, a limited number of schemes, and most of these people are not that creative. The main thing missing here is that Kushner has a direct ownership stake. Mayorkas was just, uh, helping out a buddy? It's not great! (also, a hilarious turn of phrase: "Rodham’s sister was secretary of state")

McAuliffe had a stake in the company: "McAuliffe was once the largest individual investor in the company but stepped down as chairman in 2012 and sold his shares as he prepared to be sworn in as governor in 2014."

Rodham was apparently President and CEO of an investment firm backing the electric car company.

Re: Chinese are big customers for schemes selling foreign residency

#120

Post by rolltiide »

chaostheory wrote: post #102
rolltiide wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But who cares? if we don't respect Chinese rule of law (or lack thereof) then is it money laundering? As in, money laundering requires that the source of money have an illicit origin - not merely the observation thats its being moved around - but if the origin is successfully completely unknown, or if the origin is determined illicit by the Chinese government, then neither of those really satisfy the criteria for vil…

> But who cares? Anyone who wants to know where this magic foreign money is coming from. Personally, I'm not judging anyone. At the same time I don't like living in ignorance.

Yes, understanding the psychology of market participants is useful

Using that info to use public resources on curbing money flows is something I would be against, given that its a fools errand

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