On 20 November, Beverley Hughes MP, minister of state for citizenship, immigration and counter-terrorism, announced at the International Bar Association’s Global Business Immigration Conference that the Government intended to introduce a new investor category as soon as possible. This category would deal with high net worth individuals who had at least £2m of net assets and wished to borrow £1m from an authorised financial institution to satisfy the financial elements of the current investor category.
One of the more controversial aspects of UK immigration law has been the provision of an immigration category for individuals based primarily on their wealth. Prior to October 1994 there was an immigration category for “persons of independent means”. In order to qualify under that category an applicant had to demonstrate that he had under his control and disposable in the UK a sum of at least £200,000 or an annual income of £20,000 and was willing to support himself in the UK without working, and demonstrate either a “close connection” with the UK or that his admission would be in the “general interests of the UK”. The Home Office accepted, as a matter of practice, that applicants with more than £500,000 should be admitted in the general interests of the UK.
