If there are nine levels of difficulty in immigration, then the ceiling is Singapore.
You may say, why is the threshold so high in such a small place as Singapore?Is he more prosperous than the United States, or better than Canada, or more livable than Europe?Some friends will say that Singapore is not ranked at all in terms of difficulty, and some countries in the world want to immigrate more difficult than climbing to the sky, such as North Korea, you can move one and try it.
When we talk about immigration here, we mean that normal people want to go to a place where they live or get status, not because they want to repay the "general's kindness".
According to a report released by the OECD, in 2022, the number of permanent migrants in OECD countries reached a record high of 6.1 million. The vast majority of immigrants go to developed and wealthy countries, with the United States being the largest destination, receiving 1.04 million migrants. Germany came in second with 640,000, followed by the United Kingdom (520,000), Spain (470,000) and Canada (430,000).
* The direction is the best illustration. With this consensus, we can continue to discuss the ranking of the difficulty of moving home.
Ranked ninth: Small passport country
In the immigration industry, all countries that are able to invest directly in citizenship are considered "small passport countries". The small size here is purely due to the fact that these countries are all small in size (except for Turkey) and really have little international presence.
For example, some island countries in the Caribbean and the Pacific Ocean basically have a citizenship by investment policy, that is, as long as you spend money, you can get a passport and become a citizen of these countries.
The more common ones are Saint Kitts and Nevis, Dominica, Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, Vanuatu, and many more. The investment threshold ranges from $100,000 to $250,000.
Ranked eighth: European countries
European countries also have a relatively easy immigration policy because they introduced the "** visa" policy more than a decade ago. However, many European countries are developed economies after all, so it is unlikely that there will be a policy of direct investment citizenship, and all you can apply for is residency here.
For example, in Greece, if you spend 250,000 euros to buy a house, you can get an investor residence card (500,000 euros are required for some specific areas), and you can live in the local area freely, but the house cannot be **, and then the status will be invalid.
For example, Portugal and Spain also had a policy of buying a house to immigrate in the past, but now this channel is gradually closed, and you can now obtain residency in these countries by investing**.
The most important requirement for this type of immigration is that the investment funds are in place, and then the funds can be explained clearly. It is not difficult for high-net-worth individuals.
Ranked seventh: Japan
Japan is not a traditional emigrant, but it is possible to change to immigration status after applying for residency and meeting the length of stay.
For example, the business manager visa, many Chinese now rely on this to live in Japan for a long time. You will need to set up a company in the local area with a registered capital of 5 million yen.
However, it takes a long time to change to permanent residence in Japan, and you need to live for 10 years. Therefore, many friends with better conditions will use a shortcut, that is, the "highly skilled visa" launched in the past two years to speed up the application for permanent residence. You can apply for permanent residency in as little as one year for the Highly Skilled Worker visa.
Ranked sixth: Canada
Canada may be the most in the developed countries of the West in need and welcome immigrants. At present, you can even convert a travel visa to a work permit (this policy lasts until 2025), you can enter Canada in the name of a tourist visa, and then find an employer in the local area to convert to a work permit, and you can apply for a PR card (permanent residence status) after working for half a year or a year (different provincial policies).
No. 5: United States
After all, the United States is still a country founded on immigrants, so there are many immigration policies. If you are highly educated or an outstanding person in the industry, you can apply for a Distinguished Talent Visa or a NIW National Interest Waiver Visa, and you can obtain a green card without investment and employer. If you are a skilled worker, you can apply for an EB3 visa, which is in the form of employer sponsorship. If you are a high-net-worth individual, you can choose to invest in immigration and lend $800,000 to the United States for 5 years to obtain a green card.
Ranked fourth: Australia
Australia's immigration policy has become more difficult, not only with high language requirements, but also with fewer quotas, and the past investment immigration is about to shut down.
3rd place: United Kingdom
A few days ago, the UK reformed its immigration policy, reducing a lot of immigration quotas and raising the salary requirements for applicants. One of the reasons for Brexit was that it did not want to accept too many refugees, and it directly shut down 2 million pounds of investment immigration in the first two years, so the overall immigration policy is not only conservative, but also has a high threshold.
Ranked second: New Zealand
New Zealand is too small, which dictates that its capacity is limited, and the number of immigrants must be strictly controlled to ensure the living standards of the locals. New Zealand investment immigration not only requires 15 million New Zealand dollars, but also has language requirements, which is a typical representative of both want and demand.
No. 1: Singapore
Finally, we talked about Singapore, which is the ceiling of immigration difficulty. The difficulty of Singapore is not only a variety of high thresholds, such as the investment immigration requirement of S$25 million, but also the applicant's extremely high business background.
What's even more difficult is that Singapore's permanent residency system is not transparent at all, and the criteria for obtaining permanent residence have never been disclosed. If this had been changed to the traditional Western migrant, it would have been sprayed to death a long time ago.
In this sense, Singapore is still a very traditional oriental country at heart. Only top talents are welcome here, and for ordinary talents, it may not be difficult to apply for a work permit, but it depends on some luck to change to permanent residence status. In this way, Singapore uses an opaque immigration system to "prostitute" the youth of many people.