Visa approvals for investor migrants to Canada's British Columbia plunge

Visa approvals for would-be investor migrants to British Columbia (BC) have plunged, an investigation into Canada's millionaire migration scheme has found - but federal authorities deny trying to stem the influx of rich Chinese to the province.

Tens of thousands of wealthy mainlanders have settled in Vancouver, BC's biggest city, in recent years, raising concerns about their social and economic impact, including on the city's sky-high property market.

Data obtained by the found that approvals to move to BC under the federal Immigrant Investor Programme in 2012 dropped to 1,778, down 42 per cent compared to the average of more than 3,000 per year for the preceding five years.

Actual arrivals also slumped. From 2003 to 2010, BC consistently received about 50 per cent of all investor migrant arrivals nationally. However, in 2011, BC's share fell to 36 per cent. In 2012, it fell again, to 28 per cent (the national tallies include a separate scheme run by Quebec).

Under the federal investor programme, principal applicants worth a minimum C$1.6 million (HK$11.25 million) must loan the Canadian government C$800,000 interest-free for five years. They and their dependents get residency visas and can apply for citizenship later.

But applications have been frozen since 2012 to clear a massive backlog of would-be migrants, most of them Chinese.

Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) denied the declines were an attempt to reduce the number of rich migrants heading for BC. About 37,000 officially arrived there from 2005 to 2012.