Mideast unrest drives surge in UK visa inquiries

Several lawyers and wealth managers told the Financial Times of unprecedented levels of interest from citizens of countries such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Bahrain who are seeking a possible bolt-hole.

Julia Onslow-Cole, head of immigration at PwC Legal, said there had been “a really big increase” in people from Arab states interested in moving to the UK since public unrest engulfed Egypt in January. “I’ve never seen it from the Saudis before,” she said. “The individuals I talk to are really worried.”

Another lawyer, who preferred to remain anonymous, was told by one Saudi client: “I’d like to vote before I die.”

While the number of potential wealthy migrants remains relatively small, their arrival would provide an unexpected windfall from the Arab spring for David Cameron, who wants more of the super-rich to invest in Britain.

To help the prime minister, the Home Office will unveil plans today to ease restrictions on investor visas from April 6. It is expected that people who invest £10m in the UK will be allowed to settle after two years and that foreign investors and entrepreneurs will need to reside in Britain for only half the year.

Kamal Rahman, immigration partner at Mishcon de Reya, a law firm specialising in wealthy clients, said she too had seen a rise in interest because of the relaxed rules and “unease with the political situation across the Middle East”.

“Saudis are normally happy to stay at home,” she said. “But we’ve had three in touch in a week and a half, compared to two others since we first started doing this.”

Ms Rahman is also taking enquiries from Egypt, Pakistan, Russia, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia and China.

Some 155 foreign investors migrated to the UK last year, which the government wants to double in 2011 to raise hundreds of millions pounds of new investment.

Mishcon, which represented 40 of last year’s arrivals, received “serious interest” from 10 new clients in the past two weeks, far higher than usual.

Ms Onslow-Cole at PwC said she was receiving three inquiries a day. Berkeley Law, another specialist, said it was receiving twice the number of inquiries as usual, split evenly between the Middle East and China.

Alex Ruffel at Berkeley Law said the rule changes would “put the UK back in the running again for attracting these people”.

Lawyers expect many existing wealthy migrants will lift their investments to £10m to take advantage of the faster route to settlement.
 

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