Mastodawn

Emeritus Prof. Christopher May

While the Govt. is lengthening the period before immigrants can gain indefinite leave to remain, it's also about to offer an 'invite only' programme by which leave to remain can be gained after only three years (two years less than current arrangements that stand, for now, at five years).

How do you get invited to go down that route? You need to invest a minimum of £5m in the UK (in a way acceptable to the Govt.).

Just to be clear:
we are selling UK residency rights to the rich.

@ChrisMayLA6 Taken a leaf out of Trumps golden visa playbook? Can’t see it working with all the entrepreneurs leaving and the current tax welfare regime.

Emeritus Prof. Christopher May 1d ago

Although the 'exodus' of the rich (and entrepreneurs, in you terms) has actually been a lot less pronounced than the wealth management sector predicted.... and given that the UK (for the wealthy at least) is actually a low tax regime, not sure what you mean by your second point

HarriettMB 1d ago

@ChrisMayLA6 No more nurses, doctors, engineer, health care workers etc. And this government does not invest in training them to an appropriate level either. I think there are plenty of better countries all those qualified people can have a good life and a career in, instead of bitter little UK.

Emeritus Prof. Christopher May 1d ago

Yes, its just one more way the interests of the wealthy are corroding society for the rest of us

NOT BUYING PRIVATE HEALTHCARE⚫1d ago

@HarriettMB @ChrisMayLA6 Can patients relying on decent healthcare have good lives if you tell qualified HCWs to go elsewhere? Don't you want to be looked after? There has to be a better alternative for those of us imprisoned here! Stop voting for these people!!!

HarriettMB 1d ago

@WendyNowak @ChrisMayLA6 I have never voted for these people and I never will.

NOT BUYING PRIVATE HEALTHCARE⚫18h ago

@HarriettMB @ChrisMayLA6 I just wonder who DOES!!!

Infoseepage 1d ago

@ChrisMayLA6 I just left Turkey, where I had a interesting conversation with a guide about a program Turkey has where you can essentially buy Turkish citizenship for around $500k. There are no actual residency requirements and apparently the government just looks the other way as to where the money came from. Most people taking advantage of it buy a house and rent it out.

Infoseepage 1d ago

@ChrisMayLA6 Turkey is maybe not the most useful citizenship to have, but you can get 90 day visas to the EU which are good for 5 years and there is Visa free travel to about 120 countries. The other bit that gets exploited a lot is that Turkey has a treaty with the US which allows Turkish citizens to get residency (including for) in the US via an E-2 investment Visa scheme which adds about $100k to the price tag.

Infoseepage 1d ago

@ChrisMayLA6 He spoke pretty authoritatively on the subject, with a lot of nuance and basically portrayed it as a way that a lot of shady Eastern European drug dealer/ trafficker types use to get near automatic residency in the west. It's basically become a retirement plan for gangsters.

Emeritus Prof. Christopher May 1d ago

ha ha, are you saying that the UK's scheme is an attempt to provide a luxury good in a crowded marketplace?

Infoseepage 1d ago

@ChrisMayLA6 It's actually a competitive marketplace and there are all sorts of law firms and companies that have been set up that basically have these online workflows of what you want to achieve (Where you want to live and under what legal status and how quickly you want to achieve it) and then basically outline your options under current legal frameworks, complete with timelines and costing. They of course want to guide you through the process for a fee without guaranteeing results.

Emeritus Prof. Christopher May 1d ago

Where the rich want something, a service industry pops us, sure enough

@ChrisMayLA6 @Infoseepage
Indeed: https://www.globalcitizensolutions.com/

Home

Global Citizen Solutions is a boutique investment migration firm offering second residency and citizenship solutions across 10 countries

Global Citizen Solutions

Infoseepage 1d ago

@ChrisMayLA6 All this golden visa stuff reminds me of all the complicated tax laundering mechanisms used by large international companies to pay as little tax as possible. These things become open secrets, with whole industries built around them. Right now the "Turkey Exploit" seems to be one of the cheapest and fastest routes for getting nefarious characters and our family members into the west at a low cost, quickly.

Emeritus Prof. Christopher May 1d ago

yes, its all hiding in plain sight... but seldom mentioned in the mainstream media

Jez DuBois 🌎1d ago

@Infoseepage @ChrisMayLA6 I was looking at golden visas the other day. Not that I have the money to take advantage of such programs if I wanted to, I was just curious about what it all was. I was surprised at how competitive the marketplace was, with a lot of companies and countries vying for your "business".

@ChrisMayLA6 So similar to Trump's offer of a five million tithe to gain citizenship, not sure why you'd do that unless your sole goal was to give the non-dom wealthy set a place to hide assets and themselves.

@ChrisMayLA6 More grift.

@ChrisMayLA6 The US has had a "Buy a get out of jail card FREE" program for years now.

https://www.uscis.gov/working-in-the-united-states/permanent-workers/eb-5-immigrant-investor-program

@oheso @ChrisMayLA6 The UK introduced a "golden visa" program in 2008, then got rid of it in 2022, and now it's coming back.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-60410844

UK scraps rich foreign investor visa scheme

Fast-track Tier 1 visas ended with immediate effect, amid concerns over fraud and security.

Emeritus Prof. Christopher May 21h ago

Yes, odd that...

@ChrisMayLA6 on the bright side, it could be used like a honeypot if the populace ever realizes how much right wing politics screw them over and vote differently.

HeatherMJ 1d ago

@ChrisMayLA6
So desperately depressing. Government messaging is vile. Anyone would think that this was not a country that depended on and prospered by immigration. I am ashamed

@ChrisMayLA6
> a minimum of £5m ... residency rights to the rich.

£5m is nowhere near 'rich' by the Russia siloviki standards.

@ChrisMayLA6 Sod it, can we sell our own for that price? Switch Nationality provider? Is there a comparison website yet? 😂

@ChrisMayLA6 isn’t it about time MPs and prospective MPs were like F1 drivers and wore the logos of all their sponsors on their clothes so that we would know who we really voted for?

Hoarse e-Books 1d ago

🎵 Selling England by the pound🎶

🍁voilà-DCKIM🍁1d ago

@ChrisMayLA6 there is another country doing basically the same thing, only theirs was cheaper I think.

Too bad we can't sell our citizenship for that price. I'm not sure that would be enough money for a stateless hobo...

TC Won't Give In To Lies 1d ago

And the rich are gobbling up citizenships.

Peter Thiel is in progress on his fourth.

Now, why would anyone need so many?

Emeritus Prof. Christopher May 1d ago

to provide a choice of bolt-holes when the forthcoming social collapse gets under way?

TC Won't Give In To Lies 21h ago

Love the idea of "social claps". Is that like the NHS clapping, back in the pandemic?

😂
Jk, typos bring needed levity to tough threads.

Emeritus Prof. Christopher May 21h ago

now corrected, but glad you enjoyed it

MidgePhoto 1d ago

@ChrisMayLA6
Interesting isn't it.
I'd think that inviting some nice useful people to come and quickly be us would be a sensible thing to do. And I'm sure there is an overlap between having £5M to invest with the reasonable expectation of a profit; and being nice and useful.
But I think I'd like some of the ones that have all that except the £5M to be sped in as well.

#immigration #seduction

Nicole Parsons 23h ago

Peter Thiel welcomes this opportunity to build another doomsday bunker.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cly17834524o

https://www.businessinsider.com/where-billionaires-peter-thiel-second-passports-residences-2026-6

https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/29-05-2026/god-no-longer-defend-peter-thiel-please-for-he-is-forsaking-new-zealand

Ditto the estates of Steve Schwarzman & Larry Ellison.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/12/world/europe/stephen-schwarzman-blackstone-water-uk.html

https://www.ft.com/content/ae2cfbd4-0aa2-4437-8bcd-bfb00c6f8454

Oligarchs make for terrible neighbors.
https://theconversation.com/why-the-us-and-britain-are-not-democracies-71745

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2022/nov/29/slapps-senior-media-figures-call-for-law-stop-oligarchs-silencing-uk-journalists

https://www.thecanary.co/uk/2026/03/24/companies-in-the-ftse-100-get-richer/

https://bylinetimes.com/2023/09/05/britain-and-the-us-how-the-oligarchies-posing-as-democracies-have-been-exposed/

Tech billionaires seem to be doom prepping. Should we be worried?

The debate is ramping up about what happens if - or when - computer intelligence overtakes humans

✧✦Catherine✦✧22h ago

@ChrisMayLA6 wasn't this available before it got shut down around 2020?

Emeritus Prof. Christopher May 21h ago

yes, details earlier in the replies

✧✦Catherine✦✧21h ago

@ChrisMayLA6 right, I remember this came up when I applied to GLT. though they did scrap it when the Russian oligarchs became bad optics... for a few years until the public moved on, I guess

✧✦Catherine✦✧21h ago

@ChrisMayLA6 it's hard for me to see this as entirely unfair seeing as it values my potential labor to the tune of several million quid. but it's very much not equitable. and it's shameful that the most liberal immigration policy in my memory was written by tories

Emeritus Prof. Christopher May 17h ago

Which in itself is one of the reasons Labour are losing support.... when you're tougher on immigration that the party many of your voters (post-Thatcher) would never ever vote for, you really have betrayed your base

✧✦Catherine✦✧17h ago

@ChrisMayLA6 I remember being naive and sort of celebrating when Labour won. I was quickly disillusioned by reality afterwards. it was equal parts sobering and horrifying to read what their policies are. yes, not every one, but... as a whole it's unconscionable

✧✦Catherine✦✧17h ago

@ChrisMayLA6 and, yes, they did spare my visa, technically speaking. but that's below even the lowest possible bar I can imagine, and it sets a pretty horrific moral precedent where immigrants are openly described as revenue sources, to be exploited with the specific purpose of padding your budget. not even bothering with the pretense anymore

Graeme 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿22h ago

@ChrisMayLA6 Straight out of the Trumpistan playbook. And for what is, in the bigger picture of govt finances, loose change. Pathetic.

Britstralian 22h ago

@ChrisMayLA6 Many countries have analogous "significant investor visa" schemes, but some are much better designed than others.

The better ones, in my view, require new investment into businesses and the creation of a decent number of jobs. Ie real capital formation and opportunity creation.

The worst simply trade a modest short-term financial investment (in real estate or bonds).

Often an even lower cost route is to establish a company and then use this to sponsor a visa application...

Britstralian 5h ago

@ChrisMayLA6 It's also pertinent to note here that plenty of the scoundrels who championed brexit quietly arranged themselves European passports so that they had freedom of movement to go with their pockets stuffed with roubles...

@ChrisMayLA6 Most countries have accelerated PR tracks for those who sufficiently invest in them. The UK's is awfully high compared to most, though.

@ChrisMayLA6 that shit, golden visas, has been slowly rotting Portugal for quite some time