CCAC finds pattern of careless immigration vetting

The Commission Against Corruption (CCAC) has released an investigation report into investment immigration and technical immigration requirements, as managed by the Macau Trade and Investment Promotion Institute (IPIM). The report noted that the process has lacked stringent vetting for years.

Technical immigration and residency by investment are processes whereby individuals are permitted to acquire residency in exchange for bringing economic opportunities to a country or territory.

In accordance with administrative regulation no. 3/2005, “Temporary Residency Regime for Investors, Management Personnel and Specialized Technicians”, non-locals may apply for temporary residency by “major investment” or through being employed locally in positions of management or as specialized technicians.

According to the information on the IPIM’s website, between 2008 and 2017, the Institute received a total of 574 applications for investment immigration, 186 of which were approved after assessment, with 410 people granted temporary residency. During the same period, IPIM received a total of 5,039 applications for technical immigration. Of this figure, 3,296 applications were approved and a total of 5,376 people were granted temporary residency.

The CCAC said that there was a general lack of stringent vetting and approval criteria when processing technical immigration. This meant that the investment amounts which justified the technical immigration were either too small, or concerned “immovable property investment”. In other cases, successful applicants did not reside in Macau or only obtained the temporary residency through fictitious employment.

However, in the same report, the CCAC also notes that IPIM has made considerable progress in improving the vetting and approval procedures for investment immigration. One example of how this was achieved is through introducing the points scheme and increasing the minimum investment amount.

Although administrative regulation no. 3/2005 does not have definite provisions for the minimum investment amount for investment immigration, prior to 2015, the reference minimum investment amount was formerly MOP1.5 million. According to the data provided by IPIM, in the 186 initial applications for temporary residency approved between 2008 and 2017, the investment amounts declared in 28 of the applications – 15 percent of the total – were less than MOP1.5 million.

The CCAC recognizes that the social and economic benefits brought by an investment cannot be evaluated merely by the investment amount. However, before IPIM raised the reference minimum investment amount to MOP13 million in November 2015, the investment amounts in the approved applications of investment immigration were generally relatively low, the corruption watchdog argued.

The CCAC also found that IPIM were not conducting thorough background checks to ensure the validity and authenticity of applicants.

According to the requirements of IPIM, applicants for investment immigration should provide business registration, business licenses, financial statements and tax payment confirmation of their companies as well as proof of the investment amount and business revenues. But the CCAC notes in the report that “IPIM usually [only] conducts formality checking on these documents submitted by the applicants. It does not verify the authenticity of the documents and the truthfulness of the facts in a serious manner. They do not send staff off to the claimed operating locations of the companies to verify their operations either.”

The anti-graft body initiated the investigation after receiving numerous complaints pertaining to the way IPIM was managing technical immigration. The Commissioner Against Corruption ordered an inquiry into the vetting and approval procedures carried out by the bureau.