Irish Seek to Tempt Millionaires With Visa Bonds

[Steve]

Ну вот, уже начинают проявляться некоторые детали инвестор-иммиграции в Ирландию:

Irish Seek to Tempt Millionaires With Visa Bonds

By Finbarr Flynn - Feb 29, 2012 12:01 AM GMT

Ireland plans to sell a bond with a different kind of coupon: a resident’s visa.

Under proposals to be laid out next month, the government will offer the visas to investors who spend at least 2 million euros ($2.7 million) on a new “low-interest” security, 1 million euros on property or invest in an Irish company. The sale is aimed at people from outside the European Union who need permits to live and work in the 27-member bloc.

“You might have businesspeople in China or in Brazil or in various non-EU countries who would like to be entitled to come and reside here,” Irish Justice Minister Alan Shatter said in an interview in Dublin. “The scheme has great potential.”

Ireland is undertaking an “international charm offensive,” Prime Minister Enda Kenny said after former U.S. President Bill Clinton hosted a meeting in New York on Feb. 9 to drum up interest in Ireland among investors. Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping this month visited the country.

In Ireland, the program is set to encompass property ultimately controlled by the National Asset Management Agency, according to the Justice Ministry. The so-called bad bank, set up to purge Ireland’s lenders of risky loans, had more than 1,000 assets listed for sale. Visas are also available for an investment in an Irish company, a charity endowment, as well as the specially created bond.

The bond, which isn’t tradable, must be held by the visa holder for a minimum of five years.

The government hasn’t yet set the coupon, the rate of interest payable to bondholders. Buyers will be able to bring family members with them, the Justice Ministry said. A spokesman for the country’s debt agency declined to comment.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-0...investors.html