Dawn or dusk? Future of immigration agency

By Pan Lei

There are a group of people whose work is to help their clients to apply for investment immigration. This industry bloomed with an increased number of property investment applications. However, as the trend has become not so hot, these immigration agents may have different feelings.

Starting in 1995, the Macau government implemented the investment immigration policy. The original idea of this policy was to offer convenience to those who had companies here. After 2002, the policy was promoted to the public, not only company owners, in order to attract more technicians to immigrate to Macau. In 2004, a new immigration policy was introduced, which has helped boost the real estate market.

As more and more people applied for immigration to Macau, the number of agencies increased from 10 to almost 30. Yang Qi Hui is one of those who work in immigrant agencies.

"In the process of applying for immigration, they (the clients) need to go back and forth to several government departments. How can a foreigner be so familiar with this? And even if they can, they have no time to renew their files every year. We can do all the procedure for them," Yang said.

"They are mainly from mainland China. Only a few of them are Westerners. Most of the Westerners apply by themselves, or ask for help from lawyers. My company has branch offices in the mainland, so it is easy for clients to contact us," he continued.

Yang said that there are about 200 agents in Macau. There are no special qualifications or licenses required to be an agent. Certainly, speaking Mandarin or Fujianese is an edge.

Their job can be divided into two parts, one is "new client job" and the other is "old client job". The "new client job" means after a client hires them, they have to help the client to fill in many different application forms, according to which kind of investment they are qualified to apply for. Then they bring the client to several government departments to finish the procedure, such as the Macau Trade and Investment Promotion Institute (IPIM) to submit the application form, and the Finance Bureau to get the certification of the housing unit which they have purchased.

"For those who really want to live here, not just to obtain an ID card, we may offer them information about education, medical benefits, and even finding a job," Yang said.

The "old client job" is to help the client to renew his/her application. They may need to re-submit certificates, for example documents such as the criminal record and certification of housing units, which are only valid for three months. According to Yang, their clients always forget the time limit, so they have to help the clients to re-submit the documents. No matter what kind of jobs, their job is like a bridge, to help people to come to Macau.

"The job is not boring," Yang said, "but it is not easy to do...sometimes the process takes a long time, and some clients may think that we are cheating them. And sometimes a client would argue with a department officer over application results and we have to help them to negotiate."

Yang said that he heard of a case in which the client thought a department officer stole her ID card and finally called the police. "They are furious because they really care about the result of the application. More and more people believe Macau will have a good future. For mainland people, holding a Macau ID card can make it easier for them to travel to other countries."

According to IPIM statistics, there were almost 3,000 applications in 2005, compared to less than 300 in 1998. However, some people think the immigrant agency industry will come to an end soon.

Wallace Choi Yao Bun used to be an agent, and now he works in a casino. "I think people will calm down one or two years later,"

"First, the new policy requires a higher qualification of the applicants. And the applicants are mainly from the mainland. Now the development in the mainland is very fast, even faster than Macau, so immigration to Macau will become meaningless one day."

Choi mentioned that nowadays many real estate companies and lawyers also offer immigrant agent services and this situation will result in a decline of individual immigrant agencies.

Agents' salary is also a problem. Like other industries, workers will compare their salary with those who work in casinos. "The payment was too little, why shouldn't I have a more stable job with a higher salary?" Choi said.

Recently the investment immigration may be over after its climax, and agents in the business may feel the threat of its decline, but many agents still believe that while the booming economy in Macau needs more and more professionals and investors, the next immigration tide will come soon. And under the investment immigration policy, the job of agents is always in demand..