Such conclusions have been reached in the recent report provided by Henley and Partners, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.

Both schemes permit wealthy foreign citizens to acquire residency in both these two European countries provided internationals make a specific amount of money investment and meet specific requirements.

A lawyer at the Canadian law firm Sobirovs, Feruza Djamalova, told Bloomberg that in the past six months, the world has really taken off, thus adding that this has led to an increase in appointments with the advisers.

“Now, our customers from China are eager to relocate and want to do it as quickly as possible,” Djamalova, pointed out in this regard.

According to a report provided by Money Review, about 10,800 wealthy Chinese sets to settle abroad last year.

Back in October, a survey provided by property brokers, Tranio also considered Golden Visas of Greece and Portugal as Europe’s top programs of this kind.

Both programs make a significant contribution to their countries’ economic sectors, however, they have often been criticized for being involved in many unlawful affairs such as money laundering, tax evasion and corruption.

A previous report by Associates Times concluded that Residency by Investment Programs (RIP) also known as Golden Visas in Portugal and Greece have systemic problems, and are used for nefarious purposes after they lack background checks.

However, despite the recommendations to abolish these programs, authorities in Portugal and Greece have not made sufficient effort to impose stricter requirements and controls for those who plan to hold such a visa.

In addition, Greece’s government previously announced that it decided to increase the minimum value of Golden Visa investment to €500,000. Such new changes were introduced in order to increase the minimum value of an investment in some parts of the country was taken to push investments to other territories of Greece as well.

The figures provided previously by the Portuguese Immigration and Border Service (SEF) revealed that €654.2 million were brought to Portugal last year through the investments made to this country by the Golden Visa scheme.