Fast-track visas for the super-rich have been suspended by the Government in a crackdown on suspected-money laundering.
The Home Office is estimated to have issued 3,000 of the so-called “Tier-1” visas in the past 10 years, the majority of them to Chinese and Russian citizens.
The Tier 1s were introduced in 2008 to help persuade non-EU citizens to invest into the UK.
An investment of £2 million or more, typically into government bonds, would secure a visa.
No new Tier 1s, sometimes called “golden visas”, will be issued from midnight on Friday while tough new measures are put in place. They are expected to be reintroduced later.
Immigration minister Caroline Nokes said: “I have been clear that we will not tolerate people who do not play by the rules and seek to abuse the system.
Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, owner of Chelsea football club, withdrew his golden visa application earlier this year as relations between Russia and the UK went sour over the Salisbury spy poisoning.
