Whether it is to send their children to elite universities or simply escape the polluted air, American and Canadian citizenship-for-investment programs have in recent years attracted wealthy Chinese in their droves. Chinese are the largest group of investor immigrants for the US, Canada, Portugal and Australia, and some visas have as much as 80 percent take-up by People’s Republic of China nationals, according to law firm Withers. But now with Canada’s programme closed down, the UK and Australia’s schemes growing more expensive, and strict taxation on US green card holders and US citizens, Chinese nationals are looking beyond the ‘usual’ options.