The business investment visa migration program is aimed for individuals who are seeking to own and manage a business, conduct business and investment activity, or to undertake an entrepreneurial activity in Australia. It is a provisional visa with a term of five years, and visa holders may be eligible for a permanent residence business and investment visa after three years. You must be nominated by a State or Territory Government to be eligible.
An important feature of the Subclass 188 Business innovation and Investment (Provisional) visa is that you must first receive an invitation to apply for the visa before proceeding with your application. This is facilitated though the Expression of Interest (EOI) process, which you must submit to the Department of Home Affairs (the Department) as a first step, together with an application for nomination to the relevant State or Territory Government authority whom you are seeking to nominate you.
The subclass 188 business innovation and investment visa also provides a pathway to permanent residence via the subclass 888 Business Innovation and Investment (Permanent) visa once you have held the temporary visa for three years, provided specified requirements are met.
The subclass 188 business and investment visa consists of four streams, and two additional ‘extension’ streams which extend the temporary visa term.
Each stream sets out the prescribed requirements to qualify for the visa, which can include investing a specified minimum amount of funds in Australia and/or meeting an assets test. You may also need to pass a points test to qualify. Under this test, you will be allocated a score based on such factors as your age, qualifications, the financial value of your assets (combined with your partner) and business turnover.
You can also apply to have eligible family members accompany you to Australia as visa dependents. They will need to meet visa grant requirements including health and character criteria.
The subclass 188 visa allows you and dependent visa holders to enter and depart Australia without restriction over the visa period.
In this article, we provide an overview of the business and investment visa migration program, including the requirements you will need to meet to lodge a valid business innovation and investment visa application and to qualify for visa grant, how to apply for an EOI and subsequently for the visa once an invitation is received. We also discuss the key requirements to be satisfied if you are seeking nomination approval in South Australia.
Subclass 188 Business Innovation and Investment (Provisional) visa
The subclass 188 business investment visa consists of the following streams:
- Business Innovation
- Business Innovation Extension
- Investor
- Significant Investor
- Significant Investor Extension
- Entrepreneur
To lodge a valid application for a subclass 188 visa, the key requirements which must be met include the following:
- You must have received an invitation to apply for the subclass 188 visa;
- You must lodge your visa application within the period stated in the invitation, being 60 days;
- You must be nominated by a State or Territory government agency;
- The application must be lodged online on the Department’s website via ImmiAccount;
- The correct application fee must be paid (further information is provided later in this article); and
- If the application is lodged from onshore, you must hold either a substantive visa, or a Bridging A, B or C visa. If your current visa is subject to ‘No Further Stay’ condition 8503, you will be unable to apply for the subclass 188 visa in Australia (exceptions may apply).
If you either hold, or the last substantive visa that you held was a Subclass 491 Skilled Work Regional (Provisional) visa or a Subclass 494 Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional (Provisional) visa, you must have held that visa for at least three years at the time of application.
Note that additional requirements must be met if you are applying for the extension stream.
The requirements for subclass 188 visa grant will vary, depending on the stream for which you apply, as set out below.
Business Innovation Stream
The following visa grant requirements apply to the Business Innovation stream:
- You must be nominated by an Australian State or Territory government agency;
- You must have received an invitation to apply for the subclass 188 visa;
- You must be aged under 55 years at the time the invitation is received (there is an exception where the nominating State or Territory government agency has determined that your proposed business or investment activity is of exceptional economic benefit to that State or Territory);
- Achieve a score of at least 65 in the points test;
- In 2 out of the last 4 financial years before you are invited to apply for the visa, you must have had an ownership interest in an established business with at least $750,000 in turnover in each of those years;
- Have at least the following ownership interest in the business:
- 51% if turnover is less than $400,000 per year;
- 30% if turnover is $400,000 or more per year;
- 10% if the business is a publicly listed company;
- Have an overall successful business career;
- Have a genuine desire to continuously own and maintain a management role in a business in Australia
- Demonstrate that there is a need for you to reside in Australia to establish or operate your proposed business activity;
- If your business provides professional, technical or trade services, you must have spent no more than 50% of your time providing those services (as opposed to general management of the business);
- At the time of invitation, you and your partner must have combined total net business and personal assets of at least $1,250,000, which were lawfully acquired and available for legal transfer to Australia within two years of visa grant;
- Your nominating state or Territory Government agency must be satisfied that the total net business and personal assets owned by you and your partner, apart from the assets referred to in the above point, are sufficient to allow you to settle in Australia;
- You and your partner must not have been involved in unacceptable business or investment activities; and
- Health and character requirements also apply.
Your proposed business activity must be a qualifying business, which means that it operates with the purpose of making a profit through the provision of goods and services.
You must have a realistic commitment to either establish a new qualifying business or participate in an existing one in Australia. This commitment extends to maintaining a substantial ownership interest in, and engaging in, daily management of the business. This would include making decisions affecting the overall direction and performance of the business such that it benefits the Australian economy.
Investor Stream
The following key visa grant requirements apply to the Investor stream to qualify for the business investment visa:
- You must have received an invitation to apply for the subclass 188 visa;
- Be aged under 55 years at the time the invitation is received (there is an exception where the nominating State or Territory government agency has determined that your proposed business or investment activity is of exceptional economic benefit to that State or Territory);
- Achieve a score of at least 65 in the points test;
- Have high level management skills in relation to the eligible investment or qualifying business activity;
- Have at least three years’ experience of direct involvement in managing one or more qualifying businesses or eligible investments;
- Have an overall successful record of eligible investment or qualifying business activity;
- Have a genuine and realistic commitment to continuing your business and investment activity in Australia after the original investment has matured
- Have a genuine intention to reside in the State or Territory in which you have made a designated investment for at least two years;
- For at least one of the five financial years before you are invited to apply for the visa, have directly managed one of the following:
- a qualifying business of which you owned at least 10%
- eligible investments of which you owned at least $2,500,000
- During the two financial years’ immediately before you are invited to apply for the visa, you must have business and personal assets valued at least $2,500,000 (and which can be legally transferred to Australia within two years of the visa being granted)
- Make a complying significant investment of at least $2,500,000 and have a genuine intention to hold that investment for the whole of the visa period, comprising of the following:
- 20% in Venture Capital ($500,000);
- 30% in Emerging Businesses ($750,000);
- up to 50% balancing investment ($1,250,000);
- Have not been involved in unacceptable activities; and
- Health and character requirements also apply.
Significant Investor Stream
You will need to satisfy the following main Immigration requirements for visa grant under the Significant Investor stream of the subclass 188 business and investment visa.
- You must be nominated by Australian State or Territory government agency or Austrade;
- You must have received an invitation to apply for the subclass 188 visa;
- Have a genuine and realistic commitment to:
- reside in the State or Territory where you are seeking nomination
- continue your business and investment activity in Australia once the term of your temporary subclass 188 visa concludes
- live in Australia for at least 40 days per year (cumulatively) whilst you hold the subclass 188 visa;
- Neither you nor your partner have been involved in unacceptable business or investment activities;
- You must make a complying significant investment of at least $5,000,000 and have a genuine intention to hold the complying significant investment for the whole of the visa period, comprising of the following:
- 20% in Venture Capital ($1,000,000);
- 30% in Emerging Businesses ($1,500,000);
- up to 50% balancing investment ($2,500,000);
- Health and character requirements also apply.
Entrepreneur Stream
You will need to satisfy the following Immigration requirements for visa grant under the Entrepreneur stream of the subclass 188 business and investment visa.
- You must be nominated by a State or Territory government agency;
- You must be endorsed by your nominating State or Territory government agency to develop your entrepreneurial concepts;
- You must have received an invitation to apply for the subclass 188 visa;
- Be aged under 55 years at the time the invitation is received (note there is an exception where the nominating State or Territory government agency has determined that your proposed business or investment activity is of exceptional economic benefit to that State or Territory);
- Have competent English (note there are specified requirements for achieving this English competency level);
- Undertake or propose to undertake a complying entrepreneur activity in Australia and genuinely intend to continue this activity; and
- Health and character requirements also apply.
A complying entrepreneur activity is an activity that relates to an innovative idea that will lead to the commercialisation of a product or service in Australia, or the development of an enterprise or business in Australia.
This activity must not relate to any of the following:
- Residential real estate
- Labour hire
- Purchase of an existing enterprise or franchise in Australia
Pathway To Permanent Residence
After you have held the provisional subclass 188 business investment visa for three years, you may then be able to apply for permanent residency via the subclass 888 if you meet certain requirements.
How To Apply For A Business Visa?
A business investment visa application comprises the following three steps:
- Submit an EOI online on the SkillSelect There is no fee to apply;
- At the same time as the EOI is submitted with the Department, apply for nomination approval to the relevant State or Territory Government agency; and
- Upon recept of an invitation to apply for a subclass 188 business innovation and investment visa, you can then proceed to lodge your visa application with Immigration. You can apply either in Australia or from offshore.
What Are The Nomination Requirements For A Business Visa?
Requirements for nomination approval for the subclass 188 business innovation and investment visa will vary for each State and Territory Government agency.
How Do You Apply For SA State Nomination?
State nomination applications for the Subclass 188 business innovation and investment visa are being assessed in four quarterly periods during the 2021-22 program year.
Indicative dates are as follows:
- Round 1 Assessments: 2 August 2021 – 24 September 2021;
- Round 2 Assessments: 25 October 2021 – 17 December 2021;
- Round 3 Assessments: 31 January 2022 – 25 March 2022;
- Round 4 Assessments: 2 May 2022 – 24 June 2022.
The application is to be submitted online with Skilled and Business Migration South Australia (SA) at the same time as you lodge your EOI.
When submitting your EOI, ensure that you select South Australia as your nominating State.
As part of the SA Immigration nomination application process, you must attach all required documents to be considered as part of your nomination application. Ensure that you check the Business Migration SA documentary requirements as they apply to your circumstances. Failing to provide all required information and documents (and in the correct format) can result in processing delays.
If your application for State nomination is successful, you will receive an invitation to apply for the relevant business visa subclass from the Department.
For further information about applying for nomination in South Australia, please refer to our article on the South Australian State Nomination Program.
Get More Information
Subscribe to our newsletter for regular updates and additional information.
Contact us to book a no-obligation consultation to find out more about the business innovation and investment visa..
* * * * * * * * * * * *
In conclusion, we note that the above discussion provides an overview of the business investment visa program, including the requirements you will need to meet to lodge a valid visa application and to qualify for visa grant, how to apply for an EOI and subsequently for the visa once an invitation is received. We also discuss the key requirements to be satisfied if you are seeking nomination approval in South Australia.
Australia’s migrations laws are complex, and each case is different. We have also referred to several terms which are defined in the migration provisions (and whose meanings may differ from their ordinary usage). We recommend that you seek professional advice before you proceed with applying for any visa class, as being fully informed about the process and requirements that apply will give you the best chance of achieving a successful outcome on your application, and thus lessen the chance that it will be refused. A migration professional can help you to do this.
For up to date advice on applying for a business and investment visa, including South Australian State Nomination, book your confidential consultation with a migration agent in Adelaide. PAX Migration Australia is a leading immigration advice service based in Adelaide.
