If you are a successful business person you may be eligible to apply for entry to Australia under Australia's Business Innovation and Investment Program: Australia has always been looking for people who have been successful in business, as business owners, as senior executives or as investors.

Recent Changes

In July 2010 the Australian Government tightened the eligibility requirements for business visas in an effort to increase the potential contribution of business migrants to the economy and to create more jobs for Australians. Specifically, the value level of the assets business migrants were required to bring to Australia were raised and the percentage of controlling interest for business ownership was increased too, especially in the case of businesses with a turnover of less than AUD400,000, where the holding must be at least 51%.

On 1 July 2012 the previous Business Skills Program was replaced by the Business Innovation and Investment Program, which introduced some key changes -

• the number of business visa subclasses was reduced from 13 to 3,
• the new Business Innovation and Investment visas were integrated with the Skilled Migrant Selection Model, SkillSelectThis means that you can no longer apply directly for a Business Visa - you must first be invited to do so after you have submitted an Expression of Interest - see our Welcome page for a brief summary of the new SkillSelect system.,
• the entry of entrepreneurs that have sourced venture capital funding in Australia was facilitated,
• an innovation points test for provisional visa applicants was introduced,
• flexibility provisions were introduced in order to achieve permanent residence and encourage innovative business
• asset thresholds were further increased to better align with the Australian business community,
• key visa criteria were changed to improve the integrity of the program.

Many of the details of the new Business Innovation and Investment Program are still unclear: we will expand this section of our website as soon as more detailed and concrete information is available.

In the meantime, if you need information immediately or urgently, send us an email or ring us on +61 8 8410 6262.