Business visas allow a person and the person’s family to live and work in Australia.
These business visas can be temporary business visas and permanent business visas, and allows the holder to start and run a business in Australia.
The business visas we can offer advice and assistance with include:
- Business Innovation and Investment (permanent) visa (subclass 888)
- Business Innovation stream
- Investor stream
- Significant Investor stream
- Premium investor stream
- Entrepreneur stream
- Business Innovation and Investment (provisional) visa (subclass 188)
- Business Owner (subclass 890)
- Business Talent (Permanent) visa (subclass 132)
- Investor visa (subclass 891)
- State or Territory Sponsored Business Owner visa (subclass 892)
- State or Territory Sponsored Investor visa (subclass 893)
Requirements for Business Visas
Some of the requirements for these visas includes:
- You may need to be nominated for a visa;
- You must have business acumen and ambition;
- Own a substantial part of the business;
- Meet the annual turnover requirements;
- You must own and manage a business;
- Meet the assets and employees requirement;
- Meet the residence requirement;
- Meet business requirements;
- Have functional English language;
- Meet the age requirements (some exceptions apply);
- Meet the health requirement;
- Meet the character requirement;
- Must not have been involved in unacceptable business or investment activities;
- Must have a realistic commitment to continuing business or investment activities;
- Must have followed Australian laws while conducting business;
- Have held your complying investment or complying significant investment for the required period of time;
Obviously, different visas have different combination of the above requirements. Contact us to discuss your requirements.
I will discuss these requirements a little further below.
You may need to be Nominated for a Visa
For some business visas you may need to have a current nomination from a state or territory government agency.
Contact us now for more information on how to get a nomination.
You must have Business Acumen and Ambition
For some business visas, an applicant may need to be able to demonstrate:
- An overall successful business career; and
- A genuine desire to own and manage a business in Australia.
An applicant or applicant’s partner must not have been involved in business activities that are of a nature that is not acceptable in Australia.
Own a Substantial Part of the Business
For some business visas, an applicant must had had, for at least two (2) of the four (4) years before the applicant was invited to apply, the applicant, applicant’s partner, or the applicant and partner combined, must have had an ownership interest in one or more qualifying businesses in which your net value of the minimum threshold.
Contact us for more information on the requirements for owning a substantial part of a business.
Meet the Annual Turnover Requirements
For some business visas, the main business or businesses (you or spouse or combined), had an annual turnover of at least the minimum threshold amount in the 12 months immediately before the application.
For other business visas, the applicant might not need to have a turnover of the minimum threshold amount if the nominating State or Territory government agency has determined that there are exceptional circumstances.
You must Own and Manage a Business
Some business visas require that for the two (2) years immediately before an applicant applies, the applicant must have had, and continues to have, an ownership interest in one or more actively operating main businesses in Australia.
An applicant will need to show:
- The applicant’s ownership interest in the business; and
- The value of the applicants ownership interest; and
- For the two (2) years immediately before the application, the ownership value be above the minimum threshold for ownership value.
An applicant may also need to prove the following – the applicant manage the business on a day to day basis; the business is a qualifying business; the business has an ABN; and you have BAS activity with the ATO
Meet the Assets and Employees Requirement
Some business visas require an applicant to meet a number of threshold requirements in relation to:
- Business Practices;
- Business and personal assets;
- Employees;
- Business Turnover; and
- Business Assets.
Contact us for more information in relation to these threshold requirements.
Meet the Residence Requirement
For some business visas it is a requirement for the applicant to have lived in Australia for at least 2 of the 4 years immediately before the application is made.
Have Functional English language
An applicant can prove functional English by proving:
- The applicant is a passport holding citizen of the UK, the USA, Canada, New Zealand or Ireland; or
- The applicant’s English has been assessed as functional by the assessing authority;
- The applicant completed a degree, a higher degree, a diploma or a trade certificate in an institution in or outside Australia that required at least two years of full-time study and all instructions were in English.
There are some more requirements, contact us for advice and assistance with the English language assessment
Meet the Age Requirements
Different business visas have different age requirements. Some visas have no age requirements.
Contact us for more information in relation to these age requirements.
Meet the Health Requirement
To meet the health requirement, an applicant must not have a disease or condition that:
- A cost to healthcare and/or community service of AUD $49,000 or more; and/or
- Prejudices access to scarce health services to Australians in services including most commonly cancer, functional impairment, HIV infection, intellectual impairment, renal disease or failure.
Some of the test for the business visas may include:
- Chest x-ray;
- Hepatitis b and c test;
- HIV test;
- Medical examination; and
- TB screening test.
This is not required in all cases but depends on where the applicant is coming from and what they intend to do when in Australia.
A business visa applicant must also meet the character requirements of the visa.
Meet Business Visas Character Requirement
The character requirements mean that the applicant and others included in the application must be of good character and must remain of good character.
The character requirements include (but not limited to) whether:
- You have been sentenced to a term, or two or more terms, of imprisonment of 12 months or more;
- You are or have been a member of, or have an association with, a person or group or organisation that are involved in criminal conduct;
- Serious crimes such as crimes against humanity, crimes involving torture or slavery, genocide, people smuggling, people trafficking, sexually based offences involving a child, and/or war crimes, ect; and/or
- Received an adverse security assessment by ASIO.
For more information, the character requirements are provided at section 501 of the Migration Act 1958.
Must not have been Involved in Unacceptable Business
The applicant and / or the applicant’s partner must not have been involved in any business or investment activities that are unacceptable in Australia.
Contact us for more information in relation to acceptable or unacceptable business or investments.
Must have Followed Australian Laws while Conducting Business
For some business visas, if an applicant has already operated a business in Australia, the applicant and the applicant’s partner must have followed:
- Commonwealth laws (Federal laws); and
- The laws of the States or Territories where the business is operated.
This includes laws about taxation, superannuation and workplace relations.
Business Visas Assistance
This brief overview is a very simple outline of what is involved in migrating with business visas.
We strongly advise that you contact us to find out how we can help you and your family migrate to Australia as a business migrant on a business visa.