Business Skills visa pathways

Business Innovation And Investment (Permanent) Visa Subclass 188

You must be nominated

You must have a current nomination from a state or territory government agency or Austrade.

Have you held your investments long enough?

When you were granted your Business Innovation and Investment (Provisional) visa, you invested in a ‘complying investment’ or a ‘complying significant investment’.

To be granted a Business Innovation and Investment (Permanent) (subclass 888) visa, you (or you and your spouse or de facto partner combined) must:

• for the whole period during which you held your Business Innovation and Investment (Provisional) (subclass 188) visa, have held a ‘complying investment’ (if your subclass 188 visa was granted on the basis of an application made before 1 July 2015) or a ‘complying significant investment’ (if your subclass 188 visa was granted on the basis of an application made on or after 1 July 2015),
• tell us of any times you transferred funds from one investment to another.

If any part of your investment is or was a direct investment in an Australian proprietary company, then:

• if the period of the direct investment was less than 2 years, the company must have been a qualifying business for the whole period, or
• if the period of the direct investment was 2 years or more, the company was a ‘qualifying business’ for at least 2 years, or
• if the company has been unable to operate as a ‘qualifying business’, you must have made a genuine attempt to operate the business as a ‘qualifying business’.

Meet the residence requirement

Unless COVID-19 concessions apply, to be granted a Business Innovation and Investment (Permanent) (subclass 888) visa, you (the primary applicant) must meet the following requirements relating to the period of time that you or your spouse or de facto partner have been in Australia while you held have been in Australia while you held your Business Innovation and Investment (Provisional) visa.

Either:

• you must have been in Australia for at least the number of days worked out by adding the results of paragraphs (a) and (b):
  • (a) 40 multiplied by the number of complete years in the period in which you held a subclass 188 visa in the Significant Investor stream, and
  • (b) 40 multiplied by the number of years (if any) (treating a part of a year as one year) in the period in which you held a subclass 188 visa in the Significant Investor Extension stream
    or
• your spouse or de facto partner must have been in Australia on a subclass 188 visa, granted on the basis that you held a subclass 188 visa in the Significant Investor stream or the Significant Investor Extension stream, for at least the number of days worked out by adding the results of paragraphs (a) and (b):
  • (a) 180 multiplied by the number of complete years in the period in which you held a subclass 188 visa in the Significant Investor stream, and
  • (b)180 multiplied by the number of years (if any) (treating a part of a year as one year) in which you held a subclass 188 visa in the Significant Investor Extension stream.

COVID-19 concessions

Arrangements are in place for provisional visa holders who may have been disadvantaged as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic.
You must meet the Australian residence requirements. Time spent overseas will count as time being in Australia if during the ‘COVID-19 concession period’ you held a:

• Business Innovation and Investment (Provisional) visa (subclass 188) Significant Investor stream or Significant Investor Extension stream; and
• our Business Innovation and Investment (Provisional) visa (subclass 188) Significant Investor stream was granted on or before 30 June 2019.

Time spent in Australia does not have to be continuous. We calculate the number of days cumulatively.