Australia Significant Investor Visa

Note: this stream will be closed permanently from July 2024. No applications are accepted post this date.

Australia has attracted high-net worth investors for number of years due to its stable economy, best climate, highly developed infrastructure and excellent education and healthcare. Australia has the world’s 9th largest immigrant population with immigrants accounting for 26% of the population. In 2023, Australia overtook US, Switzerland and become the country with the highest average wealth. Australia offers world class business environment, best in the world with transparent policies to do business. Australia has 25 years growth record, and has been ranked as top 5 countries in the world for economic freedom. Australia was the only advanced economy not to experience a recession due to the global financial downturn in 2008–2009.

The Australian Investor (Class 188) Visa allows wealthy immigrants to pursue business and investment activity in Australia . This is a permanent visa allows to stay indefinitely and later apply for Australian citizenship.

Benefits

Lifetime visa validity
Travel in and out of Australia anytime
Apply for permanent residence after satisfying residency conditions
Bring family, spouse and children to Australia
Become an Aussie citizen.

Investor Visa conditions

According to Immigration department of Home Affairs, the following streams apply for investors.

Business Innovation Stream (class 188A) – Invest atleast AUD 1,250,000 (provisional visa) to operate new or existing business. Current processing time: 90% of applications processed in 40 months.
Investor stream (subclass 188B): Designated investment of at least AUD 2,500,000 in an Australian state or territory and maintain business and investment activity in Australia. Current processing time: 90% of applications processed in 45 months.
Significant Investor stream (subclass 188C): Invest at least AUD 5,000,000 into complying significant investments in Australia and want to maintain business and investment activity in Australia. Current processing time: 90% of applications processed in 25 months.
Premium Investor stream (subclass 188D) : Invest at least AUD 15,000,000 into complying premium investments in Australia and want to maintain business and investment activity in Australia.

All categories have these eligibility criteria:

Submit expression of interest (EOI) in SkillSelect,
Nominated by a State or Territory government agency or Austrade and finally
Invited to apply for the visa

The visa approval decision will be based based on points, age, english language ability, business qualifications, net personal and business assets, business turnover innovation.

Permanent Residence

Permanent residence status lets you to stay in Australia indefinitely and also sponsor family and relatives for permanent residence.

Investor stream: You can apply for PR status after you have held your provisional investor visa for 2 years out of 4 years.
Significant stream: You can apply for PR status after you have held provisional visa and you have been in Australia for atleast 40 days per year, and held investments continuously for 4 years.
Premium stream: You can apply for PR status after you have held provisional visa and investments for atleast a 1 year

Australian Citizenship

You can apply for Australian citizenship after 4 years of living, plus 12 months of holding Permanent residency status. You may not be absent for more than 3 months and more than 1 year in total.

Australia Passport