Business Innovation stream

The Business Innovation stream of the 188 visa enables you to operate a new or existing business Australia. It is valid for 4 years and 3 months and offers a pathway to permanent residency.

Summary of 188 visa Business Innovation stream application process

    1. Submit an EOI, establishing your eligibilty selecting your business destination state of choice.
    2. The state or territory will assess your EOI and nominate you to apply.
    3. On receiving a nomination, submit your visa application within 60 days, along with supporting documents relating to you, your business history and your proposed business venture.
    4. Your visa is processed.
    5. You receive a decision on your application – your visa is granted.
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Step one. Submit an EOI, selecting your business destination state of choice.

The Expression of Interest (EOI) outlines your skills, qualifications and business experience and the state or territory you would like to operate in – and that you can meet the 65 points required to be invited to apply for this visa.

65 points

Check that you can meet the points test for the 188 visa Business Innovation stream, which is 65 points. Australia’s immigration department will not issue you an invitation to apply for the visa if you cannot proof you can meet the required number of points.

You receive points for your:

    • Age
    • English language level
    • Educational Qualifications
    • Special endorsement from an Australian State or Territory
    • Your financial assets
    • Your business turnover
    • Business experience
    • Business innovation qualifications

You can submit your EOI in or outside of Australia.

You can submit your EOI in or outside of Australia and you will receive confirmation confirming your EOI has been received.

You can change your EOI after you submit it if you want to apply for a different visa, or your circumstances have changed. However, you can’t change it once you are invited to apply for the visa.

Your EOI is submitted to the Skillselect portal for state and territory governments to look at. Consult our Australian government registered migration agent to understand what your best course of action is and how best to prepare for the EOI.

Step two. The state or territory will assess your EOI and nominate you to apply.

If a state or territory nominates you, you will receive an invitation from Australia’s immigration department to apply for the 188 visa through the Business Innovation stream.

On receiving the invitation to apply for the 188 visa, you have up to 60 days to submit your visa application.

Your visa application will be supported by supporting documents. These are:

Identity documents

Passport page: You’ll need your current passport page with your photograph and personal details and passport expiry date.

A national identity card if you have one.

Proof of name change if applicable.

If this applies to you, you will need to include documents that prove your change of name. This could be a marriage or divorce certificate, documents that show any other names you have been known by, a lodgement of a name change on the Australian Registry of Births, Deaths or Marriages or equivalent.

Business documents

Value of Assets to be AUD 800,000  

You will need to provide evidence of your business and personal assets using Form 1139A. This can be:

Bank statements

Title deeds, valuation certificates, mortgage certiciates

Loan agreements, loan statements, repayment schedule

Share or debenture certificates, fixed interest securities, bond certificates

Company financial statements completed to International Accounting Standards

Evidence of your business ownership

You will need to show proof of ownership of a business at the time you are invited to apply for the 188 visa Business Innovation stream. This can be a:

Certificate of incorporation or full company extract

Shareholder certificate lodged with the Company Register which shows your share of the business’s annual return.

Memos and articles of association

Business registration certificate or licence

Franchise agreement, company registrar, share transfer documents

Partnership agreements

Trust deed and amendments

Business Involvement

You will need to prove our role in the day-to-day management of your business for two of the last 4 fiscal years prior to being invited to apply for the 188 visa Business Innovation. This evidence should show your responsibility for areas such as business profitability, expenditure, price structure, recruitment, strategic management.

Supporting evidence to show your role in the business can be a business contract, documents authorised by you, minutes of meetings, a one page organisation chart (this must show your position in the business, staff attribution, management reporting lines and functional responsibilities), up to 6 photos of the premises and the business activity.

Financial Statements

You will need to include financial statements of your qualifying business. These must be for 2 of the past 4 fiscal years prior to your invitation to apply for the visa. The financial statements should be prepared to International Accounting Standards by an independent accountant.

You will also need to include details of losses, insolvency, receivership, liquidation or bankruptcy.

Documents to support the Points Test

English language level

You will need to demonstrate that you have either vocational or proficient English language capabilities.

Qualifications

You will need to supply certified copies of trade qualifications, diplomas, degrees.

Business Experience

You will need to show you have owned and managed one or more businesses for at least 4 years out of the past 5 years prior to being invited to apply for the 188 visa;

Or

At least 7 years out of the past 8 years prior to being invited to apply for the 188 visa.

Your innovation

Registered Patent or Design

Provide proof you own the patent or design or trademark from a recognised intellectual property registration office

You will need to submit a statement explaining how the registered patent or design is relevant to your main business and how it relates to the everyday operations of the business.

If the innovation is part of a joint venture, provide details of the rights and obligations of the parties, proof that your business is a party of the joint venture and that you entered the agreement at least one year prior to being invited to apply for the visa and details of your senior level role in the everyday management of the joint venture business.

Export trade

For export trade, provide:

Evidence that at least 50% of the turnover of your main business related to export trade. This must be the case for at least 2 of the 4 fiscal years before we invited you to apply for this visa. You could provide:

    • monthly or annual tax returns showing the cumulative export sales of the main business for the year
    • customs declarations
    • the underlying source documents in relation to the export transactions

We might ask you to provide a special-purpose report prepared by a qualified accountant attesting to your claim.

Gazelle business

For a gazelle business, provide:

    • evidence that your main business was registered no more than 5 years before we invited you to apply for this visa such as a business licence or company extracts
    • the financial statements of the main business, with supporting tax documents, to show an average annualised growth in turnover greater than 20% per year over 3 consecutive fiscal years

Also provide evidence that you have had 10 or more full-time employees for at least one fiscal year. This must be the same consecutive 3-year period claimed for growth in turnover. You could provide taxation records, insurance or superannuation documents or similar business records identifying each employee by name.

Receipt of grant or venture capital funding

To show receipt of grant or venture capital funding, provide:

    • certified copies of a grant letter and bank records to show the transfer of a government grant of at least AUD10,000 from the government to you or your main business
    • a copy of the final contract between you and the venture capital firm and evidence of the receipt of the venture capital funding of at least AUD100,000
    • evidence that you received funding from either the government grant or a venture capital firm within the 4 years before we invited you to apply for this visa

Character documents

Australian police clearance: This must be a Complete Disclosure National Police Certificates issued by the Australian Federal Police. These should be no older than 12 months at the time you submit your visa application.

Overseas police clearances: You need to provide a police certificate from every country (including your home country) in which you have spent a total of 12 months or more in the last 10 years since turning 16and also police clearances for each country you have lived in since.

If you have served in the armed forces of any country, you will need to include your discharge papers and military service record.

As well as this, you will need to complete the immigration department’s Form 80 and Form 1221.

English language Requirements

If you are applying for a 188 visa through the Entrepreneur stream, you will need to provide from that you have competent English.

Other family members you are including on your application who are over 18 years old will need to have functional English.

If other family members do not have functional English, you will need to include a statement outlining your intention to pay the second visa application charge for each person who does not have a minimum of functional English.

Partner documents

You’ll need to provide documents proving your partner’s’ identity (eg passport photo page) and their relationship to you.

Establishing your partner’s relationship to you can be done by providing a marriage certificate or providing 12 months of proof that you are in a de facto relationship, such as, joint bank account statements, billing accounts in both names, joint leases or mortgages.

VISA TIP: Proving a de facto relationship

Dependents under 18 years old

You will need to include identity documents, proof of their relationship to you (such as a birth certificate) and character documents where applicable for dependents, such as children, applying with you on your 188 visa application.

You will also need to obtain the written consent (using Form 1229 or by providing a statutory declaration) from anyone else who has a legal right to decide where the child lives and/or is not coming to Australia with the child. This needs to include the signature and photograph of the person who provided this written consent. Written consent can also be a statutory declaration giving their consent for the child to travel to Australia on this visa, or you can present an Australian court order allowing the child to migrate to Australia or details of a law in your home country allowing them to migrate, adoption papers or other court documents.

If you have dependents who are over 18 years old, you will need to include Form 47a detailing the ways this applicant is dependent on you. You can also include other forms of proof, such as their tax records, evidence they are currently studying and/or they live with you.

If the dependents applying are over 18 years old, you must show how they are dependent on you or your partner. You can include evidence that they live with you, tax records, proof they are currently studying, banks statements showing you have financially supported them.

If one of the dependents applying on your application is over the age of 23 years old, contact us to learn what options are available to you.

Step three. On receiving a nomination, submit your visa application within 60 days, along with supporting documents.

Your documents can be submitted digitally through the Australian immigration department’s portal, ImmiAccount.

Applying from Hong Kong?

If you are applying from Hong Kong, China, Macau or Taiwan, refer to the document checklist issued by the Australian Consulate General Hong Kong.

When you are ready to submit your 188 visa application, if you are applying from Hong Kong, China, Macau or Taiwan, your visa application will be sent to the Australian Consulate General Hong Kong.

Step 4. Your visa is processed.

You can travel to and from Australia while you wait for the 188 visa application to be processed.

Be sure to have a valid visa if you are returning to Australia while your visa is being processed. Do not cancel the current visa are on. If you are applying for the 188 visa in Australia and need to stay in Australia, our registered migration agent can advise you on the bridging visa you need to ensure you remain in Australia legally.

While your visa is being processed, you may be asked to have a health examination or provide biometrics.

You may also be asked to pay the second instalment of the visa application fee.

You can add additional family members to your application while your application is being processed. Additional applicants will also need to meet Australia’s health and character requirements. Use Form 1436.

If any information supplied on your application changes, for example, you get a new passport, you have a change of address, the birth of a child, changes to your business status, you will need to add this information to your application.

Step 5. The 188 visa is granted.

The 188 visa is valid for 4 years and 3 months and enables you to travel in and out of Australia and carry out business and investment activities in Australia.

188 visa obligations

As a holder of the 188 visa through the Business Innovation stream, there are business obligations you will need to comply with, namely maintaining a substantial ownership interest in a business in Australia and show you are participating in the daily management and decision-making of the business.

Your role in the business must be:

    • Developing business links with international markets
    • Employing people in Australia
    • Exporting Australian goods
    • Producing good or serviced destined for export
    • Introducing new or improved technology
    • Adding commercial activity and competitiveness to the Australian market.

While you and your family hold a 188 visa, you must comply with the visa conditions and Australian laws, including workplace laws. All workers in Australia have rights and protections at work that include rates of pay and workplace conditions.

188 visa Business Innovation Stream Extenstion

While you have this 188 visa, you can apply for permanent residency through the Business Innovation and Investment (Permanent) visa (Subclass 888) Entrepreneur stream.

Applying for Permanent Residency

While you have this 188 visa, you can apply for permanent residency through the Business Innovation and Investment (Permanent) visa (Subclass 888) Entrepreneur stream.