Visas & Advice Detail
Australian business visas
If you are interested in establishing a business in Australia, or are interested in being sponsored by an employer, read on for an overview of the major visa options
The Business Skills visa class encourages successful business people to settle in Australia on an initially temporary basis and develop new or existing businesses.
Through a two-stage process, business migrants are granted a Business Skills (Provisional) visa for four years and, after establishing the requisite level of business or maintaining their eligible investment, are eligible to make an application for a Business Skills (Permanent) visa.
The Business Skills programme can be divided into three main categories:
1) Business Owner category: for owners, part-owners and senior managers of a business. You (and your spouse's) total assets must have a net value of at least AUS$500,000, and in addition you must have sufficient assets of at least AUS$100,000 to settle in Australia;
2) Senior Executive category: for senior executive employees of major businesses; and
3) Investor category: for investors and business people willing to invest in Australia. You must have maintained direct involvement in either managing a qualifying business in which you had an ownership interest of at least 10 per cent of the total value of the business or have maintained direct involvement in managing your eligible investment of at least AUS$1,500,000.
Each of these categories also offer the chance for the applicant to achieve sponsorship from a state/territory. Should your application be sponsored the financial criteria required to qualify for each visa will be lowered. Obtaining sponsorship also allows you to apply up to the age of 55, while not sponsored applicants must be under 45 years of age.
A direct permanent residence category – the Business Talent visa – is also available for high-calibre business migrants sponsored by state/territory governments.
Employer-sponsored visas
Australian businesses that have been unable to fill their
recruitment needs from the Australian labour market may need to recruit highly skilled workers from overseas. There are three popular routes for employer-sponsored migration to Australia:
The 457 Work Permit: A temporary visa lasting anywhere between three months and four years (depending on the
circumstances). This visa scheme is increasingly popular as it ensures skilled migrants enter Australia
relatively quickly to take up employment.
The Employer Nomination Scheme (ENS): This permanent residency visa has been developed for Australian employers to recruit highly skilled staff from overseas or from people temporarily in Australia (usually on 457 visas). This visa has been identified by DIAC as one that will play a key role in Australia's immigration system over the coming years, and the department is continuing to work on making the employer nominated process quicker and
easier for employers and would-be employees to negotiate.
The Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme (RSMS): A permanent residence visa to help employers in regional or low population growth areas of Oz, who are unable to fill skilled vacancies from the Australian labour market. The barriers are somewhat less than for the ENS.
For further information:
Department of Immigration & Citizenship
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