Be Invited by South Australia for a Business Visa

Business Migration in South Australia

Business migrants have the opportunity to apply for a range of visas supported by South Australia’s State nomination program.

Business migration has long been an important part of South Australia’s “Growth State” strategy. South Australia participates in a state nomination program. Being nominated by South Australia in a visa application provides several benefits to an applicant, including priority processing and a potential to earn extra points towards the application. It is also a requirement for several visa categories, including those for business migration.

Business Visa Options in South Australia

Business Innovation and Investment (Provisional) Visa - Subclass 188

This is a state-nominated provisional residence visa for business owners, investors and entrepreneurs as a pathway to permanent residency.

This visa is for business owners, investors and entrepreneurs who want to establish a business, or invest, in South Australia.

This visa offers applicants the choice of four streams:

Business Innovation stream: Successful business owners who want to undertake business in South Australia.

Investor stream: Successful investors or business owners willing to invest and maintain AUD$2.5 million (AUD$3.75 million if over 55 years of age) into complying investment fund for the duration of the provisional visa.

Significant Investor stream: People willing to invest AUD$5 million into a complying investment fund for the duration of the provisional visa. 

Entrepreneur stream: To be advised

Business Innovation and Investment (Permanent) Visa - Subclass 888

This is a state-nominated visa for business, investor and entrepreneur migrants who hold a provisional subclass 188 visa and are seeking permanent residency.

This visa has special requirements for specific streams that should be reviewed prior to application as they may impact your eligibility and fulfilment of nomination requirements.

Benefit to State Requirement

If you are applying for the Business Innovation stream, you need to provide evidence that you have achieved a benefit to state requirement.

There are different evidence-based requirements depending on your investment and/or business activity.

Major changes in SA business migration

Recently there have been some major changes in business migration following decisions made by the Australian Government. There have also been some changes made to the nomination process in South Australia.

To get a clear picture of what has happened, and how this will affect your options in South Australia, this article has been split into the following sections:

Business Talent – Before 1 July 2021

Business Talent – After 1 July 2021

Business Visa Options Going Forward

Business Talent (Subclass 132) – Before 1 July 2021

Prior to 1 July 2021, Business Talent (subclass 132) was a visa category that contained two options.

Option one (Significant Business History): for experienced business owners wanting to operate a business in Australia.

Option two (Venture Capital Entrepreneur): for those who had received venture capital funding from the Australian Investment Council.

Regardless of the option chosen, it granted the applicant permanent residency. They had their own requirements, but both required the applicant to be nominated by an Australian state or territory. South Australia participated in this.

To be nominated by South Australia, an applicant had to meet the state’s own set of requirements. This included an Exploratory Visit, requiring an applicant to:

Travel to South Australia and stay for at least three nights,

Have a face-to-face meeting with a representative from the South Australia government, and;

Produce evidence of (1) and (2) in the nomination application

South Australia also required an Intention To Apply (ITA) to be submitted by an applicant. It was a two-step process that had to be completed before an applicant could even begin the nomination application.

All of this has now changed dramatically.

Business Talent (Subclass 132) - After 1 July 2021

The Australian Government has ended the Business Talent (subclass 132) visa in its entirety. This means that the Department of Home Affairs will no longer allow an applicant to apply for either the Significant Business History or Venture Capital Entrepreneur visa options.

As subclass 132 no longer exists, South Australia has stopped offering to nominate for this visa.

Although migrating to South Australia through subclass 132 is no longer an option, many alternative business visas exist that South Australia will continue providing nominations for.

Business Options Going Forward – Subclass 188

Business Innovation and Investment (subclass 188) is a visa-type that provides a pathway to permanent residency. Of the options within subclass 188, South Australia is providing nominations for the following:

Business Innovation: for those wanting to control a new or existing business

Investor: for those wanting to invest at least $2.5 million in Australian investments

Significant Investor: for those wanting to invest at least $2.5 million in Australian investments

Entrepreneur: for entrepreneurs who have received endorsements to build on their concepts

South Australia will be making decisions on whether to grant nominations throughout dated ‘rounds’. These rounds are:

Round 1: 2 August 2021 – 24 September 2021

Round 2: 25 October 2021 – 17 December 2021

Round 3: 31 January 2022 – 25 March 2022

Round 4: 2 May 2022 – 24 June 2022

There have also been changes made to South Australia’s nomination process, effectively removing the following steps:

Exploratory Visit

Intention to Apply

An applicant will no longer need to visit South Australia and engage in meetings with representatives. They will also no longer need to submit an intention to apply and can instead apply for a nomination directly.