The Business Owner Visas is designed for successful business owners with a genuine interest in establishing and managing a business in Australia.

Business Owner visa will let you:

• establish a new or existing business in Australia;
• travel within and outside Australia any number of times as long as the visa is valid;
• have your family accompany you to Australia. They will have access to work and study rights;
• establish a pathway to permanent residence.

Duration

The initial four year provisional Australian business visa subclass can lead to Australian permanent residence. You may be eligible for a permanent Business Skills visa after holding this visa for a minimum of two (2) years.

There are several qualifying criteria for this visa subclass.

Eligibility Criteria

Age

The main applicant must be under the age of 45 at the time of lodging an Australian visa application.

English

The visa applicant should score vocational level of English in International English Language Testing System (IELTS). A band score of at least five (5) is required in all four components of the test, speaking, reading, listening and writing.

Business Experience

The following requirement needs to be satisfied by visa applicants:

• Must have had a successful business career,
• For two of the past four fiscal years, the applicant must have an actively operating business/businesses (ie, not for passive or speculative purposes) outside Australia,
• Over the same period, the applicant’s main business/s must have had an annual turnover of at least AUD$ 500,000.

For two of the past four years, the applicant, applicant’s spouse or both must hold:

• ownership interest of at least AUD$ 200,000 in the business/s, or at least a 10% share in the business if publicly listed company, AND
• have net business and personal assets of at least AUD$ 500 000; which must be lawfully acquired and available for transfer to Australia within 2 years after the grant of the visa.

A 'qualifying business' is a business defined as one which is actively operating for the purposes of making profit and is not set up primarily for passive or speculative purposes, i.e. the sale of goods/services must be distinguished from passive investment. For example, rental income from property.

Health & Character

Australia has strict health and character requirements. The same has to be met before grant of visa. People attempting to migrate to Australia on an Australian business visa will be required to:

• Undergo a medical examination and chest x-ray undertaken by one of a panel of doctors selected by the Australian authorities, and;
• Obtain police certificates for all countries in which they have lived for more than 12 months in the 10 years leading up to the application.

Processing Times

The current processing time for migration to Australia on a business owner visa is 9-12 months, from the start of the process.