AUSTRALIAN IMMIGRATION NEWS

Australian Business Skills Program Reforms

Tuesday, 29 May 2012

The Australian Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, the Hon Chris Bowen MP on May 25, 2012 made an announcement on changes to the Business Skills visa program to lure more entrepreneurs with diverse business expertise to Australia.

As stated in the announcement, the Federal government will rename the Business Skills Program to the Business Innovation and Investment Program. This new program includes some key reforms that were recommended by a comprehensive review of the Business Skills Program in 2011.

The government has implemented several measures to increase the volume and quality of applicants for this visa program. The measures include:

• reducing the number of business visa subclasses from thirteen to three by removing the independent visa categories and other underused visa subclasses, and absorbing the separate business owner and investor subclasses as streams of a single visa subclass. A new visa structure will now include: Business Talent (Permanent) (subclass 132); Business Innovation and Investment (Provisional) (subclass 188); Business Innovation and Investment (Permanent) (subclass 888).
• integrating the new Business Innovation and Investment visas with the skilled migrant selection model, SkillSelect, which will be launched on 1 July 2012.
• facilitating permanent entry of entrepreneurs that have sourced venture capital funding in Australia.
• introducing an innovation points test for provisional visa applicants. Points will be given to applicants for general attributes and for specific innovation attributes.
• granting access to flexibility provisions to achieve permanent residence and encourage innovative business.
• increasing asset thresholds to better align with the Australian business community.
• changing key visa criteria to improve the integrity of the program.

According to Mr Bowen, the Business Innovation and Investment program is an important part of Australian's skilled migration program as it targets migrants who have a demonstrated history of innovation and success in business.

"Such individuals make a strong contribution to the Australian economy, innovation and job opportunities for Australians", said Mr Bowen.

These changes will be implemented from July 1, 2012.