Australian Business Owner (Provisional) Subclass 160

To be eligible to apply for a Business Owner (Provisional, temporary, not sponsored) visa for Australia, you must meet the following requirements:

• You must show that you have an overall successful business career;
   
• For at least two of the four fiscal years immediately preceding the application, you (or you and your spouse together) must have net assets in a qualifying business of at least AUD $200,000;
   
• For at least two of the four fiscal years immediately preceding the application, your main business, or main businesses together, had an annual turnover of at least AUD $500,000;
   
• You (or you and your spouse together) must show that your business and personal assets have a net value of at least AUD $500,000 which are lawfully acquired and available to transfer to Australia within two years after the grant of this visa;
   
• You (or you and your spouse together) must show that you have business and personal assets, in addition to the assets above, that are of a sufficient net value to settle in Australia;
   
• You must be under the age of 45 at the time of application
   
• You must have at least a vocational level of English
   
• You must have not been engaged in a business where the provision of professional, technical or trade services took up more than 50% of your time;
   
• Neither you or your spouse should have a history of involvement in business or investment activities that are not generally acceptable in Australia;
   
• You must have notified the appropriate regional authority of a state or territory of your business history and intentions to develop a business in that state or territory;
   
• You must have a realistic commitment to establish or participate in a qualifying business in Australia and maintain a substantial ownership and direct and continuous involvement in the management of that business;
   
• You must have demonstrated that there is a need to be temporarily in Australia to conduct or establish the proposed business activity; and
   
• You must have signed a declaration that you understand your obligations as the holder of this type of visa.

If you are able to obtain sponsorship from an appropriate regional authority of a State/Territory government, then your application would fall under the State/Territory Sponsored Business Owner (Provisional) category (Subclass 163), and in addition to the above, you would have to meet the following requirements:

• you would have to show that you have been sponsored by an appropriate regional authority of a State or Territory government;
   
• in reference to point 3 above, your main business would have to show an annual turnover of at least AUD $300,000 for at least two of the four fiscal years immediately preceding the application;
   
• you must show that you have had a sound continuous business employment record in a senior management role on a qualifying business for at least 4 years immediately before the application is made and have demonstrated a high level of management skill as a senior manager, you would have operational and active management responsibilities, have management responsibility over other managers and would usually report directly to the general manager of the corporation. It is expected that the type of businesses which would be able to support such a management structure would usually be businesses with an annual turnover of at least AUD $1,000,000;
   
• you must be aged less than 55 years at the time you apply or you are proposing to establish or participate in a business that your sponsoring State or Territory has determined is of exceptional economic benefit to that State or Territory

If you feel that you meet the above requirements to make an application under either one of these categories as a Business Owner, please contact our London office on +44 (0)344 991 9222 or on australia@workpermit.com to set up an appointment to discuss your case.