Business Visa Changes

There are some changes to the requirements for business skills visas effective from today, most of which are designed to improve the integrity of the program.

The key changes are:

1. The current requirement is for a 10% ownership interest in a main business. This will be changed to 10% if the business is operated by a publicly listed company OR 30% if the business is not listed but has a turnover of more than A$400,000 OR 51% if the turnover is less than A$400,000
2. The threshold amount of personal and business assets that the applicant and spouse must have is increased from A$500,000 (set in March 2003) to A$800,000
3. The assets threshold amount for the state sponsored version of the visa is increasing from A$250,000 to A$500,000
   
4. The option of qualifying for a visa on the basis of being a "senior manager" in an eligible business has been removed. Senior managers will be encouraged to apply for employer nominated visas (either ENS or RSMS) or the business skills (as opposed to business owner) class
   

I take it from these amendments that too many "small business" people have been granted this visa, when the objective is obviously the establishment of bigger enterprises.

I will update the summary of information on my website as soon as I can, but the explanatory memoranda (easier to read than the actual regulation) is on the Comlaw website - click HERE.

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