Business Innovation stream (subclass 188A) visa - Supporting information

Innovation capability

You must show your capacity to innovate by demonstrating one of the following in your SkillSelect Expression of Interest (EOI) and your nomination application:

• Your main overseas business has an annual turnover of $1,750,000 or greater, or
• you have claimed 10 SkillSelect points for a bachelor’s degree in business, science or technology, or
• you have any business innovation qualification claimed in your EOI (except ownership in a business with no less than 50% of turnover in export trade).

Age

You must be under 55 at the time of your visa application.

Business History

You must have at least 3 years business ownership experience listed in your SkillSelect EOI.

The Victorian Government may request a summary of your current business or relevant business history that includes:

• The products or services sold by the business,
• current business name, address, and website (if available),
• annual turnover,
• the client profile of the business (who does your business sell to),
• the purpose of the business “e.g., to provide software solutions that are more efficient, effective and user friendly to sole traders”.
• photographs of the products/services, and photographs of the place of business.

Points

You must have achieved at least 65 points on the Australian Government’s points test for your EOI in SkillSelect.

Business Proposal

The proposed business must be within your area of expertise. This must be demonstrated through 3 years of highly relevant business history .

Examples of businesses that have been successful in Victoria in this program include:

• Technology development
• Tourism and primary producer
• Cosmetics manufacturing
• Nutritional product manufacturing and export

Examples of business types that will not be accepted include:

• property development
• gift stores
• convenience stores
• dollar stores
• franchises (unless international brand that is new to Australia)

You must propose to engage in eligible business activity in Victoria

You must propose to engage in eligible business activity that is highly relevant to your recent business experience.

Job creation

You must also demonstrate that your business will create jobs in Victoria.

You must employ at least 2 full time eligible employees.

We may refuse your nomination application for a permanent visa (subclass 888A) if you have not employed at least 2 full time eligible employees.

Exemption: You could be exempt from this job creation requirement if your eligible business’ turnover is at least A$1 million per year for the 2 years before you apply for permanent residency.

*See the Glossary of Terms page for the definition of ‘eligible full-time employees’.

$500,000 investment into Eligible Victorian Business

You must provide evidence of business investment of at least $500,000 in your Victorian business/s for a period of 1 year immediately before your (Subclass 888) Business Innovation nomination application.

You will be required to provide a balance sheet for the last 2 years showing a value of $500,000 or greater maintained for a 1-year period immediately preceding your Subclass 888 visa nomination application.

English language skills

At the time of your Victorian (subclass) 888 visa nomination application, you must provide evidence that you or your spouse have one of the following:

• Functional English at time of your nomination application, or
• documentation showing that you have completed any English course funded by the Department of Home Affairs AMEP.

*See the Glossary of Terms page for specific meaning of ‘Functional English’.

An applicant with a High Performing Victorian Business will have the English skills requirement waived. Please see the section below on what is considered a High Performing Victorian Business.

High Performing Victorian Business

Owners of a High Performing Victorian Business are exempt from the English Language requirements when applying for Victorian (subclass) 888 visa nomination.

Your business will be considered a High Performing Victorian Business if you are able to provide evidence of both of the following:

• 6 or more full-time employees (or equivalent part-time employees) employed in the eligible Victorian business/es for no less than 6 months prior to nomination application, and
• turnover of at least $A 2 million per annum for the last 1 year immediately before the 888A nomination application.

*See the Glossary of Terms page for specific meaning of ‘full time employees’.

If you are proposing to engage in export activity, you must read and be aware of the following information.

What is parallel exporting?

Parallel exporting is where goods are sold in an export market without the consent of the owner of the goods trademark.

You must demonstrate that you have not engaged in parallel exporting in your Victorian business when you apply for your permanent visa nomination.

What evidence do I need if I am exporting goods?

Evidence may include:

• Official certificate or agreement from the trademark owner authorising export activity, or
• authorisation from the trademark owner to the supplier/distributor for export activity, or
• correspondence (e.g., meeting notes, emails) showing the trademark owner understands the business migrant’s export intentions, or
• partnership or contractual agreements between the trademark owner and business migrant.

What is an example of parallel exporting?

For example, a Victorian business migrant purchases wine from a wine supplier or wholesaler. The brands purchased have existing and official export channels into the relevant country.

The business migrant only has a receipt of purchase and no additional evidence that shows the trademark owner is aware of, or consents to, the business migrant exporting the wine.

This is an example of ‘grey market’ or ‘parallel exporting’ and is not permitted in the Victorian Government’s Business Innovation and Investment Program.

You must digitally sign and comply with the Nomination Conditions Form.

Commitment to Victoria

State nomination cannot be transferred from one state to another. If you receive Victorian nomination, you must live in Victoria and your business activity must be in Victoria.

Surveys

If you are nominated, we will contact you at various times to complete surveys. These surveys provide us important feedback on our client services and policy.

Department of Home Affairs and Skill Select

The Department of Home Affairs is responsible for all visa matters. This includes once you have been nominated by the Victorian Government and have submitted your visa application.

All SkillSelect and EOI issues should also be directed to the Department of Home Affairs.

As this is a provisional visa, you must meet the following requirements before you can apply for the permanent Business Innovation stream (subclass 888) visa.

This includes providing evidence that you or your spouse have one of the following:

• Functional English at time of 888A visa nomination application.
• Documentation showing that you have completed any English course funded by the Department of Home Affairs AMEP.

For more information regarding (subclass 888A) requirements, please see the Business Innovation stream (subclass 888A) - Supporting information page.

Business performance

You must show how your proposed business activity will contribute to the Victorian economy through turnover and/or job creation.

We may refuse your nomination application for a permanent visa (subclass 888A) if you have engaged in ineligible business activity.

Job creation

You must also demonstrate that your business has created jobs in Victoria.

You must employ at least 2 full time eligible employees.

We may refuse your nomination application for a permanent visa (subclass 888A) if you have not employed at least 2 full time eligible employees.

Exemption: You could be exempt from this job creation requirement if your eligible business’ turnover is at least A$1million per year for the 2 years before you apply for permanent residency.

Change of business activities

The Victorian Government expects all applicants to undertake the business proposed in their nomination application. We understand that in some circumstances it may be necessary to change your business proposal due to circumstances beyond your control.

If you decide to change your business activity from the initial proposal provided in your Victorian subclass 188 nomination application, you must seek advice from the Victorian Government’s Skilled and Business Migration Program prior to undertaking this business activity.

You must ensure the new business activity complies with:

• all your Victorian visa nomination conditions, and
• the Department of Home Affairs’ Business Innovation and Investment (subclass 888) visa criteria.

Examples of businesses that have been successful in Victoria in this program include:

• Technology development
• Tourism and primary producer
• Cosmetics manufacturing
• Nutritional product manufacturing and export

Examples of business types that will not be accepted include:

• property development
• gift stores
• convenience stores
• dollar stores
• franchises (unless international brand that is new to Australia)

Contact us using this form if you intend to change your business activity.

Maintain Contact

You must:

• notify us of any changes to your contact details, and
• participate in any surveys that the Victorian Government may conduct.

If you need more time to meet the requirements for permanent residence, you may be able to extend your stay.

Find out if you are eligible to apply for a Victorian Business Innovation Extension stream (subclass 188X) visa nomination.

We have a dedicated Relationship Management team to support and assist business and investor migrants nominated by the Victorian Government.

Relationship Managers can help you:

• understand Victoria’s target industry sectors,
• with information about doing business or making investments, and
• connect you with relevant Victorian Government services and programs relevant to your business.

Contact a Relationship Manager using this form.

Respond within 2 weeks

We may ask you for more information by email

• You will have 2 weeks to provide the requested information.
• If you do not respond within 2 weeks, we may refuse your application.
• Please check your junk mail and ensure the email address no-reply-gems@liveinmelbourne.vic.gov.au is added to your list of valid email addresses.

Incomplete applications

You must submit a complete application, including all relevant evidence to support your eligibility claims.

Do not ask for an update on your application

Please do not ask for an update on your application. We assess all applications in order of when they were submitted.

The assessment team is also responsible for responding to enquiries and we prioritise assessment of applications. Unnecessary enquiries slow down application processing times.

Submit your application via the portal

You must submit your application and all documents via the Live in Melbourne portal. We will not accept any applications or documents via email.

Withdrawal

You can withdraw your application at any stage. Please Contact Us to withdraw your application.

Nomination application fees

The Victorian Government does not charge any application fees for nomination.

False or misleading information

If you provide false or misleading information as part of your nomination application, you will be refused. We may also report it to the Department of Home Affairs who can conduct their own investigation.

We conduct verification checks on many of the documents you provide.

If you are aware of instances, or yourself are pressured to submit an application with false and misleading information, we encourage you to report this to the Department of Home Affairs.

Nomination refusals

If your application is refused, you will not be able to submit a new application for the same subclass for 6 months.

Review of nomination decision

If you have been refused as you did not meet the eligibility requirements, you cannot request a review of your application.

If you believe that we made an administrative error in refusing your nomination application, you can submit a request for us to review the application.

Renomination

We do not provide renomination in the following instances:

• You do not submit your visa application within 60 days.
• Your EOI was incorrect when we nominated you.

If any of the above apply to you, you must submit a new nomination application.

For specific meanings related to all of Victoria’s business and investor visas, see the Glossary of Terms page.