The 188A visa is only available to applicants who are nominated by an Australian State or Territory government and meet the points test for this visa. To be nominated, the applicant must lodge an Expression of Interest (EOI) through the SkillSelect system.

This is a 5-year temporary visa, for people who want to own and manage a new or existing business in Australia. Once established an ownership interest in an Australian business, the applicant can apply for permanent residence through the Business Innovation & Investment (Residence) Subclass 888 visa. A 2-year extension is possible once the applicant has held the subclass 188 visa for 3 years, giving 6 years from the date of grant of the original Visa.

The applicants can either be in Australia or overseas to lodge this visa.

If the applicant is in Australia:

Must hold a Substantive Visa or a Bridging A, B or C visa.

• Ownership of a business with turnover of at least AUD 750,000 for at least 2 of the last 4 fiscal years; and
• Net personal and business assets of at least AUD 1,250,000; and
• Under 55 years of age, unless the nominating state or territory certifies that the applicant will make an exceptional economic benefit; and
• Meet the pass mark in the Business innovation and investment Points test (currently 65 points)
• Have an overall successful career in business

The applicant has been in Australia on subclass 188A visa for at least 12 months, within the 2 years prior to lodgement

Owned and operated a business in Australia for at least 2 years prior to the application with annual turnover of at least $300,000 for the 2 of last 4 years

You and/or your partner must meet two of the following three criteria for the 12 months:

• Assets of at least 200,000
• Net personal and business assets of at least $600,000 in Australia
• Employed at least two Australian full-time employees in your business in Australia

You must score at least 65 points (the pass mark) in the points test to be eligible to apply for a Business Innovation and Investment (Provisional) visa (subclass 188) in the Business Innovation stream or the Investor stream.

The points test does not apply to you if you are applying in the Significant Investor stream, the Premium Investor stream, or the Business Innovation Extension stream or the Significant Investor Extension stream.

The test gives points for various elements of human capital and business innovation and includes objective measures of business performance.

Points are awarded for:

• age
• English language ability
• qualifications
• experience in business or investment
• net personal and business assets
• business turnover
• innovation.

Points are awarded on the basis of the factors listed in the following table. All factors are assessed as at the time you are invited to apply for this visa, unless otherwise noted.

Vocational English- 5 points: in the 3 years before you applied for the visa, you scored one of the following:

You can receive up to 15 points if you have a demonstrated history of relevant business or investment experience for a specified amount of time in the period before you are invited to apply:

• Business Innovation stream: experience of
  • at least four years in the preceding five years (10 points)
  • at least seven years in the preceding eight years (15 points)
• Investor stream: a minimum of AUD100 000 in eligible investments for
  • at least the preceding four years (10 points)
  • at least the preceding seven years (15 points).

To be awarded points for your assets, in each of the two fiscal years before you are invited to apply, you, your partner or you and your partner combined must have held net business and personal assets of at least:

You can be awarded points on the basis of the turnover of your nominated main business in at least two of the four fiscal years before you are invited to apply:

There is no business turnover requirement for the Investor stream.

For the Business Innovation stream, this component of the points test gives points for evidence of the following attributes at the time you are invited to apply for this visa. You can be awarded points for more than one attribute, but only once for each of them.

• Registered patents or registered designs (15 points)
  • The patent or design must have been registered at least one year.
  • It must have been used in the day-to-day activities of your nominated main business.
• Registered trademarks (10 points)
  • The trademark must have been registered at least one year.
  • It must have been used in the day-to-day activities of your main business.
• Joint venture agreements (5 points)
  • The agreement must be a formal agreement that has been in force for at least one year.
  • You must have been involved at a senior level in day-to-day management and decision-making for the venture.
• Export trade (15 points)
  • One or more of your nominated main businesses must have derived at least 50 per cent of annual turnover from export trade for at least two of the preceding four fiscal years.
• Gazelle businesses (newly established businesses experiencing rapid growth during a short period) (10 points)
  • Your nominated main business must have been registered for no more than five years.
  • The average annualised growth in turnover of the business must have been greater than 20 per cent each year for a continuous period of three fiscal years.
  • The business must have had 10 or more full-time employees for at least one fiscal year in the three-year period.
• Receipt of grants or venture capital funding for an innovative business idea (10 points)
  • This funding must have been for the early-phase start-up of a business, product commercialisation, business development or business expansion.
  • Grants: You must have received a grant of at least AUD10 000 under specified conditions from a government body in your home country within the preceding four years.
  • Venture capital funding: You must have received venture capital funding of at least AUD100 000 within the preceding four years.