Australia Business Innovation and Investment (Provisional) visa (subclass 188)

• establish a new or develop existing business and/or invest in Australia, make a designated investment with an Australian state or territory government or make and maintain complying investments in Australia
• travel in and out of Australia for the life of your visa
• bring family members with you to Australia
• seek permanent residence by applying for a Business Innovation and Investment (Permanent) visa (subclass 888).

Before You Apply:

To be able to apply for this visa, you must first submit an Expression Of Interest(EOI)
and then be invited through SkillSelect to apply.

You may then be nominated before being invited to apply.

Your EOI must specify:

• which stream you intend to apply under
• whether you are interested in doing business or making an investment in just one or more Australian states and territories.

When you have submitted your EOI, a state or territory government could view it and decide whether to nominate you to apply for a visa. State and territory authorities have their own criteria for deciding who to nominate. In some cases, the authority might contact you before you are nominated to discuss employment possibilities. In others, the authority will wait for you to contact it.

If you receive an invitation, you will have 60 days to apply online for the visa. During that time, you cannot change the information in your EOI. If your first invitation expires, you do not have to submit a new EOI. Your EOI will be automatically reverted to ‘submitted’ status in SkillSelect. State or territory governments can access and review your EOI and nominate you again if they wish. You will receive a second invitation upon being nominated again from a state or territory government. If you receive two invitations to apply for a visa and you do not lodge an application, your EOI will be removed from SkillSelect. If you still want to apply for the visa, you will need to submit a new EOI.

Although you do not need to provide supporting documents with an EOI, your visa application is likely to need extensive supporting documentation, as listed in the document checklist. Start compiling your documents early in the process, so you can respond within the 60 days if you receive an invitation.

Information about nomination requirements, business, and employment in various states and territories is available on their websites: