Business Innovation and Investment (Provisional) visa - Subclass 188

Information for applicants nominated by South Australia

• To be nominated for the Business Innovation and Investment (Permanent) visa (subclass 888) – Business Innovation stream, you must:
  • Have undertaken an investment and/or business activity in South Australia that meets the relevant 'benefit to state’ nomination requirements.
  • Provide substantial justification to demonstrate the economic benefit to the State if your business activity involves selling imports (including bringing products into South Australia from other states or territories).
  • Demonstrate exceptional economic benefit to South Australia by meeting a higher investment threshold if you were aged 55 years or over when we nominated you to apply for the Business Innovation and Investment (Provisional) visa (subclass 188).
  • Have obtained written approval from South Australia if the business activity you proposed in your application for nomination for Business Innovation and Investment (Provisional) visa (subclass 188) has changed. Failure to gain approval will result in an application for the subclass 888 nomination being refused.
  • Meet Department of Home Affairs’ requirements for this visa.
• Support for an application to the Department of Home Affairs to extend subclass 188 visa is at the discretion of South Australia.
• If you are a business owner who wishes to undertake property development as a business to meet state nomination requirements, please see the Property Development Pathways fact sheet for further information.
• It is strongly recommended that applicants obtain professional legal and financial advice before undertaking any business or investment activity.

Information for applicants nominated by South Australia

• To be nominated for the Business Innovation and Investment (Permanent) visa (subclass 888) – Investor stream, you must:
  • Have made an investment of AUD$2.5 million for the duration of your provisional visa (AUD $3.75 million if you were over 55 years of age when nominated for your provisional visa) in a complying investment fund.
  • Demonstrate that your business or investment activity has provided a material economic benefit to South Australia. This can be demonstrated through your complying investment, or in addition to it.
  • Reside in South Australia for a minimum of two years while holding your provisional visa.
  • Meet Department of Home Affairs’ requirements for this visa.
• The choice of investment options is based on the client's own preference and Department of Home Affairs complying investment requirements.
• It is strongly recommended that applicants obtain professional legal and financial advice before investing or undertaking any business activity.
• The South Australian Government will not advise on any investment made or any business activity to be undertaken by the applicant, nor does it accept liability for any financial loss, cost of expense incurred as a result of any business decision, business activities or investments of the applicant or any person in any way connected with the significant investor program or otherwise.
• The Commonwealth and State Government require applicants to agree to not taking legal action against them for any loss of capital arising from the complying investment.

Information for applicants nominated by South Australia 

• To be nominated for the Business Innovation and Investment (Permanent) visa (subclass 888) – Significant Investor stream, you must: 
  • Have made an investment of AUD$5 million for the duration of your provisional visa in a complying investment fund. 
  • Demonstrate that your business or investment activity has provided a material economic benefit to South Australia. This can be demonstrated through your significant complying investment, or in addition to it.  
  • If you have settled in Australia and your usual place of residence is no longer overseas, you must have settled in South Australia. 
  • Meet Department of Home Affairs’ requirements for this visa. 
• The choice of investment options is based on the client's own preference and Department of Home Affairs complying investment requirements.  
• It is strongly recommended that applicants obtain professional legal and financial advice before investing or undertaking any business activity.  
• The South Australian Government will not advise on any investment made or any business activity to be undertaken by the applicant, nor does it accept liability for any financial loss, cost of expense incurred as a result of any business decision, business activities or investments of the applicant or any person in any way connected with the significant investor program or otherwise.  
• The Commonwealth and State Government require applicants to agree to not taking legal action against them for any loss of capital arising from the complying investment. 

South Australia’s service partners for this visa are: 

• The Innovation & Collaboration Centre (ICC) - The Innovation & Collaboration Centre (ICC) is home to a collaborative community of entrepreneurs, with access to world-class mentoring, university research, prototyping labs, and business development support. A partnership between UniSA and the SA Government, the ICC is renowned for its ability to fast-track startup access to the Australian market, and for providing startups with connections to a global network of industry experts. The ICC has a tailored program for entrepreneurial visa holders, along with pre-eminent accelerator and incubator programs for space and high-tech startups.  
• Stone & Chalk - The largest dedicated start up and scaleup innovation community in Australia with hubs in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide. In South Australia, Stone & Chalk is based at Lot Fourteen, the innovation precinct that is making global impact and is co-located with world leading organisations and startups such as Myriota, the Australian Institute for Machine Learning, Google and the Australian Space Agency. 
• New Venture Institute (NVI) - Located in Australia’s most awarded Innovation District at Tonsley, Flinders New Venture Institute provides a range of programs and services to a vibrant community of startups and businesses in six focus sectors that reflect Flinders University’s areas of strength, growth, and research: Advanced Manufacturing; Creative Industries; Education; Energy, Water, and Sustainability; Health; Wine, Tourism, and AgTech. The institute is ideally placed to spark, enable, and develop business ideas from conception to industry advancement.   
• Moonshots - Moonshot's aim is to have start-ups with great business plans join us to work with our “been there doing it” Entrepreneurs to build globally scalable investable businesses. They love Creative, Space, BioTech, AI/Hi-Tech, AgTech, Education and Defence Industries and as long as people have a growth mindset where they come from is of no interest!  
• ThincLab - ThincLab is powered by the Adelaide Business School and is the University of Adelaide’s flagship business incubator. It works with an extensive network of partners to help entrepreneurs launch and grow innovative companies. It has a global footprint with five locations, and has been supporting early stage and scaling entrepreneurs across all industry sectors for the last 28 years. ThincLab also has a specialist incubator for AgTech, Food and Wine innovations. 

Restricted activities

The proposed business activity must not relate to any of the following categories:  

• Residential real estate  
• Labour hire  
• Purchase of an existing enterprise or a franchise in Australia  
• Cafes and restaurants  
• Consulting firms/companies  
• Employment agencies  
• Export/import businesses