What is the 188 Business Innovation and Investment Visa (Entrepreneur Stream)?

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Table of Contents

• Subclass 188 Visa Requirements
• Defining a Complying Entrepreneur Activity
• Removing Prior Funding Requirement
• Participating States and Territories
• Successful Visa Grant
• Transitioning to the 888 Permanent Visa 
• Key Takeaways

The Business Innovation and Investor Programme (subclass 188) visa in the “entrepreneur stream” is ideal for applicants who are early-stage entrepreneurs with an endorsement to develop their concepts and have been nominated by a State or Territory government agency. This article explains the requirements for the current visa.

Subclass 188 Visa Requirements

To apply for this visa, you must satisfy the following:

• submission of an Expression of Interest (EOI);
• endorsement from the nominating State or Territory government agency of your entrepreneurial concepts and activities (indicating it is satisfied that the value of the business and personal assets of the applicant are sufficient for settling in Australia); 
• active nomination by an approved Australian State or Territory government agency at the time of application; and
• a subsequent invitation to apply for this visa.

Further, the applicant must:

• ensure their proposed entrepreneurial activity is a “complying entrepreneur activity”;
• be below 55 years of age at the time of invitation unless the nominating state or territory government agency waives this requirement (through deeming exceptional economic benefit);
• provide evidence that the applicant has competent English (IELTS 6.0 across all components or equivalent); and 
• meet health and character requirements.

Defining a Complying Entrepreneur Activity

The applicant must be undertaking, or proposing to undertake, a ‘complying entrepreneurial activity’ with a genuine intention to start or continue undertaking it. 

A complying entrepreneur activity must not relate to the following:

• residential real estate;
• labour hire; or
• purchase of an existing enterprise or a franchise in Australia.     

Additionally, depending on which state or territory nominates you, you may need to meet additional requirements, such as:

• the applicant must be endorsed or be part of an accelerator program;
• there must be one or more legally enforceable agreements providing funding for the activity;
• funding must come from Commonwealth agencies, State or Territory governments, publicly funded research organisations or registered investors;
• the applicant must hold at least 30% ownership in the legal entity at the time the agreement is entered (for up to <3 partners); 
• under the agreement, at least 10% of funding must be payable to the entity (or each applicant if >1) within 12 months from the day the activity starts in Australia; and
• there must be an appropriate business plan formulated for the development of the business.

Removing Prior Funding Requirement

The new entrepreneur visa removes the requirement for funding. However, innovative ideas or entrepreneurial activities must be ‘underwritten’ by the relevant state authorities and approved by the federal government. The entities will partner with incubators and accelerators to identify potential applicants for nomination.

Participating States and Territories

As of January 2023, the following applies:

Successful Visa Grant

You may be granted the provisional visa whilst you are inside or outside of Australia, and is valid for five years. Once granted, entrepreneurs should successfully establish or continue their business activities in Australia. After meeting further criteria, they will be eligible to apply for permanent residency. 

Transitioning to the 888 Permanent Visa 

To meet the eligibility requirements for the new entrepreneurship visa, the applicant must provide evidence of having succeeded in the proposed entrepreneurial activities. The measure of ‘success’ is a combination of ‘key success factors’ and ‘supporting success factors’. The applicant must demonstrate they have completed: 

• at least two key success factors; or 
• a combination of one key success factor and three supporting success factors. 

Additionally, there are further general requirements for the applicant, including: 

• residence;
• nomination;
• English language requirements;
• health;
• character; and 
• demonstrating a real commitment to continuing business or investment activities. 

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Key Takeaways

The entrepreneur visa is an excellent opportunity for entrepreneurs with self-sourced funding, provided their proposed innovative business venture is supported by the state and federal government. The government has identified the benefits of lowering the minimum threshold for the provisional visa and maintaining the relatively high but achievable threshold for the permanent visa assessment.  

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