Migrants could be forced to cough up more than $1.5MILLION to move to Australia.

The Australian government is considering changing visa rules for investors.

Currently to be allowed to work and live in Australia on a business innovation and investment visa one is required to spend a total amount of $1.5million upfront. The government is looking at increasing this threshold for the  business innovation and investment visas, as well as making changes to where the money must be spent. At present the $1.5million must be held in the country for four years, while those accepted under the ‘significant investor’ stream must spend upwards of $5 million.

The Population Minister Alan Tudge is quoted as saying “Immigration to Australia is very attractive and we should be encouraging foreign nationals who want to come to Australia and invest in job creation. We need to ensure we are maximising the economic benefits from this program.’ Encouraging more investment in regional areas will be a key priority. The government is also looking to ‘streamline’ the program, which currently includes three visas and nine visa streams.”

It is worth noting that Australia doesn’t grant  permanent residence on the very first stage of investment but uses a step-by-step visa principle regardless of the amount of investment.

The provisional 4-year investor & business visa (subclass 188) works as the first step of investment migration to Australia. During this period, an investor needs to show an outstanding success of their investment in order to obtain a permanent investor visa (subclass 888). These visas were developed for people younger than 55 years. High-net-worth personalities older than 55 (retirees) can be eligible for the retirement investor visa 405.

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