Business Visa Concessions

The Migration Regulations were changed to provide concessions to visa applicants, who are on a pathway from the Provisional Business visa to the Permanent Business visa. The amendments provide concessions about application requirements, and to visa criteria.

Before the introduction of the concessions, a provisional business visa holder was required to have resided in Australia and a provisional Visa holder before they were eligible to apply for permanent residency. Under the concessions, any periods spent outside Australia from 1 February 2020 and a future date to be yet set (concession period) are considered residence in Australia for the purpose of permanent residency applications.

Furthermore, some business investors were required to maintain a complying investment under specific rules about withdrawing or canceling investments. Under the concessions, those rules were relaxed to deem investors to have continuously held eligible investments, even if they have withdrawn funds or canceled part of the investment during the concession period.

Another concession that was introduced Provisional visa holders transitioning to permanent residency is that they could make the application even if their provisional visa had expired during the concession period, as long they do so no more than three months after the end of the concession period.

The amendments also permit provisional visa holders to extend their provisional visas if they need more time to establish a qualifying business in Australia. This applies whether or not the provisional visa held was the original or an extension and the extension could be for 6 or 8 years from the original provisional visa grant date.

For more information about the concessions or business visas to Australia, please contact us and one of our experts will get in touch with you promptly.