On 24th
November 2012 the Australian government introduced the significant investor
visa (SIV) to encourage
foreign investment into Australia.
Successful applicants receive a 4 year
provisional subclass 188 visa after investing AUD$5 million into 'approved'
investment funds (including ASIC approved funds, state government bonds and
proprietary operating companies).
If the subclass 188 visa holder spends a cumulative total of 160
days in Australia over 4 years it is
then possible to apply for a subclass 888 permanent residency visa or extend
the subclass 188 visa.
After an initial slow
start, interest in this visa category has been growing steadily with
applications currently outstripping grants. The first successful visa was
granted in September last year and since then grants have been averaging at
around 30 to 35 per month.
Statistics recently
made available disclose the majority of applicants for this class of visa
come from China (72%), with strong interest from other countries such as
Malaysia, the United States, Canada and the UK. Because of the volume of
applications from China and the need to ensure the integrity of them,
processing of these applications is done by a dedicated team working out of
Hong Kong. All other applications are dealt with in Adelaide.
These visas are
attractive to high net worth individuals who, because of their business and
lifestyle obligations cannot commit to spending long periods of time in any
particular place. Although the qualifying criteria may seem to be
straightforward enough, they are not easy visas to obtain. National interest
issues and source of funds (that is, where did the applicant get the $5m funds
which are to be invested) figure prominently in all applications, and anyone
thinking of applying for this class of visa should seek legal advice before
doing so.
