Immigration Minister Scott Morrison has announced a planned reform to Australia’s Significant Investor Scheme. Currently, the scheme simply requires that $5 million is invested in Commonwealth, state or territory government bonds or ASIC-regulated managed funds or invest directly in an Australian proprietary company. However, the new minister for immigration has promised that a range of other investments will become available under the changes currently being planned by the government. At the moment it takes 9 months for these visas to be processed but the minister wants this drastically reduced because the long processing time is putting off would be SIV applicants and causing them to look for alternatives in other countries.
The minister also highlighted that Australia needs to be able attract migrants who have demonstrated great skills of entrepreneurship and have the potential to grow and expand the economy, create jobs and increase the wealth of Australia and its future generations. It was also highlighted that there is a need for the visa to allow citizens to emigrate to Australia whilst remaining free to operate businesses which almost certainly have a global dimension. The government is outlining a scheme to ensure that the department of immigration’s capacity to assess these visas is also increased to avoid delays in processing.
We are pleased to be able to offer premium immigration services to those looking to immigrate to Australia on the basis of a significant investor visa. Our firm has a long experience of the immigration system and we have staff fluent in a variety of languages to assist clients with the migration process.
