Effective 1 July 2015, Austrade will become an eligible nominator for Significant Investor Visa (SIV) programme and also the sole nominator for Premium Investor Visa (PIV), in addition to State and Territory governments.
The changes to Investor and Business Innovation stream visas are:
- Role swapping has been reintroduced, which allows a secondary applicant to apply to fulfil the primary criteria for permanent visa on behalf of the primary applicant.
- Pass Mark for the points test has been reduced to only 50 points from 65 points.
Flexible residency arrangements for SIV will be introduced effective 1 July 2015, where eligibility for permanent SIV only requires:
- Primary applicant to reside in Australia for forty (40) days per year OR
- Secondary applicant (spouse or de facto partner) to reside in Australia for 180 days per year.
Example:
- Primary Applicant: 160 days over four (4) years,
- Secondary applicant (Spouse or de facto partner): 720 days over four (4) years.
Residency requirements will be per year which will be calculated cumulatively over the period of the provisional visa.
On 17 June 2015, in line with boosting the tourism industry and Australia’s economy, a new pilot ten (10) year visitor visa for Chinese visitors was announced. Mr Dutton said, “Australia is a diverse and unique destination for international travellers and the Coalition Government is committed to ensuring we capitalise on our tourism opportunities.”
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