Recent Development in Significant Investor Visa (SIV) and Premium Investor (PIV) Stream

Ross KoffelPrincipal, Koffels Solicitors & Barristers

NOTE: The following information have not yet been officially confirmed by the Department of Immigration and Border Protection. The proposed changes have been discussed in details by the various Australian government bodies including the Austrade. If the changes are approved then they are expected to be implemented from July 2015.

 

NEW REGULATION (SIV AND PIV)

  1. Foreign Investment Review compliance required on investment
  2. Invested funds are to be unencumbered
  3. Exclude arrangements where the SIV investment is used as collateral by applicants
  4. Derivatives can only be used for risk management purposes and combined cash and derivatives be limited to 20% notional exposure of a fund’s net assets
  5. Direct investment into residential real estate is ineligible and indirect exposure through investment vehicles is to be restricted to less than 10% of the vehicle’s net assets
  6. The managers for the investments through Australian Financial Services products must be independent of the applicant and their spouse. The funds managed must be performed by AFS licensed fund managers domiciled in Australia.

 

COMPLYING INVESTMENT RESTRICTIONS (SIV)

  1. Mandatory investment of at least minimum $0.5 million at time of investment in an Australian Venture Capital (VC) limited partner fund .
  2. Mandatory investment of at least minimum $1.5 million at time of investment in eligible managed funds investing in Emerging Companies.
  3. Mandatory investment of $3.0 million at time of investment in managed investment or Listed Investment Companies that invest in eligible assets.

*There are going to be other additional criteria and restrictions on each of these investments

“Venture Capital Fund”

Type of investment fund which manages money from investors seeking private equity holdings in start up and small size entity with growth potential.

“Emerging Companies”

The companies are to be Australian exchange listed equities with a market capitalisation of less than $500m

 

PREMIUM INVESTOR VISA (PIV)

The Australian government is introducing a new stream to the Business Innovation and Investor Visa called Premium Investor Visa (“PIV”)

The visa stream would have the nomination and invitation model where applicant would require referral from State or Territory government.

This is a fast track visa stream as it only requires 12 months period of investment before the permanent visa is granted.

The visa will require the Applicant to make a minimum investment of AUD $15 million into complying investments

This stream would also likely waive the new complying investment restriction which are proposed to be imposed on the SIV (mandatory VC and Emerging Company criteria).

Source: https://www.austrade.gov.au/

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