3together

I found this interesting list of "refusal reasons" for 188B visas. It might be of help and does answer a few of the questions here. 

https://www.workvisalawyers.com.au/news/all/25-reasons-why-your-australian-business-visa-was-refused-in-2019.html

On 26/02/2020 at 02:36, Asif Shaikh said:

Thanks Steve Elliott. Almost 14 months done submited of my application. Do you know how many days require for further.

We are waiting now 16 months. So you are 2 month behind us. There is someone 6 weeks before us, and they do not have any feedback by now. Most likely you have to wait another 6 month. 

On 21/02/2020 at 02:51, mapletree said:

You can find the rates here:

 

https://www.tcv.vic.gov.au/immigration-investors/immigration-investment-rates

 

and no, you have no options whatsoever, you can only buy the 4 year bonds from TCV at the rates they dictate, which are atrocious even for the current market.

Thanks a lot. Ups, 0,5% is very low. Well, did not expect anything exiting here. This is for Victoria. I suppose NSW will be similar. 

9 hours ago, Asif Shaikh said:

@ Steve Elliott

Processing time not shows on my application status on immigiration portal. Plz can you confirm me what means this?

We all do not know were we stand. They do not give details on the processing time per case. Base on latest information the time they start processing your visa is probably18-19 month. As they work down the list by date, you never know how many people applied just before you. 

Does anybody know how much interest you get on the AUD 1.5m which you have to invest in state bonds? Are there specific bonds you have to buy or can you choose any available on the market? 

On 28/01/2020 at 08:08, mapletree said:

Jay , from what I've observed recent cases have been taking 16-18 months from lodgement to progression. They also seem to have stopped processing applications over the December holiday period. Given your application date I expect you'd hear from immigration late Feb to March ,which is pretty soon 

If you launch an application now, I heard that they give you the estimation of 22/24 month for the 75% and 90% processing value. The immigration website does not give a prosessing time right now. In my application it is still 20/22 month. 

On 27/01/2020 at 09:00, mapletree said:

Hi 3together, just on the need to eventually transfer the balance 0.75m over within 2 years of the visa being granted, is this something explicitly stated in your 188b visa grant letter?

I ask this because I'm looking at the migration regulations, for the permanent 888b investor stream and they do not list this as one of the qualifying criteria.  They only state that you need to hold the designated investments for 4 years, and it doesn't seem that they enforce the requirement to transfer the balance 0.75m when eventually assessing for the grant of the permanent 888b visa .

 

Thanks in advance for any feedback that you can provide!

Hi,

I am not sure about this in detail. I only have the information by my agent that I need to transfer the AUD 0.75m withhin 2 years. This money is for personal use. I suppose there is someone who will check it. 

Quite possible this will be checked by the state, not by immigration. If you check the criteria of NSW, you see there they state the 2.25m for reginal and even 3.0m for Sydney. So it seems it depends on the state to set this criteria, so they should be the ones who will check it. But it does not state that you need to transfer them to Australia. But I was told by my agent, that I have to transfer the money withhin 2 years. ttps://www.industry.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/58739/188B-Investor-nomination-criteria.pdf

On 19/12/2019 at 17:23, Lotusmimile said:

Have assets of AUD2.25 million

During the 2 fiscal years immediately before we invite you to apply, have legally acquired net business, investment and personal assets of at least AUD2.25 million. These must be available for legal transfer to Australia within 2 years of the visa being granted.  “

I understand that, I have to transfer all asset (may be more than 2.25M) to Aus. Is it right? Or I have to transfer only 2.25M to Aus? 

Thank you so much

When you get the via granted, you must transfer AUD 1.5m for the designated investment withhin 28 days. Then you have a certain timeframe (I think this are the mentioned 2 years) to transfer the AUD 0.75m for you personal used to Australia. So in total AUD 2.25m. You are free to transfer more than that, but this is the minimum you have to prove to immigration. 

Australia is going to review the Business and Investor visa programm in 2020: 

https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/reports-and-publications/submissions-and-discussion-papers/biip-getting-better-deal-australia?utm_campaign=SIV+Stakeholders+on+Home+Affairs+BIIP+Review&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Significant+and+Premium+Investor+Visas+IDC+Contacts

On 03/12/2019 at 09:14, yymm said:

Really thanks for our great help, I am now still under the process of gathering all the documents. And here are my questions:

1) Will Immigration Dept. check the details about my source of fund of AUD2.25M asset, for example, will they check it in details? for example: among the AUD2.25m, AUD1M is from legacy, AUD1M is from Salary, AUD0.25M is the profit from selling real estate, do I need to show all the transaction evidences(as we need to trace back all the statements more than a decades....or  how to show my salary contributed to my Asset)?  Or I can write a declaration to declare that the source of fund is based on Legacy, Salary and Investments is ok enough?

2) For the Point Test, regarding to the Point for "Investment Experience", how to prove that I have 4years investment experiences? If I am going to apply the visa in Jan 2020, is it correct that I should provide the Investment e-statements on 31 Dec of 2016,2017,2018,2019? If the amount is more that AUS10K in these e-statements(4 fiscal year), it can prove that I have 4 years investment experiences?

3) Is it all the e-statements must be on the same date(in my case is 31 Dec)? Can they accept 2 or 3 days difference?

4) Since you are using an immi agent, do you still need to make a statement on how to manage your business/investments or how can you make a successful business/investments..etc?

Sorry for so many questions....As it is really difficult to find such kind of information .....

Let me try to give you some answers. Honestly, this was very, very complex for me as well. I think in total I turned more than 1,000 pages of paperwork. I am not an immi agent and I cannot really give you any advice or am sure, that this information are correct. This are only my experience of what my immi agent asked me to do and to provide for the 188B. A very complex process, if you do not have a single very valuable asset like a bigger company or a real estate portfolio. 

1) My immi agent made me to prove every single transaction of the last 10 years which proved how I earned my money. So all tax reports for each year; anual salary reports; fiscal statements of my companies; buying and selling contracts of each real estate; Of course all needed to be translated in English and proved by a notary/ lawyer etc. Bank statements for the 3 date in the past (not easy to get it from your banks, if the date is not 31.12.). 

2) a) In my case I had to prove that I am the manager of my companies. So not only on paper that I am the official CEO, but I had to turn in many documents which showed, that I do the daily work. Like employee contracts, customer contracts etc. which were signed by me. As well a CV, external proves like statements of clients or press articles. This was at last 100 pages.  b) What you mean with an investment estatement of AUD 10k? You mean a bank information that you had +10.000 AUD of stock or so? That will probably not be sufficient. Like if you want to prove management of real estate, you must show that you manage it. Show the contracts with tenant etc. 

I would assume, that legacy and salary are not considered to be "investment experience". And if you can prove only, that you bought 1 real estate and sold it after years with a profit of 0.25m AUD, I dought that this is sufficient "investment experience". 

3) Must be the same day. You could have transfered the money in the 3 days from bank 1 to bank 2. 

4) Yes, you have to prove, that you are really managing it. Just owning the money is not sufficient. You have to prove the active management. They want to see that you will be able to do the same later in Australia, I suppose. So beeing a manager of a company. Or to mange a real estate portfolio. 

Preparing the paperwork took +6 month for me and an investment of +20.000 AUD. Like if you want declare a real estate asset, you cannot just turn in any valuation. It must be a RICS valuation. And these people take a lot of money to do it. + all morgages at the given dates, approved by your bank and a laywer etc. 

Good luck! I think you might be better off with an immi agent who did 188B before. 

I did a request of information on 188(B). If I understand the numbers right, the processing times in gerneral are shorter in Adelaite as in HK. There is no big change over the time, even as the numbers of applications increased a lot.

So I think most of us will get a first response after 14-16 month and a final answer between 17-20 month. 

Good luck to all of you. Hope to meet you down under. 

https://www.righttoknow.org.au/request/5577/response/16110/attach/4/FA 190801029 DOCUMENT RELEASED.pdf

FA 190801029 DOCUMENT RELEASED.pdf

Dear Jalphonse,

that is magificent. Congratulations. I suppose you are very excited now to move to Australia soon. So you did the investement of AUD 1.5m already. I tried to get some information on what investments they allow you to do, but never found a usefull answer to this. Is it only 1 specific state bond or do they give you options? What are the conditions like interest etc. on the investment? 

On 17/09/2019 at 02:34, yymm said:

Sorry, I have one question about applying 188B visa, is it a must to have an experience on gaining AUD1.5M profit from my investments ? Is it one of the criteria on apply this visa?

Thanks a lot.

I think you do not have to prove exactly AUD1.5M of your investments. It is more like this:

Based on our immi agent it is a multi step they check. First of all, you have to prove you own AUD2.25M for the last two years. Actually, you have to prove it for 3 dates like 27.09.2019, 27.09.2018, 27.09.2017. So you need detailed documentation, valuations etc. for this specific dates. But you can choose the date, which should not be more than 3 month before your application date. 

Then you have to prove it, that you earned the money legally. Usually, this is based on your investments. Be aware, the investments you are putting in the form are the ones you need to use to make the designated investment. So you cannot use any other assets, than the ones you put in the form. Of course, you do not have to earned the money withhin the last few years. Or you can prove it is from a legacy, lottery, you job etc. 

Besides proving your financials, you need to prove that you manage the assets. Like you actually run your business, or you manage the renting of the real estates etc. pp. 

For us it was quite complex, as it was based on company, real estate etc. A lot of paperwork, especially for the company. I was happy to have a migration agent to lead me through the process and check the paperwork before turning it in. 

On 14/09/2019 at 11:29, Jalphonse said:

Thanks, I will wait until grant though to uncork the bubbly

My best wishes to all 188b applicants on this forum  

 

So in total it took you about 16 month. 14.5 waiting and 1.5 processing. That is promising for all still in the queue. Our visa page still quotes 20-22 month in average, based on global processing times. 

On 10/06/2019 at 06:02, Jalphonse said:

Hi TiMoniSam,

Thank you for sharing your experience in great detail. I have shared my case details on this thread, so please look it up for your reference. Myself and my spouse have applied to VIC, 13 months ago and still waiting. Will keep you posted of any developments. My assessment is it will take anywhere between 16-18 months from date of filing to actual grant of the visa. 

Thanks for your feedback. That was us. We are still actively waiting for any activity in our visa account. We are waiting since Nov. 2018, so more or less 10 month. Maybe another 6 to go to get a first sign of activity. 

45 minutes ago, manrug said:

The visa 188b is granted after you have made the $1.5million investment in the state treasury bonds. To raise this amount we  would need to sell some of our assets which could take 3-6 months.  I wanted to know how long would Immi give us once they approve the application and to the time the investment must be made?

Welcome. From UK you are more lucky, as we from Germany. I suppose you do not need a documents translated :-). Good luck with your application. 

Regarding your question. I got the information that you are only allowed to use money from the assets you submitted in the application. i.e. you did a list of 2.25m AUD including specific property, you can use this assets only. But you can re-morgage instead of selling. You must prove the sources the investment of 1.5m. You are granted the visa only after you did the investment. IMM will tell you the date until you have to make the investment and enter Australia 1st time. It should be something between 6-9 month. To prove the additional 0.75m AUD (for personal use), which you need to transfer to Australia, you will have up to 2 years. 

Actually, we already started to sell some assets and put them cash on an bank account in Australia so we do not get suck in case we get the visa need to sell property at a wrong market time. 

6 hours ago, Indo said:

Not yet. Its been 11.5 months noe

Is there any communication by the CO? The website and our consultant are saying, that you cannot have any influence in the process. No way to speed it up. You got any requests regarding additional documents (except of maybe form 80 and medical?). 

I just like to share a few links for thoses, who are looking into the 188 visa class:

• There are +10.000 applicants for the 188 visa class p.a. but more than 90% are from Asia: statistic PDF till 2017 published. 
• Split of the visa class 188 into the different streams like A, B, C ... statistics till 2017 als PDF

So if you look at the numbers, there are very few applicants for 188B and especially from Europe. I wonder why so less from Europe try to make their way via a business visa to Australia. Maybe before, the 457 or other visa types were more easy to do. We run companies in Europe (for example for custom printed trade show flooring) and it makes it possible for us to apply for the 188B. In my opinion it has a clear path for the 888 PR. 

On 15/01/2019 at 20:13, Indo said:

Did you contacted by case officer yet? 

Hello Indo,

what is the status of your 188B? Did you finally get it or is it still pending? Any news of the CO?

TiMoniSam

Hello,

as I found some valuable information in this forum, I like to share our experience with the Australian immigration. 

We applied for 188B. Out of the 188 visa class, it is the most seldom used one. So there are not many applicants. Most go for 188A. I think there are less than 500 applications p.a. for 188B. 188C are far more, than 188B. Not surprising, +90% of all 188 aplicants are from China, HK and South Korea. Even for 188B there are +90% from these countries. I checked numbers for UK and other European countries. Non of them was more than 5 applicants p.a. (they do not show the number if less than 5 p.a. per country). All from China etc. are processed in HK office. Other countries are processed in Adelaite. So I do assume, it is very difficult to tell the processing times for 188 and especially for 188B or any other subclass. 

We are a family of 3 (son 5 years old) and are a business family from Germany. It was tough so far to go through the applications for a visa for Australia. First we wanted to go for skilled migration. After skill approval, Australia canceled the skill in the list. Second skill approvel, same happened. This costs us 1,5 years. Schooling visa for our son, canceled as well. So option 3 was gone. The most complex of all was 188. We decided for 188B, which incluedes AUD 2,25m assests and tons of paperwork. 

our timeline:

end of 2015 we visited Australia and NZ for 3 month
2016 decision to migrate to Australia
2016 preparation of migration/ skilled migration with migration agent from Australia. // all changed due to changes in migration policies (spend 20k EUR)
2018 final decision to go for the complex 188B visa 
06.03.18 contract with migration consultant (from HK) 
03.10.18 applied for NSW sponsorship
22.10.18 Invitation by NSW
04.11.18 IMMI application/ EOI 
08.11.18 payment processed for EOI  // 120 points (option for add. 25 points)
09.11.18 additional information request by CO; form 80, medical checks
11.01.19 medical transmitted by physician 

.... since then waiting, keeping our fingers crossed. So we have now 6 month of waiting time. 

The numbers by IMMI do not really help. What does it mean that 75% are processed withhin 21 month and 90% withhin 22 month. What is the average or what is the fastest or what is the usual processing time? We heard about 12 month for good prepared application in HK. On the other hand, the AU government anounced to reduce the number of immigrants. This goes easily by exspanding the processing times. Moreovery, each case is very specific and might need extra time to check for the CO. I assum, they do a great job and have their goals to reach, like any other employee. They do not have any personal preferences, but have to check by objectives. 

For the 188B we invested about 35k EUR for the migration consultant, visa application, translations, valuations of assets, auditors, notary, tax officer etc. pp. I think we have 3 folders of paperwork for 188B. Most is about my main company. We choosed only one for the application. A lot of paperwork was the translation of company documents. The most complex part was to prove the assets over 3 dates (2 years). We needed to assess all assets. Australia asks for specific certified consultants. The translations should be NAATI certified (you find great ones in Australia), Additionally, you need documentation how you gained your wealth. This is quite tough, as you might not have all documents over the last decates. Moveover, you have to prove you manage your business on a day-to-day base etc. 

I hope this will help someone to better understand the process of 188B. We are not through yet. But so far, it costs us a lot of efforts to come this way. After 188B, there is still a way for 888 and PR and later-on the citizenship. So more exiting things to come. 

TiMoniSam