Jalphonse Posted June 5, 2018 Share Posted June 5, 2018 Hi there, We applied for the Business Visa (Investor) subclass 188b. Here’s the time line and status so far: - EOI and State Nomination (NSW) on 09/03/18 - Nomination granted on 31/03/18 - Visa application on 26/04/18 - Medical and police clearance completed - 25/05/18 Can someone help with the following questions, please? 1. Is the request for medical/police clearance any indication of when we might receive a grant, as I believe there is only a validity of 12 months? 2. The processing time on the website says 19-20 months, so very surprised with the speed. We cannot make the move until June 2019, so will an early grant be a problem? 3. How long do we have to make the designated investment from the date of grant receipt? Will the department offer flexibility with an extension if required? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raxy123 Posted November 30, 2018 Share Posted November 30, 2018 Hi! Jalphonsean You application was moving at great pace. Can you please share your experience after Medical and PC with time line. You had a valid question and I have the same and yet to apply. Can you please share the answer to it as I assume you would have got clarity by now. Thanks in advance Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raxy123 Posted November 30, 2018 Share Posted November 30, 2018 * Jalphonse Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Indo Posted January 15, 2019 Share Posted January 15, 2019 I applied on 1st may and still waiting since 8.5 months. My friend got additional documents request after 10 months from application. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Indo Posted January 15, 2019 Share Posted January 15, 2019 On 05/06/2018 at 09:46, Jalphonse said: Hi there, We applied for the Business Visa (Investor) subclass 188b. Here’s the time line and status so far: - EOI and State Nomination (NSW) on 09/03/18 - Nomination granted on 31/03/18 - Visa application on 26/04/18 - Medical and police clearance completed - 25/05/18 Can someone help with the following questions, please? 1. Is the request for medical/police clearance any indication of when we might receive a grant, as I believe there is only a validity of 12 months? 2. The processing time on the website says 19-20 months, so very surprised with the speed. We cannot make the move until June 2019, so will an early grant be a problem? 3. How long do we have to make the designated investment from the date of grant receipt? Will the department offer flexibility with an extension if required? Did you contacted by case officer yet? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3together Posted April 21, 2019 Share Posted April 21, 2019 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 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3together Posted April 21, 2019 Share Posted April 21, 2019 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Indo Posted April 22, 2019 Share Posted April 22, 2019 Not yet. Its been 11.5 months noe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3together Posted April 22, 2019 Share Posted April 22, 2019 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3together Posted April 22, 2019 Share Posted April 22, 2019 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?). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest manrug Posted April 22, 2019 Share Posted April 22, 2019 Hi All I am pleased to read there are others from Europe who are applying for 188B. We are from the UK, we applied for VISA 188B. We are nominated by Queensland. Our application to Immi was acknowledged on 19 February 2019. Got a request for further information ie police checks, medicals, form 80, etc on 22 February. We were given 28 days to collect all the information. We submitted all documents on 22 March 2019. I too was rather surprised at the speed Immi requested further information. We did our application ourselves, MARA consultants were quoting anything from $8000 to $20,000. I agree it was hard work and a lot of information. Like yourselves I found there was not much information around for this visa and some MARA agents I approached they themselves could not answer some of my questions. One of the questions I had which no body has been able to answer to date is:- 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? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3together Posted April 22, 2019 Share Posted April 22, 2019 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. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest manrug Posted April 23, 2019 Share Posted April 23, 2019 On 22/04/2019 at 12:53, 3together said: 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. Thanks for your reply. I appreciate your helpful information. Could you just be kind enough to tell me where you got the 6-9 months from. I have not seen it mention anywhere before. I hope it is the case, this will give me plenty of time to sell some assets to raise the $1.5 mil. We have also applied for VISA 143 in January 2017, we are in the queue and the wait on that visa just seems to be getting longer and it may be another 3-4 years wait, so we applied for 188b just before our 55th birthday. "3together" you are welcomed to send me a personal message and stay in contact. As I hear anything else I will keep you updated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asif Shaikh Posted May 9, 2019 Share Posted May 9, 2019 On 05/06/2018 at 09:16, Jalphonse said: Hi there, We applied for the Business Visa (Investor) subclass 188b. Here’s the time line and status so far: - EOI and State Nomination (NSW) on 09/03/18 - Nomination granted on 31/03/18 - Visa application on 26/04/18 - Medical and police clearance completed - 25/05/18 Can someone help with the following questions, please? 1. Is the request for medical/police clearance any indication of when we might receive a grant, as I believe there is only a validity of 12 months? 2. The processing time on the website says 19-20 months, so very surprised with the speed. We cannot make the move until June 2019, so will an early grant be a problem? 3. How long do we have to make the designated investment from the date of grant receipt? Will the department offer flexibility with an extension if required? hi Jalphonse, Can you please share your experience after Medical? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest manrug Posted May 22, 2019 Share Posted May 22, 2019 Hi All I thought I will share this information from home affairs showing number of applicants. Success rate and processing time for visa 188b. Interesting fact is the low success rate for this type of visa. Subclass 188 Business Innovation and Investment (Provisional) visa applications lodged in 2018 where the visa sub-type is Investor - comparison with previous year Source: Department of Home Affairs, 2019 (RFI 23087.01) Note 1: Includes primary and secondary applicants. 2017. 2018 2,139. 2,747 Subclass 188 Business Innovation and Investment (Provisional) visas granted in 2018 where the visa sub-type is Investor - comparison with previous year Source: Department of Home Affairs, 2019 (RFI 23087.02) Note 1: Includes primary and secondary applicants. 2017. 2018 810. 1,376 Average processing times (calendar days) for subclass 188 Business Innovation and Investment (Provisional) primary visa applications decided in 2018 where the visa subtype is Investor - comparison with previous year Source: Department of Home Affairs, 2019 (RFI 23087.03) Note 1: Applications decided is based on visas granted or refused. Note 2: The processing time is calculated from the date of lodgement to the date of the decision. Note 3: Where a visa application has gone to merits review, the processing time is calculated from date of lodgement to the original decision date. Note 4: Figures are from a dynamic source and are subject to variations. 2017. 2018 437. Days 517 days • Where applicable, with regards to Immigration data - as per current privacy guidelines, the Department’s policy is to mask numbers which are less than five as <5, noting we are reviewing the confidentiality method for the future. • The Department of Home Affairs must be consulted regarding any requests to use the data for purposes not originally intended or discussed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jalphonse Posted June 10, 2019 Author Share Posted June 10, 2019 On 30/11/2018 at 18:51, Raxy123 said: Hi! Jalphonsean You application was moving at great pace. Can you please share your experience after Medical and PC with time line. You had a valid question and I have the same and yet to apply. Can you please share the answer to it as I assume you would have got clarity by now. Thanks in advance Hi Raxy123, Sorry I have been silent on this forum. My questions did not have any takers for so long that I imagined no one would ever respond (also because the volume of applications for the 188b stream is super thin). It appears I got all my dates incorrect by a month. I lodged my visa application on 26th May 2018. Following the request for medical and PC and subsequent completion of the same on 26th June 2018, I haven’t heard back from the department yet. This is my 13th month after lodging of my application. Hopefully, I should hear from them request for additional documentation etc., in the next 3-4 months. Did you end up filing your application? Love to hear how yours went. Glad to be of any help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jalphonse Posted June 10, 2019 Author Share Posted June 10, 2019 On 09/05/2019 at 10:40, Asif Shaikh said: hi Jalphonse, Can you please share your experience after Medical? Hi Asif, Sorry I have been silent on this forum. My questions did not have any takers for so long that I imagined no one would ever respond (also because the volume of applications for the 188b stream is super thin). It appears I got all my dates incorrect by a month. I lodged my visa application on 26th May 2018. Following the request for medical and PC and subsequent completion of the same on 26th June 2018, I haven’t heard back from the department yet. This is my 13th month after lodging of my application. Hopefully, I should hear from them request for additional documentation etc., in the next 3-4 months. Did you end up filing your application? Love to hear how yours went. Glad to be of any help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jalphonse Posted June 10, 2019 Author Share Posted June 10, 2019 On 23/04/2019 at 20:01, manrug said: Thanks for your reply. I appreciate your helpful information. Could you just be kind enough to tell me where you got the 6-9 months from. I have not seen it mention anywhere before. I hope it is the case, this will give me plenty of time to sell some assets to raise the $1.5 mil. We have also applied for VISA 143 in January 2017, we are in the queue and the wait on that visa just seems to be getting longer and it may be another 3-4 years wait, so we applied for 188b just before our 55th birthday. "3together" you are welcomed to send me a personal message and stay in contact. As I hear anything else I will keep you updated. Hi Manrug, I can confirm that you have 70 days from the time you are invited (this is prior to the actual grant of the visa) to make the investment of 1.5 mln in treasury bonds. Any other time frames you may hear are incorrect. Hope this helps Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jalphonse Posted June 10, 2019 Author Share Posted June 10, 2019 On 22/04/2019 at 02:52, 3together said: 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 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jalphonse Posted June 10, 2019 Author Share Posted June 10, 2019 On 15/01/2019 at 23:43, Indo said: Did you contacted by case officer yet? Hi Indo, Please refer to my response to other threads on this query. How are you doing with your application? You seem to have applied in the same month as me (May 2018). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest manrug Posted June 11, 2019 Share Posted June 11, 2019 On 10/06/2019 at 04:55, Jalphonse said: Hi Manrug, I can confirm that you have 70 days from the time you are invited (this is prior to the actual grant of the visa) to make the investment of 1.5 mln in treasury bonds. Any other time frames you may hear are incorrect. Hope this helps Hi Jalphonse Thanks for your reply. 70 days is not very long to sell the assets and raise the $1.5M. We submitted in Feb 19, so I don't think we will hear anything until May 2020. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jalphonse Posted June 26, 2019 Author Share Posted June 26, 2019 On 11/06/2019 at 13:36, manrug said: Hi Jalphonse Thanks for your reply. 70 days is not very long to sell the assets and raise the $1.5M. We submitted in Feb 19, so I don't think we will hear anything until May 2020. Yes, I’d say you shouldn’t expect for a case worker to look up your file until at least May 2020. If your application is accurate and you are confident of your documentation viz., source/path of funds, you should plan to liquidate your assets by July 2020 and be prepared to invest in the bonds when you receive the invite. Good luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jalphonse Posted August 15, 2019 Author Share Posted August 15, 2019 On 05/06/2018 at 09:46, Jalphonse said: Hi there, We applied for the Business Visa (Investor) subclass 188b. Here’s the time line and status so far: - EOI and State Nomination (NSW) on 09/03/18 - Nomination granted on 31/03/18 - Visa application on 26/04/18 - Medical and police clearance completed - 25/05/18 Can someone help with the following questions, please? 1. Is the request for medical/police clearance any indication of when we might receive a grant, as I believe there is only a validity of 12 months? 2. The processing time on the website says 19-20 months, so very surprised with the speed. We cannot make the move until June 2019, so will an early grant be a problem? 3. How long do we have to make the designated investment from the date of grant receipt? Will the department offer flexibility with an extension if required? Update: After 14.5 months, I have received a request for more information from the case officer. Hopefully it picks up pace from here. Anyone has any thoughts to share on how their application went after request for additional information and how long it typically takes for a decision from this point on? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest manrug Posted August 15, 2019 Share Posted August 15, 2019 Jalphonse That is really good news. How long have they given to you to submit the documents. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jalphonse Posted August 15, 2019 Author Share Posted August 15, 2019 11 minutes ago, manrug said: Jalphonse That is really good news. How long have they given to you to submit the documents. 28 days to submit all the documents. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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