Temporary Work Visa For Regular Meetings

[FlyingDev]

Hi all,

Hoping for some guidance on what would be the correct visa for me, and see what my options are in my particular scenario.

I run my own IT consultancy from the UK (as a UK citizen and passport holder) and work with clients all over the world (EU, USA etc.). I have just signed a year long contract with a major Australian company (a household name) to provision services. My consultancy is highly specialised and works producing custom software for the television and media industry.

As part of this, I need to visit Australia 3 to 4 times in the year (for 2-4 weeks at a time). The vast majority of the work for the contract will be done offshore in London. The purpose of these visits will be to have meetings, discuss future work, and work collaboratively on the software we have produced for them at critical phases in the project. I will be providing a service to the Australian company, rather than acting as their employee. The Australian company will pay my UK company for any services.

I have spoken to an agent who suggested that a subclass 400 visa would be best for me. Applying for a 3 month, multiple entry visa, I could sandwich a visit at the beginning and visit at the end of the visa's validity period, and apply for 2 visas in a year. However, would the immigration authorities view this as "ongoing" rather than "non-ongoing" work?

As another angle, I am 29 so in theory could apply for a Working Holiday visa. I believe I would not fall foul of the "6 months with one employer" rule for this visa as the IMMI website says that  "You do not need to ask our permission to work with the same employer for up to 12 months... [for example, if you are] self-employed and provide services to the same business for more than six months as long as that business is not the only business you provide services to during that time". Are there any pitfalls to doing this? What would the tax implications be of doing this versus the subclass 400 visa? Would this cause problems if I was to renew the contract for another year afterwards and then try to immediately apply for a subclass 400 visa?

As an aside, my wife is Australian and holds an Australian passport, but I am not sure that is any help in my particular scenario?

Any advice gratefully received.