South Australia - New Temp Visa Opportunity for Entrepreneurs

[TeeTMI]

South Australia - New Temporary Visa Opportunity for Entrepreneurs

South Australia has been selected as the pilot state for the three-year (commencing in November 2018 and ending in November 2021) Supporting Innovation in South Australia (SISA) visa which will encourage budding foreign entrepreneurs, with business ideas centred around emerging industries – such as space, cyber security, big data, defence, agribusiness, medical technology and robotics.

 

The duration of the visa is up to three years, depending on the time of visa grant (all visas will expire on 30 November 2021) as this is a pilot program for South Australia.
 

The eligibility criteria for this visa includes:
- Have an eligible innovative idea with a supporting business plan;
- Be under 45 years of age at time of application;
- Demonstrate at least a minimum of Vocational level English;
- Meet all health, character and financial requirements detailed by the Department of Home Affairs;
- Be endorsed by a South Australian Government entity (Department for Trade, Tourism and Investment) to take forward an innovative idea in South Australia;
- Have sufficient funds to support yourself and any eligible dependant family members included in your application.

 

https://migration.sa.gov.au/upload/publications/State nomination migration/Supporting-Innovation-in-South-Australia-pilot-program.pdf

[Bonny]

@TeeTMI thanks for this info. I find it interesting, but personally I would be very cautious about accepting a visa like this. We arrived on the now-obsolete state sponsored 163 business visa in 2006. It didn’t take us long to realise the ‘catch’ and it cost us a LOT of money, time and heartache. I wonder if they’ve truly thought it through, the path to PR, realistic time-frames for people to perform, etc. Especially given our imminent government change back to Labor. I guess I’m just cynical, but the government has absolutely no concience when it comes to changing their policy and throwing people out if they cannot comply with their visa requirements. I wouldn’t gamble my future on any ‘pilot’ program at this point. It will be an extremely difficult visa to succeed on in South Aus, imho.

[TeeTMI]

I agree in that if someone has the option of a permanent residence visa over a temporary visa plus pathway option that obtaining permanent residence is the preferred option.  As you say when you are using a 'pathway' circumstances can change - be they by the government or in your own life and these can impact on your ability to proceed to permanent residence.  Working in this field I see some heartbreaking stories especially following some of the changes in the last year.

Pathways via temporary visa options are not guaranteed and involve risks, unfortunately for some people for a variety of reasons a pathway is the only option, and where they are then should be thought through carefully.