Australia

No. The entire Business Innovation and Investment Programme closed to new applications on 31 July 2024. That included the Significant Investor stream (subclass 188C, AUD 5m), the Investor stream (188B) and the Entrepreneur stream (188E). Australia has had no residency-by-investment route of any kind since. There is no price at which a passive investor can buy in. Any adviser still quoting AUD 5m for Australian residency is working from a pre-August-2024 script. Agents in several markets continue to advertise the SIV, but it does not exist.

The National Innovation Visa (subclass 858), launched 7 December 2024, replaced both the closed BIIP and the former Global Talent visa. It has no investment threshold whatsoever. The AUD 4,985 figure is simply the base visa application charge, not a purchase price. It is invitation-only and aimed at people with an internationally recognised record of exceptional achievement in Critical Technologies, Health Industries, or Renewables and Low Emission Technologies. Wealth is not a criterion, and it does not help.

Low. It is worth treating as a lottery on an exceptional record rather than a plan. Since launch, more than 9,000 expressions of interest have produced roughly 304 invitations and about 85 visas granted. In the January–March 2026 quarter, 1,815 EOIs yielded 146 invitations, about 8%. Places were cut from 5,300 in 2025–26 to 3,500 for 2026–27 while EOI volume rose, so selectivity is tightening. Sector concentration is real. Recent invitations skewed heavily to Critical Technologies, and an EOI can sit in the pool indefinitely with no feedback and no queue position.

No, and this is the costliest misunderstanding in the region. The NIV is permanent from the moment it is granted. That means holders get no temporary-resident tax concession. Instead, they become full Australian tax residents on worldwide income from day one. It is the exact opposite of New Zealand's transitional-resident treatment. Australia's top personal rate is 45% over AUD 190,000, plus a 2% Medicare levy. The temporary-resident concession that exempts most foreign income exists only for temporary visa holders. That structurally rules out every permanent route, including the NIV.

Yes. Australia levies a genuine departure tax. CGT event I1 treats everything you own, except taxable Australian property, as sold at market value the moment your residency ceases. You can elect to defer this, but doing so keeps the asset inside the Australian tax net indefinitely. Temporary residents sit outside I1 on their non-Australian assets, which is a real reason not to convert to permanent residence before leaving. The 50% CGT discount is also scaled back for days of non-residence after 8 May 2012, and foreign residents are denied the main-residence exemption outright on disposal.

The temporary resident concession, found in ITAA 1997 Subdivision 768-R, treats most foreign income and foreign capital gains of a temporary visa holder as non-assessable non-exempt. In plain terms, Australia simply ignores them. It attaches to temporary visas such as subclass 482, 485 and 500, not to permanent residency. Here is the perverse part. The harder-to-get visa Australia now wants you to hold, the permanent NIV, is exactly the one that costs you this concession. Families who deliberately stay temporary keep the tax benefit. Those who convert to permanent residence lose it, and they cannot get it back.

It catches families constantly. To qualify, the taxpayer must be a temporary resident, and their spouse must also fall outside the definition of an Australian resident under the Social Security Act 1991. If the spouse is an Australian citizen or permanent resident, neither one counts as a temporary resident for tax purposes, and the concession disappears for both. It cannot be reinstated, either. Once permanent residence is taken, the concession ends. It does not return, even if the visa later lapses.

No. Permanent residence does not mean permanent travel rights. A permanent visa carries a five-year travel facility that must be renewed via a Resident Return Visa, which requires two years' residence in the preceding five. Leaving for extended periods without arranging one can strand the family outside Australia. So even the presence-free NIV carries a real residence trap when it comes to keeping the ability to come and go.

Australia allows dual citizenship, so you do not need to renounce your existing nationality. Citizenship requires four years of lawful residence, including the last 12 months as a permanent resident. Total absences must stay under 12 months across the four years, and under 90 days in the final year. There is no English requirement for the visa itself. Citizenship does require basic English and passing the citizenship test.