This provisional visa is for people with business skills. It lets you operate a new or existing business in Australia.

With this visa, you can

- carry out business and investment activity in Australia
- stay in Australia for up to 5 years
- bring eligible members of your family unit with you
- apply for a permanent Business Innovation and Investment (Permanent) visa (subclass 888) in the Business Innovation stream if certain requirements are met

How long you can stay

- This is a provisional visa. You can stay in Australia for up to 5 years if you were invited to apply on or after 1 July 2021.
- If you applied after 1 July 2015, and were invited to apply for this visa before 1 July 2021, you can stay in Australia for up to 4 years and 3 months.
- If you applied before 1 July 2015, you can stay up to 4 years.
- The visa is granted with multiple entry. You can leave and re-enter Australia as many times as you want while the visa is valid.
- The visa is valid from the date we grant it.

Stay longer

This is a provisional visa. You must apply for a new visa if you want to stay longer. Once you have this visa, you can apply for permanent residence through the Business Innovation and Investment (Permanent) visa (subclass 888) in the Business Innovation stream if certain requirements are met. Explore your visa options.
If you need more time to apply for permanent residence, you can apply for a new Business Innovation and Investment (Provisional) visa (subclass 188) in the Business Innovation Extension stream. If granted, you will be able to travel to, enter and remain in Australia for up to 7 years after the date of the grant of the original Business Innovation and Investment (Provisional) visa (subclass 188) in the Business Innovation stream.

Include family

You can include members of the family unit in your application when you apply. You can also add your dependent child to your application at any time before we decide on your application. Family members who apply for the visa must meet our health and character requirements.
In order for the main applicant to be granted the visa, family members who are not coming to Australia must meet our character requirements, and might have to meet our health requirements.

Apply from

You can be in or outside Australia when you apply for the visa and when we decide on your application, but not in immigration clearance.

Processing time

There are no standard processing times for this stream.
Your application might take longer to process if:
- you do not fill it in correctly
- you do not include all the documents we need or we need more information from you
- it takes us time to verify your information