The troubled Business Innovation and Investment Program (BIIP) will permanently close on 31 July 2024, meaning no new visa applications can be made for a subclass 188 – Business Innovation and Investment (Provisional) visa from this day.

The BIIP is a program that successive governments have tinkered with over many years with much fanfare but never lived up to the hype.

The program promised to allow successful business innovators and investors to enter Australia and contribute to the growth of the Australian economy. This was supposed to be achieved through 5 streams:

• Business Innovation

• Investor

• Significant Investor

• Premium Investor

• Entrepreneur

Interesting notes include that the Premium Investor stream was added and repealed because of neglect and that primary applicants must pass a business skills points test for the Business Innovation stream and Investor stream.

A primary problem of the program was the criteria for the subclass 888 – Business Innovation and Investment (Permanent) visa, which provisional 188 visa holders needed to meet to become permanent residents.

This was not overly onerous for investor visa applicants who simply needed to make and retain their complying investments for the minimum period, and any other investment activities expected of them by their nominating state or territory, which escalated over the years.

For “business innovators” who are really business owners and managers, ensuring meeting the turnover requirements of an eligible business disincentivised provisional visa holders to develop new unique businesses. Instead, it encouraged them to be conservative and buy and manage existing businesses or start new ones preferably with high prices and inelastic demand: tobacconists are a good example. Not exactly innovative.

Perhaps the death knell of the program was a 2023 Productivity Commission report, which placed the average public contribution of these visa holders in the negative, not something desired for any visa type under the skilled stream.

The end of any new applicants to this program will come on 31 July 2024 according to an instrument registered today. Any application for a 188 vias must be made before then, and likely the Department of Home Affairs will remove the option in ImmiAccount.

This does not, however, affect existing 188 visa holders wanting to eventually apply for an 888 visa or wanting to apply under the Business Innovation Extension stream or Significant Investor Extension stream for a new 188 visa if needed.

In reality, the program has been closed off for many months. No new nominations were given to the states and territories last program year, meaning it has been over a year since any nominations would have been issued.

What will replace this program will be a National Innovation visa, which will be available at the end of the year according to a recent news article.