Reform on the Business Innovation and Investment Program (BIIP) continues to leave restrictions on Migrant’s work status in Australia due to Covid-19.
Due to the Coronavirus, the BIIP had to prioritise their focus on the recovery of Australia’s Economic structure by limiting the amount of funds they could uphold to migrants looking to build or expand their business.
2020 planned reform was in set to help improve the economy through providing higher net-worth migrants with superior visa currently available i.e. Significant Investor Visa, Investor Visa and Premium Investor Visa. However, this resulted in a loss of millions of dollars for migrants and the government by not coming to fruition.
Migrants will also lose money from their predicted sales due to the restrictions enforced by the government of prohibiting people to go outside their home unless necessary amidst the coronavirus pandemic. BIIP already capped at 6,862 participants for 2019-2020 which is only around 6% of all working migrants and 4% of migrants in total and cannot accept any more applicants. Executive Chairman Atlas Advisors Australia, Guy Hedley said “the cap for 2019-20 had already been reached meaning that no BIIP applications could be accepted until July.”
The effect it has on migrants, especially immigrants on expiring visas are evident. Even though the Australian government has presented new changes to extend their stay in Australia, the current limitations and lack of funds have prohibited many businesses to flourish and have forced some to close or to bankruptcy.
During this hiatus of work, migrant’s businesses will struggle to increase their reputation to be nominated to Austrade which is necessary to apply for better visas which would have been easily obtained through this year’s reform if it went through. Mr Hedley said, “The BIIP should be revamped to give priority to higher net worth migrant applicants to Significant Investor Visa, Investor Visa and Premium Investor Visa.”
Once the cap is lifted in July, there’ll be an increase of migrant businesses requiring assistance from BIIP in attempting to salvage the losses they had during the time of the lockdown. In turn, BIIP will also have less funds as well, resulting in an immediate cap of places once again.
Mr Hedley said “BIIP should be redesigned to maximise incentives for high net worth metropolitan and regional investors.” Through Hedley’s suggestion, this will help out Australia’s economy better but lose out on smaller essential businesses.
Aaron Lam 