本平台将致力于为您提供与您在澳洲的投资项目相关的法律信息与服务、同时也会将与中国企业及个人投资者热切关注的产业相关澳洲新闻、最新行业规定等讯息及时传递给您。
注：针对上一期中我们在初创企业风投基金介绍中提及的’特级投资者签证‘（PIV），在本期中我们将为您回顾包括该政策在内的SIV”重大投资者签证”在2014年年底的政策更新。
澳大利亚政府于2012年11月24日推出了重大投资者签证（SIV）项目来吸引境外投资、从而推动澳洲经济的发展。
重大投资者签证为能向澳洲投资至少500万澳元并持续四年以上的人群提供了一种取得永久居住权的途径。
在2014年10月14日，澳洲政府于公布了《产业投资与竞争力计划》（Industry Investmentand Competitiveness Agenda），计划中包括进一步扩展与改进重大投资者签证项目来更好地利用外资、吸引投资者定居澳洲、同时保护本国利益。
这些调整旨在促进投资者来源多元化、精简重大投资者签证（SIV）管理，以及为高端投资者增加一个效率更高的签证选择。联邦政府称这样的调整举措可以简化流程、提升签证审批速度，在全球范围内加强推广重大投资者签证（SIV）项目并且强化诚信措施。
具体来说，这些变化由以下方面组成：
简化流程、提升签证审批速度，从而增加澳大利亚作为投资与定居地的吸引力；
引导项目的合规投资与政府设定的国家优先投资目标相一致；
引入比“重大投资者签证”更快速的“特级投资者签证“（PIV）项目。该项目要求申请者满足1500万澳元的投资门槛、即可在12个月后迅速获得永居身份；
联邦政府下属的澳大利亚贸易委员会（Austrade)将和各州/领地政府一样具有重大投资者签证（SIV）提名资格、并将是特级投资者签证（PIV）提名资格的唯一机构。
特级投资者签证（PIV）将自2015年7月1日生效，而重大投资者签证（SIV)的各项改革举措将在2014-2015财年内生效。
作者：豪力合伙人Paul Hardman
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【专业干货——助您成功投资澳洲业务】
欲查阅之前我们发布的如下【在澳经商基本法律法规】主题系列以及与您生意相关的其他资讯，请进入订阅号点击右上角按钮，选择“查看历史消息”：
· 在澳大利亚成立公司须知
· 澳大利亚相关背景，例如包括澳大利亚政府制度、法律制度、企业结构
· 其他常见领域法律与规定，例如技术与知识产权保护、反垄断和消费者保护法、合同法、公开接管、电子商务、商业移民和雇主担保签证、房地产、环境法等
· 专业信息与见解，如对外商投资的监管要求等
（原创文章，欢迎转发，谢谢关注！未经授权，严禁转载！）
Changes to investorvisa program announce by Federal Government in late 2014
Further to the Premium Investor Visa (PIV)mentioned in last article about the Australian Government’s Early Stage Venture Capital Limited Partnerships (ESVCLP) program, we will recap the recent announcement of changes to investor visa program by federal government in late 2014 here for you.
The Significant Investor Visa (SIV) program was established by the Australian Government on 24 November 2012 with the aim of encouraging foreign investment to provide a boost to the Australian economy.
The SIV gives a pathway to permanent residency for people who invest at least $5 million in Australia for a minimum of four years.
On 14 October 2014, the Australian Government announced its intention to expand and improve the SIV program as part of its Industry Investment and Competitiveness Agenda, in order to increase the attractiveness of investing and settling in Australia, whilst protecting Australia’s interests.
The changes are designed to diversify the sources of investors, streamline the administration of the SIV program, and create a more effective visa option for premium investors. The Australian Government says the changes are aimed at “streamlining and enhancing visa processing, further promoting the program globally and strengthening integrity measures”.
Specifically, the changes to the program are designed to:
streamline and enhance visa processing to increase the attractiveness of investing and settling in Australia;
align the criteria for complying investments with the Government’s national investment priorities;
introduce a Premium Investor visa (PIV), offering a quicker, 12 month pathway to permanent residency than the SIV, for those meeting a $15 million threshold;
make Austrade a nominating entity for SIV (complementing the current State and Territory Governments’ role as nominators) and to be the sole nominating entity for PIV.
The PIV will be introduced on July 1, 2015, while the SIV changes will take effect during 2014-15.
Author： Paul Hardman (partner)
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【We provide excellent expert advice to businesses wishing to invest in Australia.】
To view our previous news releases for Chinese investors and the following articles of the topic ‘Basic legal knowledge on doing business in Australia’, please click the upper-right button on our WeChat platform, and click ‘view previous information’:
· Business set up in Australia, business structures, company administration, etc.
· Background information of Australia, including Australian government, legal system, and business structures, etc.
· Laws and regulations in various common areas, including protection of technology and intellectual property, anti-trust and consumer law, contract law, business migration, realproperty, public takeovers, and electronic commerce etc.
· Professional industrial updates and insights, such as regulation on foreign investment
