🇦🇺 Business & investment

From 25 September 2026, the 2026 instrument provides the operative specification of excluded activities under paragraph 5.19E(6)(a) of the Migration Regulations 1994. The first exclusion covers labour hire entities. The wording is deliberately broad. It excludes establishing, purchasing, investing or acquiring an interest in a labour hire entity. Consequently, the issue is not limited to an entrepreneur who purchases an existing labour-hire company. Establishing a new labour-hire entity or investing in one is also expressly covered. The second exclusion concerns residential real property. Establishing, purchasing, investing or acquiring an interest in residential real property is excluded. The provision therefore prevents residential-property investment or acquisition from being treated as the qualifying entrepreneurial activity under regulation 5.19E. The third exclusion concerns existing entities. The instrument excludes purchasing, investing or acquiring an interest in an existing entity, and expressly states that this includes a franchise. This is important because a person cannot rely on the entrepreneur framework simply by acquiring an established business and presenting ownership of that business as the entrepreneurial activity. The distinction is therefore between creating or developing an innovative enterprise and acquiring an existing commercial interest. The new instrument places the latter outside the definition where the activity falls within its specified wording. The instrument itself does not establish a new visa category. It operates as a supporting legal instrument underneath regulation 5.19E. An applicant seeking to rely on a complying entrepreneur activity must therefore satisfy the wider regulatory requirements as well as avoiding the excluded activities.

Current rules for this policy, plus every recorded change.