Australian Immigration Daily News

The Migration (Complying Entrepreneur Activity - Excluded Activities) Instrument 2026 (LIN 26/056) commenced on 25 September 2026.

The instrument repeals and replaces Specification of Activities 2016/075 (IMMI 16/075), which was due to sunset on 1 October 2026. It maintains the existing policy settings without substantive change.

Excluded entrepreneurial activities

For the purposes of regulation 5.19E of the Migration Regulations 1994, the following activities are excluded from the meaning of a “complying entrepreneur activity”:

• establishing, purchasing, investing in or acquiring an interest in a labour hire entity;
• establishing, purchasing, investing in or acquiring an interest in residential real property; and
• purchasing, investing in or acquiring an interest in an existing entity, including a franchise.

These activities cannot be relied upon as complying entrepreneur activities under the Entrepreneur streams of the subclass 188 Business Innovation and Investment (Provisional) visa and subclass 888 Business Innovation and Investment (Permanent) visa.

Application to subclass 888 applicants

Applicants seeking to satisfy the subclass 888 Entrepreneur stream criteria must demonstrate an overall successful record of undertaking entrepreneurial activities in Australia while holding a subclass 188 visa in the Entrepreneur stream.

Activities excluded by LIN 26/056 must be disregarded when assessing whether an applicant satisfies the entrepreneurial activity requirement under subclause 888.261(2) of Schedule 2 to the Migration Regulations.

Although the subclass 188 visa closed to new applications on 31 July 2024, the instrument remains relevant to existing subclass 188 Entrepreneur stream visa holders seeking to progress to the subclass 888 permanent visa.

Policy objective

The excluded activities relate primarily to established or passive areas of the economy that already attract significant capital investment.

By excluding labour hire businesses, residential property investment, existing businesses and franchises, the Government intends to encourage entrepreneurial activity involving:

• emerging Australian enterprises;
• the creation of local employment opportunities; and
• the commercialisation of innovative Australian research and development.

Applicants and advisers should carefully assess whether the activities undertaken by a subclass 188 Entrepreneur stream visa holder qualify as complying entrepreneur activities before relying on them in a subclass 888 application.

Source:  Migraiton-Complying-Entrepreneur-Activity---excluded-activities-Instrument-2026.pdf and 

Migration-Complying-Entrepreneur-Activity----excluded-activities-Instrument-2026---explanatory-statement.pdf