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Significant Investor Visa Funds – compliance audit

Significant Investor Visa Funds – compliance audit

17/08/2022

One of several recent changes to the Migration (IMMI 15/100: Complying Investments) Instrument 2015 regarding complying assets for SIV funds included the requirement to audit the compliance of the fund with the Complying Investments Framework.

From 1 July 2021, fund managers of SIV compliant funds are required to appoint an external auditor to annually audit the fund with the Complying Investments Framework for the emerging companies’ component and the balancing investments component.

As fund managers and migration agents will know, visa applicants for the significant investor stream and the investor stream visas are required to invest their funds in accordance with the Complying Investments Framework.

The department of Home Affairs recently made several changes to the requirements, as stipulated in the Migration (IMMI 15/100: Complying Investments) Instrument 2015. These included changes to complying assets and for the emerging companies component and the balancing investments component of the complying investments framework to be audited annually for compliance.

Watch this video from Rene Muller, our fund expert to get a better understanding of what actions are required to meet compliance requirements.

SIV applicants – what do you need to do?

All applicants who were nominated to apply for a Significant Investor Visa or an Investor Visa after 1 July 2021 will be required to attach audit reports to their visa application to show that for the year ended 30 June 2022 and annually thereafter, the fund/(s) they have invested in comply with the complying investments framework. These will be obtained from their fund managers.

It is highly unlikely that a visa application will be approved without the compliance audit report.

SIV fund manager & migration agents – what do you need to know?

Impacted partyDescription
Fund managersFund managers will be required to appoint an auditor annually to audit compliance of their funds’ compliance with the complying investments framework
Migration agentsMigration agents will be the conduit between the visa applicant and the fund managers to ensure visa applicants have all the required documents in hand to ensure their visa is approved
Visa applicantsVisa applicants will be required to submit annual audit reports for all emerging companies and balancing investments funds they have invested in. This requirement will be in place until they obtain permanent residence

How SW can help

Building on our extensive work with fund managers across the sector, the SW specialist audit team fully understands the audit requirements as applicable to visa applicants, migration agents and fund managers, and has significant experience with these audits.

Our SIV fund audit service provides efficient and effective audits for SIV compliant funds to ensure these comply with the emerging companies and balancing investments components as required by the Migration (IMMI 15/100: Complying Investments) Instrument 2015.

Reach out to our SIV Audit experts, Rene Muller and Rami Eltchelebi, to start the conversation.

Fund management tax experts include:

Abi Chellapen, Simon Tucker, Stephen O’Flynn

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