New overseas investment approvals will be decided in as little as five working days under law changes starting today.

Associate Finance Minister David Seymour says many decisions under the Overseas Investment Act must now be made within 15 working days, with a five-day target.

The change follows the introduction of a two-track system that separates low-risk and higher-risk investment applications.

“These changes build on major success speeding up consenting under the old law. Since our Government was elected, we’ve reduced the average processing time by 60 per cent, from 71 working days to 28,” Mr Seymour said.

He said $7.82 billion worth of investment applications were processed in the past year.

The new system allows lower-risk applications to move through a faster pathway, while higher-risk proposals receive closer scrutiny.

“The law says decisions on all investments except residential land, farmland and fishing quota must be made within 15 working days, unless there is a potential national interest concern, but the target is five working days,” Mr Seymour said.

Immigration Minister Erica Stanford said interest in the Active Investor Plus visa was rising.

She said 589 applications from high-value investors could deliver nearly $3.5 billion in investment.

“Following our changes to the golden visa, we’ve had an enormous jump in applications, and over $3 billion in investment set to be delivered,” Ms Stanford said.

The Government says the changes aim to get capital into businesses faster and support economic growth through overseas investment.

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