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Can you sit on a board there?
Pick a market. You get the residency test, the nationality test, the work-authorisation position, the appointment steps in order, and the frictions that actually delay appointments — each cited to the instrument that creates it.
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Board-level residency testAU
No nationality test applies to you. The board must keep two Australian-resident directors, so a foreign appointment is a decision about the board's whole composition rather than about you alone.
- Residency test
- At least two of the three minimum directors of a public company must ordinarily reside in Australia (Corporations Act s.201A(2)). On a larger listed board this is rarely binding, but on a smaller one it can be the reason a foreign candidate is declined.
- Nationality test
- None.
- Work authorisation
- A non-resident non-executive director attending board meetings does not require a work visa. An executive or interim operating role requires a Subclass 482 or equivalent.
- Board language
- Board process is in English.
- Tenure limit once appointed
- No hard cap. Box 2.3 of the ASX Principles treats service of more than ten years as a factor that may compromise independence, requiring the board to satisfy itself and disclose its reasoning.
- Time commitment
- Typically 8–11 board meetings a year plus committee cycles and a strategy offsite; site visits are expected in resources and infrastructure.
- What a seat pays
- AUD 120,000 – 250,000 a year for a non-executive director of an ASX 200 entity, with the largest financial institutions and miners above that.
- Tax on your fees
- Directors' fees for services performed in Australia are Australian-source income; non-residents are taxed at non-resident rates with treaty relief varying.
The appointment steps, in order
- 1Obtain a Director Identification Number (director ID) from ASIC — mandatory, personal, and required before appointment
- 2Consent to act in writing under s.201D, held by the company
- 3ASIC notification of the appointment within 28 days (Form 484)
- 4For an APRA-regulated entity, the appointment is subject to the fit-and-proper requirements of Prudential Standard CPS 520
What actually gets in the way
- The director ID must be obtained personally, and identity verification for a non-resident applicant takes materially longer than for a resident
- Australian directors' duties are actively enforced against individuals, including non-resident directors, and directors' liability is a live consideration
- Time zones make Australian board calendars hard to combine with European seats in the same quarter
The instruments behind these answers
- Corporations Act 2001 s.201A(2) — A public company must have at least three directors, at least two of whom ordinarily reside in Australia. (Commonwealth of Australia)
- Corporations Act 2001 ss.180–184 — Directors' duties of care and diligence, good faith, proper purpose and no improper use of position or information — enforced by ASIC through civil penalty proceedings against individual directors. (ASIC)
- ASX Corporate Governance Principles and Recommendations, 4th edition Recommendations 2.4 and 2.5 — A majority of the board should be independent directors, and the chair should be an independent director who is not the CEO. Reported on an if-not-why-not basis. (ASX Corporate Governance Council)
- ASX Listing Rule 4.10.3 — Every listed entity must disclose, in its annual report, the extent to which it has followed the Council's recommendations and give reasons for any departure. (ASX)
Reviewed against primary sources in August 2026. This is governance decision-support, not legal or tax advice. Rules change and transitional provisions frequently apply — verify against the primary instrument before you rely on it.
Eligibility is only the first question
Being allowed to sit on a board there is not the same as being read for one.
The mobility index answers the second question: whether your record is legible to a board in that market, whether you hold what it is currently short of, and whether you can do the job in the language its board works in.