January 1, 2023

New Australian government planning to bring some changes to Australia’s immigration rules this year. Here’s what is expected and what’s going to come in 2023.

The new Australian Federal government lead by Australian Labor’s Anthony Albanese has already made some significant changes to Australia’s migration policies and already started tackling the on-going visa backlog since coming into office in May 2022.

It is expected that there could be even more changes in 2023, with the government promising to look at the effectiveness of skilled migration occupation lists, which some believe are outdated.

Department of Immigration has been already announced that skilled visas will be increased from 79,600 to 142,400 in 2023.

The last update to the current Skilled Migration Occupation List was made on 11 March 2019 then the COVID-19 pandemic had just started.

After winning the election, the Australian government announced an increase to the Australian permanent migration numbers in 2022/23 from 160,000 to 195,000 places for skilled and family visas. The October budget revealed the number of skilled visas available as part of the program is almost doubled from 79,600 to 142,400.

The Australian Federal government also announced changes  to Temporary skill shortage (TSS) subclass 482 visas that would allow people to apply for permanent residency, the removal of age restrictions on 457 visa holders, and expanding the eligibility for subclass 462 working holiday maker visas.

Here are five key Australian visa opportunities in Australia for 2023.

1. State-sponsored Permanent Visas

According to Australian Department of Home Affairs spokesperson, it had set a planning level of 31,000 places for state and territory nominated visas (subclass 190) in 2022/23, as well as a further 34,000 places in the regional category (subclass 491), the majority of which are nominated by state and territory governments.

There will be another 5,000 visas for the business innovation and investment program (subclass 188).

Former Department of Immigration secretary Abul Rivzi stated the quantity of visas to be hadthru the country and territories is ready to dramatically growthway tothe biggerlocal allocation. “What I’m noticing is some of the states are actually struggling to deliver quickly enough and so a lot of them are making changes to make their systems faster,” Mr Rizvi said.

Some of the skilled visas available in the Australian Federal Government 2022/23 budget.

Back in 2018/19 before the COVID-19 pandemic dramatically impacted Australia’s migration numbers, about 25,346 state and territory nominated visas were granted and just 647 skilled regional visas.

States and territories have increasingly relaxed many of their criteria, including their skilled occupation lists, to make it easier for people to apply for state-nominated visas.

One of the biggest advantages of a state-sponsored visa is not being tied to a particular employer – although applicants have to be younger than 45 years old and have to also find their own jobs.

Most recently NSW changed the requirements for its visa applicants .

“Previously published points scores and work experience guides for the Skilled Nominated visa (subclass 190) have been removed due to increased availability of the Skilled Independent visa (subclass 189) by the Department of Home Affairs,” a notice on the NSW Government website  states.

Mr Rivzi said he expected much higher numbers of people would also be granted Skilled Independent visas (subclass 189) this financial year, compared to the last two years when COVID-19 shut down Australia’s borders.

2. Change to processing of visas

Skilled visa applications for teachers and healthcare workers are now being assessed in just three days after the government stopped using the Priority Migration Skilled Occupation List (PMSOL) to rank applications.

Ministerial Direction No. 100, introduced on 28 October 2022, set new rules for applications to be prioritised. Applications are now being decided in the following order of priority:

1. Healthcare or teaching occupation applications;

2. For employer-sponsored visas, applicants nominated by an Approved sponsor with Accredited Status;

3. Those for a designated regional area;

4. For permanent and provisional visa subclasses, visa applications that count towards the migration program, excluding the Subclass 188 (Business Innovation and Investment (Provisional)) visa;

5. All other visa applications.

Within each category, priority is given to applicants located outside Australia for provisional and permanent skilled visa applications.

3. Easier family reunion

The Albanese government has made it easier for families to reunite, introducing demand-driven partner visas in 2022/23.

This means there is no limit to the number of these visas issued. The department is estimating it will issue around 40,500 partner visas this financial year.

Child visas are also demand-driven and an estimated 3,000 visas are expected to be issued.

4. New visa for certain countries

A new visa will be introduced in July 2023 providing 3,000 places for eligible migrants from Pacific countries and Timor Leste.

Spots for the Pacific Engagement visa (PEV)  will be allocated by a ballot process each year.

These visas will be offered on top of the places available on Australia’s permanent migration program.

5. Priority processing for New Zealanders

New Zealanders living in Australia will benefit from priority processing of Skilled Independent (Subclass 189visa applications in the New Zealand stream.

The department has dropped certain visa requirements including that applicants must have lived in Australia for at least five years and that they meet certain taxable income thresholds as well as health criteria.

The department has stopped taking new visa applications from 10 December 2022 until 1 July 2023, in order to process the backlog already in the system.

Source: sbs.com.au

November 3, 2022

In an article published this morning by the Australian Financial Review, it was revealed that Migration Minister O’Neil introduced a clerical direction to change the rules for skilled migration to Australia.

It’s that Australia needs as important a tech gift as it can get, If there’s anything the recent data breaches endured by Optus and Medibank have shown. After all, the government does know we need thousands of tech workers by 2030.

According to the report, the direction removed 27 job places – including ICT security specialists – from the Priority Migration Skilled Occupation List (PMSOL).

Some have argued that Australia is formerly facing an extremity in having suitably good and educated people in the IT sector, particularly in cybersecurity. One of those is Liam Dermody, who’s security establishment Darktrace’s Red Team director.
“numerous observers are assuming that the huge number of breaches we ’ve had in Australia in recent weeks is fuelled by a chops gap and not having enough professed IT workers on the ground,” he said.

“That’s presumably a conception but clearly a part of the root cause. In light of that, we need professed settlers more than ever. ”
The decision to reduce the capability for settlers from coming to Australia, who retain the chops demanded to adequately cover our enterprises, is, according to Dermody, “thwarting, to say the least ”.

While O’Neil said the changes would speed up visa processing times across all orders including cybersecurity and tech, the AFR quotes both Tech Council of Australia master Kate Pounder and Council of Small Business Organisations of Australia principal Alexi Boyd as nonconcurring.

The Details of New Skilled Migration Rules for Australia

They rather expressed alarm at the unforeseen change made without assiduity discussion.
Per the AFR, job titles removed from the PMSOL related to tech and cyber chops include ICT security specialists, critic programmers, inventor programmers, software masterminds, and software and operations programmers. Other jobs removed include principal directors, accountants, masterminds, veterinarians, and cookers.

Loftiest precedence for employer- patronized visas will now go to healthcare or tutoring professionals.
“This skill deficit has been sluggishly growing for a number of times, only to be made mainly worse due to migration restrictions enforced during the epidemic,” Darktrace’s Dermody added.

“The Australian government recognizes this problem as it has listed ICT and Software and Application professionals in their top 20 skill list. ”
He said the decision doesn’t line up with the government’s current messaging to assiduity that assiduity isn’t doing enough to cover their systems from data theft.

December 30, 2021

As Australia seeks to increase migration as part of its economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, here is some of the major immigration changes that have been announced.

October 13, 2021

A doubling of that pre-pandemic rate would see net migration leap to more than 400,000 a year, a staggering surge that would see the population swell by 2 million by 2026.

Australia needs an explosive post-World War II-style immigration surge that could bring in 2 million people over five years to rebuild the economy and address worsening labour shortages, according to NSW government advice to new Premier Dominic Perrottet.

Top bureaucrats last week urged Mr Perrottet to seize the national leadership initiative by pushing a “national dialogue on an aggressive resumption of immigration levels as a key means of economic recovery and post-pandemic growth”.

“An ambitious national immigration plan similar to Australia’s post-World War II approach would ensure Australia would benefit from skills, investment and population growth,” Mr Perrottet was told in the advice, which was seen by The Australian Financial Review.

The top-secret, politically sensitive document was prepared by the NSW government’s top mandarins as part of an incoming premier’s brief put together by the Department of Premier and Cabinet. It is understood the advice was delivered to his desk when he took up the job last week.

In a sign the new Premier is taking the advice seriously, Mr Perrottet on Monday said the borders need to be opened up amid a “general labour” shortage to ensure a healthy economic recovery.

An incoming premier brief from top bureaucrats within the NSW Department of Premier and Cabinet have told Premier Dominic Perrottet that Australia needs an explosive surge of 2 million migrants to boost the economy:

Top bureaucrats last week urged Mr Perrottet to seize the national leadership initiative by pushing a “national dialogue on an aggressive resumption of immigration levels as a key means of economic recovery and post-pandemic growth”.

“An ambitious national immigration plan similar to Australia’s post-World War II approach would ensure Australia would benefit from skills, investment and population growth,” Mr Perrottet was told in the advice, which was seen by The Australian Financial Review.

“If we lose this opportunity, those skilled migrants will go to other countries,” he said. “We won’t get those engineers, those accountants, they’ll commit to other projects.”

Mr Perrottet is pushing to end NSW’s 14-day hotel quarantine system and replace it with a shorter period of home-based isolation, and is also revisiting inbound passenger caps.

“We need to get away from that formal beds quarantine system and to something that’s more suitable to bring people in and out of this country on a more fluid basis.

“I think by next year we’ll see a very different sort of immigration policy, and I hope we’ll start to see more people coming in and filling those jobs.”

‘Shameless’ push for skilled migration

The top bureaucrats told Mr Perrottet that NSW under his predecessor Gladys Berejiklian has played a “proactive role” in pushing for the reopening of the Australian economy, and was joined in recent weeks by Victoria and the Commonwealth “pushing a position focused on living with COVID-19″.

They also took a swipe at premiers and chief ministers of Queensland, Tasmania, Western Australia and the ACT, whose attitudes they described as “resistant”.

“It is highly likely that NSW will reopen its international borders ahead of other states/territories and in the absence of any national agreement.”

Mr Perrottet was told that a “time-limited” immigration surge could include a “doubling” of pre-COVID immigration levels for the next five years and “unashamedly” focusing on “the skilled migration we need to develop key industry sectors”.

Population growth since the pandemic has collapsed after federal and state governments unwittingly embarked on one of the most wide-reaching post-war policy experiments ever conducted by closing off immigration, a mainstay driver of jobs and economic activity in Australia for decades.

Net overseas migration added 194,400 people to Australia’s population in the year ending June 2020, a sharp drop from the 241,000 reached in 2018-19.

Net migration leap to more than 400,000 a year

A doubling of that pre-pandemic rate would see net migration leap to more than 400,000 a year, a staggering surge that would see the population swell by 2 million by 2026.

“There is a need to return to higher levels of migration across the board, both in terms of skilled migration and being more generous to people coming in under specialist humanitarian visas and, indeed, international students returning on temporary visas,” said Peter Shergold, chancellor of Western Sydney University and the Commonwealth’s former top bureaucrat.

“These things are very important to the economic future of NSW.”

Source : afr.com

July 19, 2021

Every year, all States receive quotas from the government, based on which the states and territories nominate skilled and business migrants for the Skilled Nom­inated visa Subclass 190 and the Skilled Work Regional (Provisional) visa Subclass 491.

Australian states received allocations for their Skilled Migration Program designed to attract migrants.

Just like last year, the program will continue to respond to the challenges posed by COVID-19, with a strong focus on onshore applicants who can assist the jurisdictions in their post-pandemic economic recovery.

Australian states received allocations for their Skilled Migration Program designed to attract migrants. The General Skilled Migration Program (GSM) is aimed at attracting skilled workers to critical occupations who are ­­willing to migrate to Australia and improve the country’s workforce and meet the changing needs of businesses in its states and territories. ­

Here’s a state-wise update for the program year 2021-22:

New South Wales

New South Wales continues to be the state with the highest number of allocations for its skilled nomination program. It has received 4,000 places for Subclass 190 and 3,640 for Subclass 491, a significant increase from last year’s total which stood at 6,350.

Australian Capital Territory

The ACT has received 600 more places for its skilled nomination program this year as compared to the last.

Its skilled migration program remains closed to offshore applicants until the federal government reopens the international borders.

Victoria

Victoria has received a total of 4,000 places this year – 3,500 for Subclass 190 and 500 Subclass 491. This is marginally more than the previous program year.

However, this year, Victoria will focus on onshore applicants who are currently living and working in the state in one of the seven target sectors designated by the state based on their STEMM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medical) skills.

The seven target sectors include health, medical research, life sciences, digital, agri-food, advanced manufacturing and new energy, emission reduction and circular economy.

GSM

Western Australia

Priority will be given to those using their critical skills in Melbourne’s business precincts, namely, Parkville, Footscray and Docklands.

The General Stream of Skilled Migration in Western Australia is divided into two categories based on occupations: the WA Skilled Migration Occupation List (WASMOL) Schedule 1 and Schedule 2.

For more information about the requirements for WASMOL Schedule 1 and 2.

The state has expanded its occupation lists, but Mr Singh said the most noticeable change in the program is that applicants who apply for General Stream, do not have to be currently studying, working or living in the state to receive a nomination.

All they need is a job offer in the state to be eligible for this stream.

“The WA state nomination is unique and positive as it is open to applicants throughout Australia rather than limiting it to the state. Also, WA’s skilled occupation list is quite liberal with opportunities for trades like motor mechanic, chef, cook and painter. Applicants specifically from Victoria and Queensland will benefit from WA’s state nomination since the options for these occupations are limited in these states,” Mr Singh said.

The state has received 1,100 places for Subclass 190 and 340 for Subclass 491.

State and Territory nominated visa allocations for 2021-2022.

Department of Home Affairs

South Australia

South Australia’s skilled nomination program has received 2,600 places each for subclasses 190 and 491, a total of 1,200 more places than last year.

Mr Singh said the increased allocation would mean applicants will have more chances to secure a nomination.

“The number of allocations is quite promising as they stand at 5,200 spots for the 491 and 190 visas combined, and are only second to NSW. SA is unique in a way that unlike states like Victoria, it didn’t restrict invitations to critical occupations and the trend is likely to continue this financial year as well,” Mr Singh added.

The state’s general skilled migration program is scheduled to reopen on 20 July.

Queensland

Queensland has received the same number of places as the previous year – 1,000 for Subclass 190 and 1,250 for Subclass 491.

The state is currently finalising the criteria for its skilled nomination program, which is scheduled to open in late July.

Tasmania

Tasmania has received 1,100 places for Subclass 190 and 2,200 for Subclass 491, slightly more than last year.

The state will continue to assess applications for the Skilled Nom­inated visa in this program year which were not finalised by 30 June.

The Skilled Work Regional (Provisional) visa applications lodged before 20 March, which were not finalised in the last financial year, will also continue to be assessed in the current year.

The state is yet to open its nomination program for 2021-22.

Northern Territory

The Australian jurisdiction with the smallest skilled nominated program has been allocated 1,000 places, 500 each for Subclass 190 and Subclass 491, the same as the previous year.

While the NT program remains open for new onshore applicants, it is closed to overseas applicants. However, all existing applications will be assessed.

Disclaimer: This content is for general information purposes only and should not be used as a professional consultation by a qulaified migration agent. Contact us Registered Migration Agents to review your situation.

September 5, 2020

2 September 2020 – Acting Minister for Immigration Alan Tudge has announced a new Priority Migration Skilled Occupation List (PMSOL) of 17 occupations that will be able to enter Australia on a 482 visa in order to assist in the country’s COVID recovery.

Existing skilled migration occupation lists will remain active and visas will still be processed, but priority will be given to those in occupations on the PMSOL. Most of the occupations included in this are from the health care sector. The occupations on the list are based on advice from the National Skills Commission.

Immigration agent Rohit Mohan of Lakshya Migration Melbourne says these occupations are critical to the Australian economic recovery during and after the pandemic.

“If employers fail to find the right candidates in Australia for their business, this list will allow them to sponsor skilled professions from overseas during the pandemic. The candidates will be given travel exemption to bring them to Australia. However, they will have to undergo a mandatory 2-week quarantine,” he explains.

Visa holders, who have been sponsored by an Australia business in a PMSOL occupation can request an exemption from Australia’s travel restrictions, but will be subject to a strict 14 days quarantine on arrival at their own expense.”

Minister for Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business, Senator the Hon Michaelia Cash said the PMSOL would be complemented by strengthened labour market testing requirements. “In addition to the current requirements of two national advertisements, employers must also advertise their vacancy on the Government’s jobactive website,”

What are the 17 Occupations in ANZSCO Code?

The 17 occupations (ANZSCO code) are:

  • Chief Executive or Managing Director (111111)
  • Construction Project Manager (133111)
  • Mechanical Engineer (233512)
  • General Practitioner (253111)
  • Resident Medical Officer (253112)
  • Psychiatrist (253411)
  • Medical Practitioner nec (253999)
  • Midwife (254111)
  • Registered Nurse (Aged Care) (254412)
  • Registered Nurse (Critical Care and Emergency) (254415)
  • Registered Nurse (Medical) (254418)
  • Registered Nurse (Mental Health) (254422)
  • Registered Nurse (Perioperative) (254423)
  • Registered Nurses nec (254499)
  • Developer Programmer (261312)
  • Software Engineer (261313)
  • Maintenance Planner (312911)

 

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