On 30 Mar 2021 the Hon Karen Andrews MP was appointed as new Minister for Home Affairs.^[1]  This follows the previous Minister for Home Affairs the Hon Peter Dutton MP, being appointed as Minister for Defence the same day.^[2]

The Hon Alex Hawke MP continues in his role Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs.

Move to South Australia released one of the longest Occupations List for 491 and 190 visas.

Move to South Australia (Move to SA) released its Skilled Occupation List for 491 and 190 visas on 4 February 2021. The list is the longest among all the states; it covers 23 categories with hundreds of occupations.

Move to SA will started accepting application from Sat, 8 February 2021.

The Australian Department of Home Affairs has updated their policies on 20 January 2021 so that Bachelor with Honours and Masters (both research and coursework) graduates are no longer eligible for invitation under the GTI program.

Prior to 20 January 2021, the Department’s policy had been that candidates with a Bachelor with Honours or a Masters from the last 3 years with high grades were considered “highly likely” to earn at or above the required threshold (the Fair Work High Income Threshold, currently $153,600). This is no longer the case.

While these qualifications no longer meet the requirements, candidates with those qualifications can still be invited if they are able to show through other evidence that they can attract the high salary.

Some changes have been announced by the Minister Alan Tudge on 19 December 2020. These changes might bring relief to Graduate Subclass 485 Post Study Work Stream (PSW) visa holders and students who wish to apply for 485 visa but are stuck outside Australia due to Covid19 pandemic.

On 17 December 2020, the Morrison Government has made an announcement to reform business and investor visas aiming to maximise the economic benefits for Australia.

What changes have been announced?

• 9 steams reduced to 4 streams

The business program will be simplified from 9 streams to 4 streams which are:

• Business Innovation(perhaps similar to the current 188A)
• Entrepreneur (perhaps a development of the current 188E)
• Investor (perhaps as development of the current188B)
• Significant Investor (further developments to the 188C).

From 01 July 2021, the Premium Investor (188D), Significant Business History (132A) and Venture Capital Entrepreneur visas (132B) will be closed to new applications. However, those already lodged before 01 July 2021 will continue to be processed.

• Visa timeframe changes - all include a provisional visa with path to PR

These four streams Business Innovation (188A); Entrepreneur (188E); Investor (188B) and Significant Investor (188C) are provisional visas and Permanent Residence pathways.  Those visa holders need to meet certain requirements after 3 years to be eligible to apply for a Permanent Residence. 

The visa effective timeframe will be extended to 5 year for visa holders.

Business Innovation and Significant Investor visa holders will also continue to be able to extend their provisional visas if they do not meet the business and residence thresholds in the required timeframe.

• Changes for 188A Business Innovation visa eligibility requirements

Personal and Business assets will be increased from AUD800,000 to 1.25 million dollars for the visa applicants to demonstrate.

Annual turnover will also be increased from AUD500,000 to AUD750,000 to prove their business acumen.

• Changes for Entrepreneur (188E) visa requirements

The requirement for receiving at least AUD200,000 funding  from an approved entity is scrapped. Visa applicants will need to be endorsed by a State or Territory government.

Further changes will be announced in the early half of next year. Work Visa Lawyers are closely monitoring the changes.

Australian Business and Significant Investor Visas Subclass 188 Closed - New Visa Expected in 2024! Read more here! 

Comments by Chris Johnston (Lawyer & RMA):

Overall, the changes announced make Business and Investor visas more expensive and more time consuming for applicants.

The big question is, will this impact on demand, or will there still be plenty of potential applicants for business and investor visas.

The concern underlying this, is that the Federal Government has made a number of changes to visa, the employer sponsored 482, the seldomly used 494 Regional visa, that have made the processes more expensive and complicated, and that have been shunned by business, industry and applicants. 

The most successful visa revamp has been the GTI Visa, a variation of the Distinguished Talent Visa, that has lowered the requirement and been met very enthusiastically. 

The other big question to be asked is, why are there no feartures in this major revamp, to benefit regional areas?  Without incentives for regional areas, the Business and Investor migrants will likely all cluster around Melbourne and Sydney. 

It has become harder for 188A visa applicants to apply for a permanent residence visa subclass 888.  188A visa applicants will be required to continuously meet certain requirements (i.e. ownership & continuous management) for 3 years before a permanent resident visa application.  

The turnover requirement has also been adjusted for 188A visa application (AUD500, 000 to AUD 750,000 annual turnover).  This adjustment will encourage 188A visa holders to open High net worth businesses in Australia in order to boost Australian economy after the COVID crisis.

Previously, 188A visa holders more inclined to open small businesses e.g. café and restaurants, those businesses will be unlikely to fulfil the new turnover requirement.

The Australia government should perhaps consider trying to balance the needs of Australia market and the needs of business migrants. High threshold requirements for business migrants to obtain a PR will make Australia a less attractive country to migrate and migrants may choose to migrate to other popular and investment policies friendly countries like Malta; Cyprus and United Kingdom.    

The Australia Government should consider the following factors to maintain and improve the benefits delivered by Business & Investment visas:

• Improving servcie standard times and levels of communication during the process of applying and waiting for a result.
• Maintaining good relationship with key migration source countries.
• Create visa options to benefit Regional Australia not only to Sydney & Melbourne.

Do you need help?

Our team of experienced Immigration Lawyers and Migration Agents look forward to assisting you with your Australian visa or appeal.

Based in Adelaide South Australia, we provide Australian Immigration advice to people and businesses from all over the world.

If you require further information regarding your Australia visa options you can contact us through:

(08) 8351 9956 or +61 8 8351 9956 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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 You may also interested in the following topics: 

• Do you know Offshore Partner Visa Applicants can now benefit from some COVID concessions?  PMSOL added another occupation Social Worker (272511). 

• State & Territory Nominations Latest updates for 190 and 491 visas - VIC, NSW, TAS, ACT and SA

• NSW announced updated 491 state nomination requirements/ new opportunities for offshore applicants！

• Global Talent Independent Program Visa FREE assessment online 

• 最新一轮189/491邀请数据/本轮189签证分数掉至65分

Sources

https://minister.homeaffairs.gov.au/alantudge/Pages/Getting-a-better-deal-for-Australia-from-business-and-investment-visas.aspx

Government corruption is a serious offence and needs to be dealt with accordingly. Daryl Maguire abused his position of power on more than one occasion, so why hasn't he faced any punishment?

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On 01 December 2020, Pearson PTE has made major changes on PTE test score range. Thousands of international students and visa applicants may potentially impacted by such changes. 

By the time of writing this blog on 04 December 2020, the Department of Home Affairs have not yet made any changes to Australian visa English requirements in response to PTE Academic changes on score range.

To minimize the COVID19 impact on visa holders, the Department of Home Affairs has been offering a number of concessions to visa applicants and visa holders to overcome the difficulties and challenges during the COVID19 crisis.  

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Highlights

• Concessions for certain family visa applicants affected by COVID19 travel restrictions
• The Priority Migration Skilled Occupation List (PMSOL) was updated to include Social Worker (272511)
• Concessions and changes from 19 September 2020

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Changes to ENS 186 and RSMS 187 for 457 & 482 visa holders affected by  COVID-19 Pandemic.

The Department of Home Affairs has recently announced new changes to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This is good news for 457 and 482 visa-holders who are looking to apply for a permanent employer-sponsored visa through the Temporary Residence Transition stream.

On 17 November 2020, NSW has announced new Subclass 491 state nomination requirements for the remainder of the financial year.

The number of quota has been exhausted for the interim nomination arrangement in NSW. NSW is awaiting the allocation of places from the Home Affairs for the rest of the financial year.

What changes have been made?