Australia's 2022-23 Migration Program will be vastly different to the 2021-22 program, not just in size but also in composition.
This program has a significantly greater skill visa stream at 142,500 places.
This is the biggest in Australian migration history.
The top news in December is the effects of the new Ministerial Direction 100: Skilled Visa Processing priority
It indicates the order of processing priorities for General skilled migration and the Business Innovation & Investment Program (BIIP).
Generally speaking, it appears priority is being given to trades and Technical skills to assist with the shortages.
The visa backlog has now dropped to 755,000 from almost 1 million thanks to an additional 300 staff.
It is expected to be at a manageable level before Christmas, said by Minister Andrew Giles.
More news will also be discussed in this article.
New Direction 100 - Order of consideration - Certain Skilled Visas
The new government has pointed out that their primary focus at this stage is to:
- Clear the visa backlogs caused by the delay in processing time during Pandemic Covid-19.
- Address skills shortages
They have produced a new Ministerial direction 100 to address the skills shortages.
Importantly, this direction does not change the composition of the skilled migration occupation lists, nor the requirements set out for each visa stream.
This is designed to process more skilled applications faster and respond quickly to the labor market.
They set out the order of priority as below:
- Faster processing time for Health and Teaching related occupations
- More incentives for Regional Skilled workers
- More efficient process for applications lodged by Approved Sponsor with Accredited Status - Employer Sponsored Visa 482,494, 186
- Looking to remove the priority for the Global Talent Visa program and Business Visa 188 Australia program.
Offshore Skilled Migration will be highly prioritized in the program year to fill in the labour shortages in Australia.
This direction seems to be replacing the old Direction 96 where the priorities were given to Global Talent and Business Investment visa.
The PMSOL is no longer available with a list of health and teaching relating occupation
In regards to Global Talent Visa and Business Investment visa, even though they will not prioritze those visa applications, they said that they would still process it efficiently.
However, this is not clear and we still have to wait for more updates.
It is highly suggested that, if you may be eligible for Global Talent Visa or Business Investor Visa, Especially the Significant Investor Visa while it is rumoured to be eliminated, Please check out these pages for your initial assessment:
Business Visa Compare: Find your best Business and Investor Visa Australia for you and your family with our new Business Visa Compare tool within 5 minutes
Business Visa Compare is available in 3 languages: English, Mandarin and Vietnamese
Seven Policy reforms need to address skills shortages
Does the government stay on track to address skills shortages after the Jobs and Skills Summit 2022?
More information about skills summit 2022 outcomes here.
We have come up with an article, written by our Principal Lawyer Chris Johnston and Immigration Lawyer Trang Vu, regarding whether Australia is really addressing the skills shortages with its current planning and strategies outlined in the Jobs and Skills Summit Outcomes 2022.
This article will run through some key points that really hold Australia back from filling in a quality workforce.
This article will consider:
- What are the skills shortages?
- Why the Skills Summit outcomes 2022 will not actually fix skills shortages?
- How can skills shortages be addressed through immigration policy reform?
If you want to know the likely outcome of the Skills Summit migration policy, read this article
189 Visa Invitation round - An Accountant 90 points is invited
We got an invitation for offshore 189 Visa, accountant, 90 points.
Yes, you are not reading it wrong! The invited points are even lower than some states for Accountant.
It looks like 189 visa stream will start inviting occupations outside of doctors, nurse, teachers or trades.
An accountant may expect to have an invitation with around 85 points.
SC 403 Agricultural visa stream with Viet Nam
After being removed, the agricultural work visa has bounced back to open for Viet Nam.
The national leader David Littleproud has announced that farmers will be able to hire workers from Viet Nam.
Australia needs 172,000 workers in Agriculture.
There are still not enough workers available and the PALM scheme will not be able to bring in enough people.
We encourage the decision of visas to be opened for lower-skilled occupations, especially in health and Agriculture industries like aged or disability care.
Subclass 191 Visa - waiver No Further Stay condition for eligible family members
The new visa 191 has been published with a waiver to No further stay conditions.
This is a permanent residency visa for applicants who hold 491 visa and 494 Visa.
They must meet 3 years regional residency requirements and the income threshold requirement.
With the new amendment, eligible family members with No Further Stay Conditions may be eligible to apply for the 191 visa.
This allows relevant secondary applicants to be added to the primary applicant’s onshore application.
Queensland Business Investor Visa 188
Migration Queensland’s business nomination program (BIIP) will be temporarily suspended from 8 November 2022
They have fulfilled their interim allocation for business nominations.
This has been announced in the latest news video of business visa Australia.
Due to the limited interim allocation, most states have been more selective now for Business or Investor visa in Australia
Business Investment visa allocations have been sent out with a significantly low number comparing to last financial year (5000 to 15,000 in 2021-22 program year)
However, there is no further news of opening the program from Migration Queensland.
VIC and SA are very careful in selecting the applicants at the moment with the limited allocations and high demanding applicants.
SA decided to temporarily close the Investor Stream 188B and Significant Investor Stream 188C streams.
With the current Ministerial Direction 100, the future of Business and Investor Visa 188 has been unstable.
That is reflected in the number of allocations sent out this financial year.
However, visa 188 application will still be processed efficiently.
408 Visa covid-19 pandemic event update
With the current skills shortages there are more positive updates on the Visa 408 pandemic stream.
There is no work limitation condition 8107 for 408 Visa holders.
Now all 408 visa holders can work unlimited hours in Australia.
Furthermore, these visa applicants and holders may change employment or work for more than one employer.
On the other side, if visa 408 holders are no longer employed, they should find new employment or make arrangements to leave Australia.
Ukraine Visa Support
Ukrainians may now explore other options to come to Australia because the temporary humanitarian visas are no longer available.
Please book an appointment with our lawyer for the best advice on your Australian visa options.
State and Territory Updates December 2022
South Australia State Nomination update
New requirements have been clarified for some occupations like Motor mechanic and Painting Trade Workers.
This information has been updated in SA occupation List
In details, to apply for 491 visa in South Australia you must:
- Have been working in your nominated occupation for the last 12 months in greater Adelaide or 6 months in regional South Australia
- Greater Adelaide applicants must work full time at least 35 hours per week or 70 hours per fortnight
- Regional applicants must work at least 30 hours per week or 60 hours per fortnight
For the South Australia state nomination, please check the SA occupation list for detailed requirements
South Australia Offshore State Nomination
To help address South Australia’s urgent skills shortages, Move to SA has increased its nominations of offshore skilled migrants.
There has been over 1100 candidates already nominated.
If you are offshore skilled migrant seeking to move to SA, please make an expression of interest now.
Remember to select South Australia as your preferred State to migrate in Australia.
After that, SA Government will assess and may invite you visa 190 or 491 visa nominations.
Those are the priority occupations in South Australia State Nomination:
- Medical Specialists
- Health and Science Professionals
- Nurses
- Teachers
- Defence
- Technicians and Trades workers
However, other occupations will still be processed with over 470 occupations available in the SA Offshore Skilled list.
Tasmania Skilled Visa update
Migration Tasmania has opened its 190 and 491 nominations for all eligible candidates to register their interest.
Candidates who have at least one gold attribute for their chosen pathway will be immediately invited to apply for nomination.
Candidates who have at least one green attribute for their chosen pathway are likely to be invited to apply for nomination within 2 weeks.
Candidates who have orange attributes may be invited to submit an application for nomination under the interim process which will be open until early December.
This will be dependent upon the volume of registrations and number of priority attributes recorded.
If you are not invited to apply for nomination before 9 December 2022 your registration will expire, and you will need to register your interest in the new Migration Tasmania Application Gateway to be considered for a nomination invitation.
Additional pay/salary attributes have been added to provide more options for candidates to show their competitiveness. These include:
- Pay / salary exceeds $53 900 per year (excluding overtime) or $27.64 per hour
- Pay / salary exceeds $62 000 per year (excluding overtime) or $31.79 per hour
- Pay / salary exceeds the Australian average (for 2022 – 23 program year $90 617 per year (excluding overtime) or $42.62 per hour)
Tasmania State Nomination: Additions to TOSOL
In response to the latest version of the national Skills Commission’s (now Jobs and Skills Australia) Skills Priority List, the following occupation areas have been added to the Tasmanian Onshore Skilled Occupation List.
2221 Financial Brokers
2342 Chemists, and Food and Wine Scientist
2415 Special Education Teachers
2611 ICT Business and Systems Analysts
2631 Computer Network Professionals
2632 ICT Support and Test Engineers
3242 Vehicle Body Builders and Trimmers
3423 Electronics Trades Workers
3424 Telecommunications Trades Workers
3625 Arboriculture Workers
4112 Dental Hygienists, Technicians and Therapists
5111 Contract, Program and Project Administrators
6112 Insurance Agents
Tasmania Nomination allocation and usage (as at 14 November 2022)
Skilled Nominated 190 visa:
Nominations – 637 of 2000 places used
Unfinalised nomination applications – 225
Invitations issued but not yet accepted – 42
Oldest application yet to be processed – lodged 28/9/2022
Skilled Work Regional 491 visa:
Nominations – 409 of 1350 places used
Unfinalized nomination applications – 50
Invitations issued but not yet accepted – 23
Oldest application yet to be processed – lodged 28/9/2022
Tasmania State Allocation 2022-2023
This includes an additional allocation of 900 subclass 491 Skilled Work Regional places.
Tasmania’s final allocation comprises of:
Skilled Nominated (subclass 190) visa: 2000 places
Skilled Work Regional (subclass 491) visa: 2250 places
WA State Nomination update
WA skilled migration program has become more attractive option in the recent financial year.
It is because most 491 visa streams in WA don’t require a job offer or contract.
Especially the Graduate stream and Schedule 2 do not even require work experience for 491 visa nominations.
In their current invitation round, it seems that WA has been quite active in sending invitations to applicants.
There were total of 11,079 nominations have been sent out from WA Migration this financial year.
Looking to know more about Western Australia, watch our video below:
NAATI/CCL Validity period
Department of Home Affairs have confirmed that NAATI and CCL certificates issued :
Before 9 August 2022 are valid for three years
After 9 August 2022 are valid for five years
This is positive news for the purpose of awarding points for skilled visas Australia.
Especially with the current booming of invitations with the 189 visa, having points added to your application will be essential.
887 Visa updates – Freedom of Information
There are thousands of applications made for Visa 887 (Pathway to PR from Skilled Visa 489) in 2019 until 2021.
However, with the current report, there are only few hundreds visa grants since 2021.
There are protests around Australia from migrants waiting for the 887 skilled regional visa.
Failing to grant PR to people that have done everything asked of them undermines the reputation of Australia and sends future migrants to other countries.
The current processing time for the PR 887 is about 2 years.
To apply for an 887 the visa holder must have held a 489 visa (Which is replaced by 491 Visa now) to live in a regional area for 2 years and work full-time for at least one year.
This can lead to migrants not bothering with regional migration and small cities and towns.
They will just get a direct PR visa like the 189 Visa or Visa 190 and live in Melbourne and Sydney.
Australia is facing severe skills shortages in regional areas.
Processing more permanent visa for regional migrants can encourage the move from metro areas to regional locations.
There is currently no update or information from the Department of home Affairs.
We do hope that they will grant more 887 visas for regional Australia and for Australia’s reputation.
Worker’s exploitation and Australia migration system disrepair
Australia’s immigration system is in a state of disrepair.
There are recent reports of visa rorting and foreign worker exploitation that makes the Minister flag the independent review.
It was uncovered by Trafficked, which is a joint investigation between, Nine’s Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and 60 Minutes.
That included human trafficking and drug dealers who are still staying in Australia
We would like to send a message to all migrant workers in Australia about worker exploitation.
Because in the near future, Australia will be bringing in a lot of Employer sponsored visa holders.
In terms of existing protections for working visa holders, there is an initiative known as the Assurance Protocol.
This aims to support visa holders in seeking help from Fair Work without fear of visa cancellation.
India-Australia and United Kingdom - Trade Agreement - Working holiday visa
The Australia - India Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (AIECTA) will commence from 29 December 2022 following both countries completing their domestic arrangements to bring the agreement into operation.
The AIECTA will provide:
- 1000 Subclass 462 (first) Work and Holiday Program visas for 18-31 year old Indians per year
- Indian students graduating with First Class Honours bachelor degrees in STEM fields (including ICT) will be eligible for an extra year on Post study visa 485 (three years total).
It takes a while a each country to ratify the agreements before it can come into operation.
That will be notified at a later date.
This agreement can bring some hope for indians who are interested in Agriculture Visa program in Australia
482 visa holders – condition 8607
It is compulsory for TSS 482 visa holders to work for one employer who is their approved sponsor.
If they would like to change employer, they have to apply for a new nomination.
However, some specific occupations such as CEO, Doctor, General Pratitioner or other high skilled occupations which are neccessary to work for more than one employer will get this condition waived.
Specifically, those exempt occupations workers may be able to work for multiple employers simultaneously in the same occupation.
They are not required a new nomination to change employer.
Even if they cease employment with their initial sponsor, they can continue to work in the same occupation as long as their 482 visa remains in effect.
This policy has been in place for a period of time. However, there are still many wrong instructions to visa holders
