The Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Aff​airs announced a major update to the Priority Migration Skilled Occupation List with the addition of 22 new occupations. The PMSOL was introduced in September 2020 to allow small numbers of employer sponsored skilled workers to arrive to Australia and fill vacancies in critical sectors that assist recovery from the COVID-19. The existing skilled migration occupation lists remain active, but priority is given to ...

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The Global Talent Initiative was first introduced by the Australian government in December 2018. As part of this initiative the Global Talent Independent program, which has since been renamed as the Global Talent Visa Program, was launched in November 2019. The purpose of this program is to attract highly talented individuals with entrepreneurial ideas and cutting-edge skills within selected industry sectors. In 2019-2020 migration year the program delivered 4,109 places against a planning level of 5,000. For 2020-2021 migration year the planning level has been significantly increased to ...

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As 2020 comes to a close, we would like to reach out and thank our clients and subscribers for their continued support during these challenging times of COVID-19. Many of us are overwhelmed and anxious about the future of our immigration plans and the impact of Australian border closures. In times of uncertainty, we would like to lend a hand of support to those who need it and offer a free consultation to help you build or recalibrate your migration strategy. We are glad to be of service to you and we look forward to working with you in 2021. Details of a free consultation offer can be found ...

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The Business Innovation and Investment Program has been running in its current form since 2012. It is designed to attract migrants who have a proven record of success or talent in innovation, investment or business and are able to engage in business or investment activities in Australia for the benefit of the national economy and workforce. In 2019 the Department of Home Affairs has conducted a review of BIIP with a view to maximise the economic benefits for Australia. Based on the findings of the review and on the feedback received from stakeholders the federal government will be making changes to BIIP that will take effect from 1 July 2021. The number of streams in the program will be reduced from 9 to ...

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As part of the 2020-2021 Federal Budget, it was announced that the migration planning levels for the 2020-2021 program year will remain at 160,000 places, the same as for 2019-2020 year. However, the distribution of places will change significantly and priority will be given to Employer Sponsored, Global Talent and Business Innovation and Investment Programs. More importantly, during 2020-2021 priority will be given to ...

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The total number of Australian visas granted in 2019–2020 under the permanent migration program was 140,366 which is within the planning level of 160,000 places. Despite being already the lowest outcome in a decade, the future numbers are expected to fall even further in the next few years due to a significant impact of COVID-19 pandemic. Overall Migration Program lodgements dropped by 12.3 per cent from 198,710 in 2018–19 to 174,170 in 2019–20. The Global Talent and Skilled Regional categories were the least affected, but the ramifications for the Skilled Independent and Business Innovation and Investment streams have been devastating with ...

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Nomination by a state or territory government is mandatory for all visas in the Business Innovation and Investment Program (BIIP) except the Significant Investor and Premium Investor visas. After a long delay, the department of Home Affairs has provided all states and territories with an interim allocation of BIIP visas nomination places to be used up until the Federal Budget on 6 October. In addition, holders of a Business Innovation and Investment visa subclass 188 have been exempt from ...

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The Australian federal government provided a limited number of interim allocation places to all states and territories before full allocations are released in October as part of the 2020-21 Federal budget. Most states have now published state-specific skills occupation lists and requirements for the interim period and have resumed processing nomination applications after the initial temporary closure. The nomination process varies between states, but all applications will be prioritised according to ...

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Acting Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs announced a new priority skills list that will be supplemented by a more strict labour market testing. The introduction of the Priority Migration Skilled Occupation List (PMSOL) will allow a small numbers of employer sponsored skilled workers to arrive to Australia and fill urgent vacancies in critical sectors. However, on top of the current labour market testing requirements, employers will also be required to advertise their vacancy on the Government’s jobactive wesbite. Existing skilled occupation lists will remain active, but ...

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To ensure that skilled migration program is not dominated by a small number of occupations, skilled independent and regional family sponsored visas have occupation ceilings that limit the number of invitations issued for a specific occupation during a particular financial year. The ceiling value for each occupation is based on a percentage of stock employment figures provided by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. When comparing 2020-2021 and 2019-2020 ceilings, it is clear that certain ANZSCO groups have been impacted more than others. The biggest winners are ...

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In order to protect the health of the Australian community, strict border controls were enforced from March 2020. These measures prevent arrivals on temporary migration visas, but certain individuals may apply for a travel exemption and be allowed to enter Australia. In general, the exemptions are for people who provide critical services or have skills crucial for post-COVID19 recovery. In addition, to facilitate the economic and public health recovery of Australian states, territories and regions, the federal government has allocated a limited number of places for General Skilled and Business Migration Programs run by States and Territories. But these places may only be used ...

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COVID-19 has a significant impact on the Australian Migration Program, as a whole, and on the State and Territory nominated visa programs, in particular. All State and Territory nomination programs have been closed since 1 July 2020 and will remain closed until the federal government allocates nomination places for 2020-21 migration year as part of the 2020-21 Federal budget. However, due to the focus on the coronavirus pandemic, the 2020-21 budget was deferred until October 2020. Therefore, State and Territory governments are unable to ...

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Australian permanent and temporary migration programs have been significantly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. International travel ban, enforced from 20 March 2020, prevents all arrivals on visitor and temporary migration visas. All State and Territories nominations have been closed since 1 July 2020 which puts the breaks on skilled nominated or regional visas as well as all business visas. More importantly, the future migration levels remain highly uncertain, due to the nature and duration of measures taken to contain the pandemic in Australia and overseas. In the Economic and Fiscal Update, issued in July 2020, it is predicted that the Net overseas migration will fall from 232,000 in 2018-19 to ...

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The international education sector is extremely important to Australian economy as it contributes $40 billion annually and supports 250,000 jobs. The closure of Australian international borders has created enormous challenges for the education sector as a whole and for foreign students in particular. The federal government has announced important changes to student visas arrangements to make sure that student visa applicants and student visa holders are not adversely affected by the COVID-19 travel restrictions. However, as these changes require legislative amendments ...

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Queensland (QLD) state nominations are managed by Business and Skilled Migration Queensland (BSMQ), a division of Trade and Investment Queensland. BSMQ has announced that a Small Business Owners (SBO) pathway, that is part of the new regional visas, is open as of 11 December 2019. The SBO option is available to onshore applicants that have been living and operating a business in regional Queensland area for at least 6 months prior to their application. Small business owners under this stream must have full-time work rights in Australia and cannot be studying. In 2019-2020 program year the number of SBO places will be limited to ...

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More than 6300 regional visas were granted in the first quarter of the 2019-2020 program year, which is 124% increase compared to the same period last year. Following the unprecedented demand for regional visas, the allocation for regional places has been increased to 25,000 for this program year. In addition, $19.4 million of funds has been allocated to support regional areas migration including the provision of priority processing of new regional visas. All these initiatives are part of the federal government's Population Plan that is designed to ease the pressure in three largest capital cities and to attract migrants to...

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To be eligible for a skilled migration you need to nominate an occupation that is present on the Short-Term Skilled Occupation List (STSOL), Medium and Long-Term Strategic Skills List (MLTSSL) or the Regional Occupation List (ROL). In most cases the nominated occupation also needs to be relevant to your previous education and employment in order to receive a positive skills assessment.

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Almost 700,000 foreign students were studying in Australia in 2018. In the same year the international education sector contributed $35 billion to the Australian economy and provided 240,000 jobs. In recent months the federal government introduced three important changes that may have mixed effects on the industry. Notwithstanding one positive change that is intended to strengthen the integrity of the international education sector, the remaining two changes may prompt some prospective students to choose other countries for their studies and will adversely affect student numbers from ...

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