Immigration

Australia | Skills in Demand Visa program commencing 7 December 2024

Summary

The Australian Government has registered the amending regulations to implement the new Skills in Demand (subclass 482) visa program which will commence on 7 December 2024. Key features of the Skills in Demand (subclass 482) visa in comparison to the Temporary Skill Shortage (subclass 482) visa program include a single occupation list for the ‘Core Skills’ stream of the Skills in Demand visa and ‘Direct Entry’ stream of the permanent Employer Nomination Scheme Subclass 186 visa, reduction of qualifying work experience to one-year for all visa applicants and the ability to count time spent working with any sponsoring employer towards the permanent residence requirement for the ‘Temporary Residence Transition’ stream of the Subclass 186 visa.

The new National Innovation visa is a smaller ‘invitation only’ program for highly talented migrants with an internationally recognised record of exceptional and outstanding achievements in certain priority sectors and who can support productivity growth.

The detail

As outlined in our earlier alerts, in December 2023 the Minister for Home Affairs unveiled the final Migration Strategy report which included announcements that a new Skills in Demand visa will replace the current Temporary Skills Shortage (TSS) Visa, as well as a new National Innovation Visa to replace the Global Talent and Business Innovation and Investment visa programs.

The amending regulations to implement the Skills in Demand Visa (subclass 482) program and National Innovation Visa (subclass 858) visa have now been registered ahead of the commencement on 7 December 2024.

The Skills in Demand (SID) visa has three streams:

1. a Specialist Skills stream – for applicants in any Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO) occupation earning $135,000 or more (excluding occupations in ANZSCO Major Groups 3, 7 and 8, namely trades workers, machinery operators and drivers, and labourers ). This new stream recognises that highly skilled migrants bring significant economic benefits to Australia and enables employers to access these skills quickly through streamlined processing arrangements.
2. a Core Skills stream – for applicants earning over $73,150 (in line with the current Temporary Skilled Migration Income Threshold for the TSS visa) in a Core Skills Occupation List (CSOL) occupation; and
3. a Labour Agreement stream – this continues existing settings from the TSS visa while further development of the proposed Essential Skills stream takes place.

Some other key new features of the SID visa include:

• English language requirement of an International English Language Testing System score (or equivalent) of level 5 overall, with a minimum of 5 in each component score – this is the equivalent to the requirements of the existing medium-term stream for the TSS visa;
• Reduced work experience requirement from the current requirement for the TSS visa of two years, to one-year for all visa applicants. This one-year work experience must have been obtained through one year of full-time work, or an equivalent period of part-time or casual work in the period of five years prior to the application date;
• Sponsor financial capacity requirements will apply to nominations for the SID visa, and ensure employers do not inflate salaries for visa outcomes. Under the new requirements, employers must demonstrate that their business has the capacity to employ the nominee for at least 2 years, for at least the Annual Market Salary rate for each year; and
• Annual indexation of income thresholds.

Changes to the ‘Temporary Residence Transition’ stream of the Subclass 186 visa program Complementary changes have also been made to the ‘Temporary Residence Transition’ (TRT) stream of the permanent Subclass 186 visa program to provide clearer access to permanent residence for all temporary skilled workers (Subclass 457, TSS and SID visa holders). Specifically, the amendments:

• expand access to the TRT stream of the Subclass 186 visa for SID visa holders in all streams; and
• allow all sponsored employment to count towards the Subclass 186 visa TRT stream work experience requirements. This includes providing greater flexibility for changes in occupation to be considered, including promotions, working in a related field, or where changes to the classification of the occupation are made through updates to the ANZSCO.

National Innovation Visa

The new National Innovation (subclass 858) Visa (NIV) is intended to target high-calibre migrants with an internationally recognised record of exceptional and outstanding achievements in certain priority sectors. The NIV has the same eligibility criteria as the existing Global Talent (subclass 858) visa, with the key difference that NIV applicants must be invited, in writing, by the Minister to apply for the visa. This aligns the NIV application process with that used in other Skilled Migration visas to facilitate a smaller, more exclusive NIV program than that of the Global Talent visa program.

Transitional arrangements

All TSS nominations and visa applications lodged prior to 7 December 2024 will continue to be processed under the TSS requirements in force at the time of application and will not be impacted by these regulatory changes. Any approved TSS nominations that were not accompanied by a corresponding TSS visa application can also be linked to a new Skills in Demand visa provided this is done within 12 months of nomination approval. Applicants who have already applied for a Global Talent (subclass 858) visa also will not be impacted and will continue to have their application assessed under the old criteria.

Vialto is continuing to closely monitor the release of further details of the Skills in Demand visa and will provide further updates as they become available.

Please also join us on 11 December 2024 for a webinar covering the latest updates in Australian immigration, including a deep dive into the new Skills in Demand visa program.

Contact us

For a deeper discussion on the above, please reach out to your Vialto Partners point of contact, or alternatively:

Cherie Wright
Partner & Principal Solicitor

Stacey Tsui
Partner & Principal Solicitor

Arathi Tekkam
Director

Fariha Islam
Director

John O’Brien
Director

Further information on Vialto Partners can be found here: www.vialtopartners.com

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