Australian Immigration Daily News

The state government of Victoria has published new nomination requirements for the 491 visa.  To follow is the summary of eligibility requirements:

Age: less then 45 years
English Proficiency: All applicants must have an International English Language Testing System (IELTS) score of at least six in each band score or equivalent.
Occupation: It must be listed on the Department's website
Finances: as listed on VIC website
Offer of employment: All applicants who wish to apply for Victorian nomination for the Skilled Work Regional (Provisional) (subclass 491) visa must provide evidence of a current offer of employment in a position located in a designated regional area of Victoria (as defined by the Department of Home Affairs).
Positive skills assessment: in your nominated occupation.
CV: Your updated CV 

Applications for the 491 visa nominations open in VIC from 18 Nov 2019; 0900. There is No Fees for lodging the VIC nomination application. 

Tasmania has announced the closure of Category 3 applications in 190 visa. All the applications received after 15 Nov 2019; 11:59 pm in Category 3 - Overseas applicant (Job Offer) will not be processed. 

All the nomination criteria for the 491 visa are similar to the that of 489 visa. One more condition will be taken into account for the selecting the applicants while nominating them:

- The likelihood of you obtaining a personal income that would meet the minimum taxable income requirement for the subclass 191 Permanent Residence (Skilled Regional) visa (currently AU$53,900 per year for at least 3 years in the next 5 years). 

Applications for Northern Territory Government nomination under the Skilled Work Regional (Provisional) visa subclass 491 and Skilled Nominated visa subclass 190 closed on 16 November 2019 and will re-open on Monday 9 December 2019.

From 9 December a fee of AUD 300 (plus GST where applicable) will be charged for subclass 190 and subclass 491 nomination applications. This fee is non-refundable. You will be charged an application fee for each future application you submit. The application fee must be paid online at the time of the application submission.

More information on subclass 491 nominations will be available on this website soon.

Source: https://theterritory.com.au/news/2019/changes-to-northern-territory-government-visa-nominations

The Joint Standing Committee on Migration is headed to South Australia to examine how to encourage migrants to settle and remain in regional areas, in the first round of regional hearings for its inquiry into migration in regional Australia. “South Australia is at the forefront of initiatives and strategies to encourage higher levels of migration to regional areas,” said Committee Chair Julian Leeser MP.

“South Australian towns are seeking more migrants to boost population growth and address skills shortages, and the Committee can learn a lot from this experience.” “For our first regional hearings, we will be travelling to Adelaide (considered regional for the purposes of migration) on 18 November, Murray Bridge on 19 November and Mount Gambier on 20 November.

This is a great opportunity to talk with people in regional areas with first-hand experience about what works to assist migrants to settle and stay in regional areas.”

From today, skilled migrants who commit to living and working in a regional area will have access to two new skilled provisional visas, part of the Morrison Government’s commitment to tackling skills shortages in regional Australia. This year, the Government has reduced the cap on Australia’s permanent migration programme from 190,000 to 160,000.

Within that reduced cap, the number of places allocated to regional visas has increased to 25,000. Successful regional visa applicants will become eligible to apply for permanent residency if they can demonstrate they have lived and worked in regional Australia for three years.

Source: New-skilled-visas-to-encourage-migration-to-regional-Australia.pdf