Australian Immigration Daily News

Readers will be aware that our colleague Mark Northam has provided "granular detail" of the changes to the Subclass 186 (Employer Nomination Scheme) and Subclass 187 (Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme) visas that were introduced through the Migration Legislation Amendment (Temporary Skill Shortage and Complementary Reforms) Regulation 2018  that came into force on 18 March 2018. 

The full text of those new regulations can be accessed by clicking on this link.

We are writing to provide a "more general", "broad-brush" summary of the changes to the 186 and 187 programmes, as outlined in the Explanatory Memorandum that accompanied the regulations.

Here they are:

* An employer wishing to nominate an employee for either a 186 or 187 visa will be required to select which of the three "streams" for these visas it is nominating the employee: Temporary Transition Scheme ("TRT"), Direct Entry Stream, or the Labour Agreement stream;

* The maximum age of the primary applicant at the time of the application has been reduced from 50 to 45 for both the TRT and Direct Entry Streams. This will "align" the age limitation for these 2 streams with the age limitation, also a maximum age of 45, that was introduced in relation to the Labour Agreement Stream in July 2017.

* There will be "transitional arrangements" for persons who either held, or had applied for, Subclass 457 visas as at 18 April 2017, when the Government announced the planned changes to the 186/187 visa programmes, so that those persons will not be "disadvantaged" by the changes;

* There will be a new requirement that applicants for 186 and 187 visas must have at least 3 years of relevant work experience.  This compares to the requirement of 2 years of relevant work experience for the new Subclass 482 - Temporary Skill Shortage visa;

* A requirement that an applicant who has been nominated for the Temporary Residence Transition stream must have worked, as at the time of the nomination, for 3  out of the previous 4 years in the position in relation to which the 457 or 482 visa was held - again there will be "transitional arrangements" for persons who either held or had applied for 457 visas on or prior to 18 April 2017;

* The Temporary Residence Transition stream will be aligned with the Direct Entry Stream by requiring that the applicant's nominated occupation be on the Medium and Long Term Strategic Skills list at the time of the nomination, with some additional occupations being available if the position is located in a regional area of Australia;

* The "Annual Market Salary Framework" will be applied to the Temporary Residence Transition and Direct Entry streams of both the 186 and 187 visas;

* Applicants will be required to hold, or be eligible to hold, any mandatory licensing or registration for the occupation as at the time the prospective employer lodges the nomination;

* A new requirement applicable to employers nominating a prospective employee through the Direct Entry stream of the Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme that they demonstrate that the position cannot be filled by an Australian citizen or permanent resident who is living in the local area or who is willing to move to that area;

* A requirement that employers who nominate skilled workers through the Direct Entry stream of the RSMS be "endorsed" by the Regional Certifying Body which is located in the same State or Territory and which is responsible for the local area where the proposed position is located;

* The amendments will allow the Department to refuse a nomination if it has information that a person nominated under the TRT stream has been performing a different occupation from the nominated occupation, or has been engaged in an occupation at a lower skill level;

* There will also be provision under the amendments to enable the Department to refuse nominations if it is not satisfied that the business has the capacity to lawfully and actively operate for at least 2 years and to employ the nominated employee for at least 2 years at the Annual Market Salary Rate.