Australian Immigration Daily News

Ongoing skills shortage across regional Australia has prompted the government to readjust immigration intake.

Current migration ceiling for permanent visas is set at 190,000 places with greater focus on skilled visas including subclass 186 Employer Nomination Scheme as well as subclass 187 Regional Sponsored Migration.

On 11 March 2019, the skilled occupation lists were updated. The changes include standardising the Medium and Long-term Strategic Skills List (MLTSSL) by making thirty occupations available to all visa subclasses. These occupations were previously accessible to Temporary Skill Shortage (TSS), Employer Nomination Scheme (ENS) and Training visas. Regional employers saw a benefit of from the changes as 18 occupations were added to the Regional Occupation List. Examples of occupations range from farming-related occupations such as Beef Cattle Farmer and Sheep Farmer, to Anaesthetist and Dentist.

Further, the Government announced that two regional provisional visas are set to be introduced in November 2019 to further assist regional areas in tackling the ongoing skills shortage. Whilst very little information is currently known about these visas, we do know that both visas will lead to permanent residency assuming conditions associated with provisional visas are met.

The first regional visa is the Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional Visa which will be designed for foreign nationals who are sponsored by an employer in regional Australia. 

The second visa is the Skilled Work (Provisional) visa which will be designed for individuals who are nominated by State or territory or being sponsored by a family member to live and work in regional Australia.  The concept of is similar to existing subclass 489 visa.

Both visas require an applicant to live and work in a regional area for at least three years.  This will in turn allow eligible applicants to transition to a permanent visa.

Introduction of these visas is twofold; the aim is to encourage regional employers to nominate foreign nationals and give priority processing.  Secondly, this encourages migrants to move outside metropolitan areas to ease congestion of areas including Sydney and Melbourne.

There are currently 678 occupations which are eligible for Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme (187 visa).  The government confirmed that Skilled Employer Sponsored Visa will have 700 occupations on the list.  It is anticipated that lower skilled occupations will be included on the list. Skilled Work Regional Visa will have around 500 eligible occupations.  The lists are yet to be published.

Once granted, an applicant holding skilled provisional visa will be able to remain in Australia for up to five years.

A permanent pathway resulting from the provisional visas is set for release in 2022.  This visa is sought to provide further incentives for migrants to bring their skills to regional Australia.

Current definition of regional areas is based on post codes.  From November 2019, the definition will be revised and will include all of Australia with exception of major cities including:

-        Sydney

-        Melbourne

-        Brisbane

-        Gold Coast

-        Perth

As per recent press release (https://www.pm.gov.au/media/plan-australias-future-population) there are currently 47,000 job vacancies in regional Australia today.  These job vacancies cannot be filled due to lack of candidates.

In summary the following changes are anticipated to take place:

-        Reducing migration intake from 190,000 place to 160,000

-        Introduction of two new regional visas (skilled and sponsored).  These visas will be capped at 23,000 places

-        Establishing a Centre for Population, ensuring there is a central, consistent and expert perspective on population growth. The Centre will pursue opportunities to improve data and research on population and facilitate collaboration on population planning across Commonwealth, State, Territory and Local governments.

-        Increasing employer sponsored places from 35,000 to 39,000

Changes will also be made to the Temporary Graduate visa for international students who have completed their studies at a regional campus of a university, to ensure they can continue to live and work in regional Australia. This will complement other changes to migration settings, such as Designated Area Migration Agreements, to help regions attract the skills and workers that they need.

Further information will be published once it becomes available.