Australian Immigration Daily News

Australian Federal government delivered the budget on Tuesday night.  The budget highlights several important elements relevant to immigration which are summarised for ease of reference.

Investment into VET Sector

The Government is investing $525 million to upgrade and modernise the VET sector, in response to the Expert review of Australia’s vocational education and training system. As part of the strategy to improve VET sector, the government will deliver $34.2 million to the six signatory states to the Skilling Australians Fund National Partnership Agreement to support new apprenticeships.

The National Partnership on the Skilling Australians Fund supports the training of Australians through a range of projects focused on skills priorities. These include training in occupations in high demand, those that rely on skilled migration, future growth industries, and rural and regional areas.

There is also a strong focus on apprenticeships and traineeships. The National Partnership provides signatory states with an annual amount of guaranteed funding and a further amount determined by the revenue paid into Skilling Australians Fund. The revenue in the Fund is drawn from a levy which is paid by businesses employing foreign workers on certain skilled visas including subclass 482, 186 and regional sponsored migration scheme subclass 187.

Extension of Skilled Graduate Visas – Subclass 485

Federal government has announced that from November 2021, international students will be able to apply for an additional year on a second post-study work visa if they complete a higher education or postgraduate qualification in a regional area, and live in a regional area while holding a Temporary Graduate (subclass 485) visa.  Skilled – Graduate visa and was created as part of the 1 September 2007 General Skilled Migration (GSM) reforms.

The Graduate Work stream is open to graduates with an eligible qualification, including those from the Vocational Education and Training (VET) sector, who graduate with skills and qualifications that relate to an occupation that is considered in demand in the Australian labour market, as indicated in the Skilled Occupation List. The Post-Study Work stream is open only to overseas students who have recently graduated with an eligible higher education degree from an Australian educational institution, regardless of their field of study.

Increase of Work and Holiday Subclass 462 Cap Measures for Indonesia

This visa enables young people to holiday and work in Australia and to improve cultural understanding. The visa is only available to citizens of countries with which Australia has a work and holiday arrangement.

As part of the budget announcement, the Federal Government confirmed that it will increase the annual cap for Work and Holiday (subclass 462) visas available to Indonesian citizens from 2,500 to 5,000 over a six year period from 2019-20 to 2024-25.

Additional Points for Secondary Applicants

From November 2019, the Skilled Migration Points Test will be adjusted to award additional points to primary applicants when their partner has competent English but does not meet the existing requirements for skilled partner points, for example, by way of obtaining a positive skills assessment. The Skilled Migration Points Test currently awards additional points to primary applicants where their partner is under 45 years old, has competent English, and has a skilled occupation applicable for the visa subclass and stream they have been invited to apply for. These changes will prioritise applicants who are single or whose partner can demonstrate competent English.  The changes will impact subclass 189 and 190 visas.

Reducing Permanent Residence Intake

PR intake will be reduced from 190,000 places to 160,000 places.  The measure will be implemented for the next four years.  The government has failed to meet the current migration intake for the last two years.

For the 2019-20 Migration Program, there will be 108,682 places in the Skill stream (e.g. Employer Nomination and General Skilled Migration), 47,732 places in the Family stream (e.g. partner and parent visas), with a combined 3,586 places for Child and Special Eligibility streams.

Visa Application Charges set to increase on 1 July 2019

The Government will be increasing visa application charges across all visa subclasses with exception of subclass 600 visa.  Secondary instalment s will remain the same.

There will be fee exemptions for applicants travelling in relation to certain events including application charges for competitors and officials participating in the International Cricket Council T20 World Cup in Australia in 2020.

Copy of the Budget can be downloaded here: https://www.budget.gov.au/2019-20/content/downloads.htm