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The Australian immigration department has recently offered COVID-19 concessions to international students for Subclass 485 Temporary Graduate. During COVID-19 pandemic, many visa applicants and international students have been adversely affected by circumstances beyond their control, including Border closures, stand-downs and disruptions to courses.
The COVID-19 concessions are designed to ensure provisional and temporary visa holders are not disadvantaged by circumstances beyond their control during COVID-19 Pandemic, including Border closures, restrictions imposed on businesses and the general economic downturn related to COVID-19.
Here are the results of the 2 most recent SkillSelect invitation rounds in July and August 2020. Chris Johnston comments on the likely future of the subclass 189 and 491 (family-sponsored) visas in the coming months.
Essential workers are very important to keeping Australia running during the Coronavirus pandemic and to helping people and the economy to recover from the impact of the pandemic. There is a lot of uncertainty about who is and who is not an essential worker.
There is also substantial (though not complete) overlap between the critical sectors and occupations which have been mainstays of the Australian migration program. Existing gaps in the Australian labour market have been highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the past few weeks, some Australian states and territories have opened for state nomination with limited places. There is a big focus on nominating applicants with 'critical skills' to help Australia's economic recovery post-COVID.
The Australian Government has announced that they have created a new taskforce, the “Global Business and Talent Attraction Taskforce”, to bring business and skills to Australia.
This was announced on ABC News, and repeated by Minister Tudge in a tweet this morning (5 September 2020).
The Shepparton news reported that Peter Dutton told Nine News "It's OK that we've got support in place at the moment with JobKeeper and JobSeeker - that's fine and that's a good thing - but to get to the next stage we need to have investment."
Minister Tudge placed heavy emphasis on the benefit of this Taskforce for Australian employment opportunities in his interview with ABC AM earlier this morning. It will combined efforts of:
The AFR has reported that the Global Business and Talent Attraction Taskforce will be led by Peter Verwer, previously the boss of the Property Council of Australia.
A working target for the Government is 1,000 or so such businesses.
Along with the new The Global Business and Talent Attraction Taskforce comes a new webpage.
The main focus of the new Global Business and Talent Attraction Taskforce appears to be targeting the Moby Dicks of the business world, attracting very large businesses to be the next Atlassian or Canva.
As a whole of Government approach, the target businesses are likely to received prioritised processing and higher service standards than applicants through other pathways.
We expect that the announcement of the Taskforce will lead to an increased focus on the Global Talent Independent visa, as well as continued focus on the business and investment visa programs, such as the 188 visa and 132 visa. The Global Talent Employer Sponsored program is likely to be a key to helping these businesses fill labour needs where Australians are not available to fill the roles.
While the Global Talent Independent visa Expression of Interest is still available, the Government has released a new expression of interest for The Global Business and Talent Attraction Taskforce. The new expression of interest is more open-ended and does not indicate any strict requirements.
The Global Business and Talent Attraction Taskforce is intended to provide:
The Global Business and Talent Attraction Taskforce has indicated it is looking for:
The new taskforce has not indicated any clear requirements.
The expression of interest does not request any income or salary details and does not have a list of target sectors to choose from.
As such, the Global Business and Talent Attraction Taskforce appears to be more open-ended than the Global Talent Independent visa program, which has 7 key target sectors and requires a salary (or potential salary) of AUD $153,600.
For businesses, it has been indicated that there will be a focus on "high yield businesses". We expect that this might include businesses such as:
This also indicates that the Department will be less interested in "high capital" businesses, such as manufacturing businesses.
The Australian Government in many of its announcements has indicated a strong intention to attract business and talent from Hong Kong to move to Australia.
Hong Kong has been a key hub of business and trade in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region. Australia seems to be looking to strengthen its position as such as hub in its own right, by attracting key players from Hong Kong to Australia.
Sydney, Australia has been highlighted as one of the top 10 cities for business in Asia Pacific. It is likely that this will continue to be a focal point for businesses looking to set up headquarters in Australia.
There are a range of recent initiatives already put in place by the Australian Government to attract and retain global talent. These are likely to form a part of the Taskforce’s initiatives to bring business and skills to Australia.
The Global Talent Independent visa is a thriving category which has been seeing more attention in recent months.
Established in November 2019, it has a yearly allocation of 5,000 positions to attract global talent to Australia from the following target sectors:
This forms a part of the 3 visa products highlighted for global talent attraction.
A recent FOI disclosure indicated that 100% of 38 visa applications for global talent from offshore were approved, and that there were 144 onshore 858 visa approvals out of 162 lodgements. It is not clear exactly what period of the program these statistics relate to.
A substantial, but less talked-about program is the Global Talent Employer Sponsored program. This program might support the labour needs of the big businesses which the Australian Government is hoping to attract to Australia with the new Global Business and Talent Attraction Taskforce.
South Australia has identified itself in the Australian market as a strong contender for business innovation and headquarters for Hi-Tech developments. There are several programs pushing to develop this further.
South Australia has a number of significant industries which, while many have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, will continue to be important to the growth of South Australia going forward.
These include:
The Supporting Innovation in South Australia stream of the 408 visa is a program specifically designed to encourage innovative businesses operating in South Australia.
It is a temporary visa program for those looking to run businesses in South Australia, with a key focus on the following fields:
A key benefit of the program is the involvement of innovation hubs and the Chief Entrepreneur.
Lot Fourteen is a business and innovation hub located on North Terrace in the middle of Adelaide CBD, South Australia.
As an innovation hub, Lot Fourteen is home to a range of businesses operating in the growth areas highlighted above.
A key feature of Lot Fourteen is the Australian Space Agency which opened at Lot Fourteen in February 2020.
Our team of experienced Immigration Lawyers and Migration Agents look forward to assisting you with your Australian visa or appeal.
Based in Adelaide South Australia, we provide Australian Immigration advice to people and businesses from all over the world.
If you require further information regarding your Australia visa options you can contact us through:
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The Australian Government has announced a new skilled list on 2 September 2020 to prioritise occupations which are critical to Australia’s handling and recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.
There is a clear focus on the construction, health and ICT sectors.
The Government has indicated that applications under these occupations will be processed more quickly than other occupations.
We expect this to primarily have a large impact on the TSS 482 visa and SESR 494 visa sponsored worker space, as well as for the 189 visa program.
https://www.migration.sa.gov.au/ now has a new look.
We noticed that Immigration South Australia has changed its name to Move to South Australia.
Move to South Australia has updated its criteria for interim 491 and 190 nominations to support and prioritise South Australia’s economic recovery and public health response.
Trades Recognition Australia, also known as TRA, is the skill assessment authority for trade occupations. For example, occupations such as chefs, bricklayers, electricians and plumbers are all assessed by TRA.
TRA assesses whether the applicant’s qualifications, skills and employments meet Australian standards for migration purposes.
There are several assessment pathways and it is important that you choose the correct one to apply for.
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