The Australian Government’s migration program regularly undergoes amendments in response to employer demand and community needs.
Recent changes in the temporary and permanent skilled visa programs ensure that the migration system is now ‘demand driven’ with greater emphasis placed on the role of employer sponsorship. Employer-sponsored skilled migration matches migrants directly to jobs in Australia, making it the best method to ensure the labour market gets the skills it needs.
Employers can nominate their overseas skilled workers through a range of permanent visas, and may be able to access less skilled workers through Labour Agreements.
The SOL
The new Skilled Occupations List (SOL) which applies to independent migrants (i.e. those without an employer to sponsor them) better links Australia’s skilled migration program with the needs of the economy, ensuring that priority is given only to those independent migrants with real potential to find jobs and the real skills to work in their occupations.
ASCO to ANZSCO
DIAC introduced ANZSCO on 1 July 2010.
ANZSCO is a system developed by the Australian Bureau of Statistics to collect, publish and analyse occupation statistics across government agencies, and is being introduced by the department as the new standard to capture occupation information in all visa, settlement and citizenship programs.
ANZSCO will also be used within skilled visa programs as the standard by which a visa applicant's skills to undertake a specific occupation in Australia are assessed.
Temporary Migration Reforms
The Temporary Business Long Stay (Subclass 457) visa program now offers a Standard Business Sponsorship status which permits approved employers to nominate as many workers as required provided they can satisfy the Department of their good record in training Australian workers, industrial relations and migration regulations.
There is a requirement to afford 457 visa holders with the same terms and conditions as Australian Citizens or Permanent Residents. This requirement has seen the repealing of Minimum Salary Level (MSL) and changing it to ‘Market Salary Rates’ and a Temporary Skilled Migration Income Threshold (TSMIT) to ensure that temporary residents will be able to sustain themselves in the community.
Visit the DIAC website for more information on the migration program or call the IOO officer for the Resources Sector Consortium.