The changes which were foreshadowed last April were finally implemented in the early hours of Sunday 18 March 2018 (after the regulations were released last Friday). There is now a new Temporary Skills Shortage (subclass 482) visa and there have also been changes to the ENS visa.
Basically:
- there are less occupations available and they have been divided into “short term” and “long term” needs list. That division of short/long term is also reflected in two different streams of the TSS visa;
- visas will only be granted for 2 years in the short term stream and 4 years in the long term stream;
- applicants who want to transition to permanent residence will need 3 years (not 2) working on the TSS;
- there will be stricter requirements for trying to find a local person to do the job (i.e. labour market testing will be more stringent) – see IMMI 18/059
- there will be more onerous English language requirements – see IMMI 18/032;
- the legislation to impose a “training levy” (instead of the current benchmarks) has currently not passed parliament, but in the meantime the training requirements are set out in legislative instrument IMMI 18/017;
- there have also been changes to income threshold, annual earnings and new concept of Annual Market Salary Rate – see IMMI 18/033;
For a more detailed summary of the changes, one of the better places to look is the DHA skilled visa newsletters which are published on its website.
I am of course happy to help with any specific questions.
Creative commons acknowledgment for the photograph.
