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Priority skilled visas and travel exemptions for Australian jobs

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The Australian Government has released a list of priority skills that will be granted travel exemptions into Australia. A new priority skills list and strengthened labour market testing will allow sponsored skilled workers to travel to Australia to provide urgent skill needs in critical sectors, helping to create jobs and rebuild Australia’s economy.

What’s changed?

There are two major changes that will affect skilled migration into Australia.

New priority skilled occupation list

The Australian Government will rebuild the economy starting with a new priority skilled migration list, which features multiple IT occupations. This is good news for companies that have workers waiting for a visa on-shore and off-shore. The skills on the priority list will be fast-tracked through the application process and provided with travel exemptions.
The skilled occupations on the list that might impact you or your business include:

  • Developer Programmer
  • Software Engineer
  • Maintenance Planner
  • Chief Executive or Managing Director
  • Construction Project Manager
  • Mechanical Engineer

Priority processing of nomination and visa applications for the above occupations applies to the following visas:

  • Temporary Skill Shortage (TSS) visa (subclass 482)
  • Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional (Provisional) visa (subclass 494)
  • Employer Nomination Scheme (ENS) visa (subclass 186)
  • Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme (RSMS) visa (subclass 187)

While Australia’s border restrictions remain in place, temporary visa holders must obtain a travel exemption before travelling to Australia.
View the full list and read more on the DOHA website.

Labour market testing additional requirements

Businesses considering nominating overseas skilled workers on the following visas are currently required to advertise the jobs they are seeking to fill with an overseas worker:

  • Temporary Skill Shortage (TSS) visa (subclass 482)
  • Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional (Provisional) visa (subclass 494)

From 1 October 2020 the Government will implement an additional requirement to advertise these vacancies on the Australian Government Website Jobactive. This measure ensures that Australian citizens and permanent residents are given work opportunities before overseas workers.

What do I need to do?

If you are a company that has workers waiting for a skilled visa (on-shore or off-shore) then you can now process the application with DOHA. If you do not have Standard Business Sponsorship (SBS) then Entity Solutions, a People2.0 Company can sponsor your worker of choice through an on-hire labour agreement.
Individuals that would like to enter Australia on one of the priority occupations need an employer to make the application and seek a travel exemption.
Regarding the labour market testing, you must ensure that from 1 October you are adhering to the following advertising requirements for job vacancies:

  • must be advertised on the Jobactive website, AND
  • must be advertised with at least two advertisements in one or more of the mediums with national reach, i.e. SEEK, Indeed, LinkedIn for a period of no less than 28 days
  • applies to ALL nominated occupations, not just those in the newly announced Priority Migration Skilled Occupation List (PMSOL)
  • applies to nominations made after 30 September 2020.

Contact us if you have any queries regarding the above processes or our on-hire labour agreement.

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