Some visas processed in less than 24 hours as backlog eases.
After the Pandemic period, Australia’s immigration system is bringing positive News and flexibility to the 408 Covid visa extension
Watch the latest updates of Australia Immigration News.
2 Years – 408 Covid Visa Extension
Many questions about the covid visa were raised after the pandemic period in Australia, the main question was if the government would keep or end the covid visa after the pandemic. Most people can get the 1 year 408 visa if you were living in Australia and now the immigration indicates that they will not remove this visa anytime soon as they have just release eligibility requirements for a 2 years covid visa. Which is exactly a great news.
Who can get the two year 408:
Temporary Graduate Visa (TGV) holders whose visas expire/d between 1 September 2022 and 1 July 2023
This is great news 485 holders onshore.
Global Talent Visa Update Opportunities remains.
Last year the Department of Home Affairs has announced that it will no longer consider and endorse requests for priority processing of an EOI from individuals or agents on behalf of individuals for the Global Talent (subclass 858) visa. This means that the EOI candidates are no longer able to request for the support of the GTO to have their EOIs prioritised. however, Hong Kong nationals and residents and candidates of extremely high calibre may still receive priority assessment. the government had increased the allocations across these skilled visas. And in December 2022 extended 35,000 sc-189 invitations.
The Global Talent Visa though would still be a good visa option for high performing individuals especially for those over 45 years old. It would also be attractive for those whose professions are not listed in the skilled occupations list, for those who do not want to or cannot get a skills assessment for their occupation and for those who do not have at least “competent English skill” required for most skilled visa as the Global Talent Visa only requires functional English.
New Partnership to attract International Students to the Permanent Residence through the chef pathway studies.
Australia Study Team had a launch event on 17th March to officialise the partnership with AIOH (Adelaide Institute of Hospitality) to attract suitably skilled international students to support hospitality industry’s to growing staffing need.
Australia Study team will assist international students to study, live and work in Australia. In addition, looking after their visa process such as applications and extension. Also, with every student enrolment will be donate a certain amount to the wildlife rescue.
The cocktail event was very successful with special guests. The Wildlife SA was also present to receive a donation of $500.
AIOH is offering Certificate III in Commercial Cookery, Certificate IV in Kitchen Management and a Diploma in Hospitality Management.
If you are interested in become a chef and follow this pathway to the Permanent residence please contact Australia Study team. The contact details are in the video description
Australia study team is a separate business to Work Visa lawyers.
188 Business Visa Closure
The 188 visa is a type of visa for those who want to start or invest in a business in Australia. Unfortunately, the Federal Government did not allocate any more places to the states and territories for the 188 visa.
The Federal Government has not publicly announced the closure of the business programs.
It has been left to the states to make announcements about running out of allocations.
South Australia was the last state to close the program on 31 of January 2023.
Potential applicants for the 188 visas may consider other visa options such as:
General Skilled Visa and Employer Sponsored Visa
Family Visa such as the Partner Visa or Parent Visa.
The Global Talent Visa (which still an opportunity)
Overall State Sponsorship
Due to the massive 35,000 invitations sent for the 189 visa.
The states are simplifying the immigration rules to attract more applicants.
491 visa program eligible for Victoria
Victoria has opened its skilled work regional visa (Subclass 491) to applicants living and/or working in metropolitan Melbourne.
Subclass 491 visa holders must live, work and study in a Regional area of Victoria for at least three years before they can apply for their subclass 191 visa, which provides permanent residency. This means you may need to move to a designated regional area of Victoria or secure a job that provides you with regional employment.
Be aware that once the visa is granted you will need to move out of Melbourn to a regional area. On a 491 you Must live and work in a regional area for 3 years once the visa is granted.
Northern Territory State criteria
Updates to Offshore Northern Territory State nomination criteria
The Northern Territory has made changes to its nomination criteria to make it easier for offshore applicants to apply for NT state nomination.
The NT announced 3 new changes, namely:
1. They are expanding their Offshore Migration Occupations List. They added almost 200 different occupations to the List, almost doubling the number of occupations. This means that more people would be able to apply for NT state sponsorship.
2. The work experience is reduced from 3 years to just 1 year work experience for most occupations.
3. They have expanded the NT Family Support Stream where if the applicant has a family member who lives in the NT who is an Australian citizen, permanent resident or if they hold certain temporary visas like the sc-491, 289 and 494, may be able to qualify for the NT state nomination even if their occupation is not on the NT Offshore Migration Occupations List.
WA State Sponsor
WA has a very large volume of applications. WA was given 5,350 nominations for 190 visas and 2,790 nominations for 491 visas. The WA government will be issuing invitations in the first week of each month.
In March, WA issued 2500 invitations altogether for 190 visas (the greater number of invitations were issued to applicants in the General stream – WASMOL schedule 2).
Unfortunately, there were no invitations for 491 visas.
One of these is the Graduate stream- available if you have studied in WA and gained a Certificate III or higher qualification.
The other two are the General stream, divided into WASMOL schedule 1 or WASMOL schedule 2, depending on the applicant’s nominated occupation.
Competent English is a standard requirement for WA state nomination, and an accommodating work experience requirement applies to the General streams (at least one year of work experience in the nominated or closely related occupation in the last 10 years, either in Australia or overseas). WA does not require an applicant to be currently living or working in WA, although a job offer is needed to be considered for a 190 visa.
This year so far WA has nomimted over 20,000 190 and 491 applicants. This is a huge number and explains why the WA criteria can be very generous.
887 Visa Updates - Improve time process.
There are more than ten thousand applications made for Visa 887. Recently, Department of Home Affairs has made a great progress in deciding the 887 applications. Most applicants who lodged their 887 visa applications by October 2021 have got their visas or been contacted by a Case Officer.
Granting PR to people that have been living and working in Australia endorses the pathway from Provisional Visa to Permanent Visa is effective. Processing more permanent visa for regional migrants can encourage they move from metro areas to regional locations.
General news
When will the next 189 round be?
The answer is, there is no set date.
With the massive 35,000 invitation round in December 2022, the government might be waiting to see how many visas are lodged, to decide if there’s one more round this program here.
The program year ends on 30 June 2023.
So there might be another round, or it might not be, before 30 June 2023.
From the 1 July 2023 a new migration program year begins. So the 189 should start flowing again.
Student Visa
Student visas from offshore are really moving ahead!
We’ve noticed that student visas lodged from Offshore are often been processed very quickly, sometimes in I need a couple of weeks.
This is great news for many of your students.
Unfortunately the downside is that student Visa applications for onshore students may take a number of months and the quote processing time online is very high.
The Fast processing for student Visa from offshore is consistent with the government policy to prioritise offshore applications. Such a priority is also clear in the 189 and 491 programs.
