Two years of international border closures that locked out migrants and led to labour and skills shortages across the economy makes it difficult to fathom Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil’s decision to cull 27 jobs from the list of occupations eligible to receive a priority skilled visa to work in Australia.
Amid the hacking of Optus, Australia is now shaking up to find highly skilled people in Cyber security and IT field and sending them to the back of the queue.
As clearly seen, during covid-19, where every single work had been shifted to online platforms and the wave of migrants and international students running out of the country, the needs of highly skilled and talented people have been raised significantly.
That opened up a new popular Global Talent Visa program, a fast tracked permanent residency of Australia pathway for skilled migrants who are recognized internationally with projects and researches.
Up until today, there have been many ups and downs regarding the popularity of the Global Talent Visa program.
Basically, this is the fast-tracked permanent residency pathway for highly skilled and talented people in the world with significant achievement in Australia’s target sectors.
There are about 10 target sectors listed for the GTI program Australia.
There is no specific occupation required for being eligible for the Global Talent Visa program.
Within the scope of this writing, we only mention the latest update that we have received on the media or during our visa application process.
Updates on Offshore applicants as the highest priority for Global Talent Visa Program
In a bid to “fix” the immigration system and address the skill shortage, the Australian government announced that it will be making some changes in the processing the Global Talent Visa.
One change that was flagged by the Home Affairs Minister, Ms. Clare O’Neil in an interview with the Australian Financial Review is the Global Talent Visa program.
Minister O’Neil said that the only candidates that would be considered are those located offshore.
With the explanation that onshore applicants may be able to find other pathways for Australian PR.
The government would like to focus more on recruiting talent worldwide.
Last program year has seen a more than 70% of GTI visas were granted to ONSHORE applicants.
However, to date, there are still no legislative, regulatory, or policy changes nor new Ministerial Directions to this effect.
We have been advised that the Global Talent Visa EOIs continue to be processed in submission order.
According to the Global Talent Visa program officers: “Government is currently revising Ministerial directions to give priority to applicants for a permanent visa where the applicant is offshore, including within the Global Talent program. This will enable more workers to enter Australia more quickly, contribute to the labor market and ease labor shortages.”
This is appropriate because most Global talent visa applicants in Australia have secured their own stable jobs.
Granting those onshore workers will not help deal with the labor shortages the country is facing.
So, for now at least, pending any policy changes, EOIs from onshore applicants are still being accepted and processed.
Global Talent Visa priority assessment order
EOIs for the Global Talent visas are usually assessed in order of receipt but some EOIs receive priority assessment. these are:
Those that have the confirmed support of a Global Talent Officer
The EOIs from Hong Kong nationals and residents
Candidates of extremely high calibre including those who meet the high-income threshold.
Those EOIs that clearly do not meet the criteria for the Global Talent Visa may receive an early unsuccessful notification.
Global Talent Visa Current processing time
It is advised by the department that they are currently processing EOIs submitted in April 2021.
With the current skills summit, the government has announced the budget to deal with the backlog.
In fact, our clients have received good turnaround time recently.
We expect that in the near future, the Global Talent Visa processing time will be decreased further.
Removal of EOI invitation expiry
One recent significant change in the Global Talent Visa program is the removal of the EOI invitation expiry.
Prior to this, EOI invitations are only valid for 12 months.
That means those who got the invitation to apply for the Global Talent Visa have 12 months to apply for the visa.
For other programs, you only need to meet the criteria of each streams you are aiming toward and apply for the visa. As long as you provide all supporting documents required by the Department of Home Affairs, you will just need to wait for the result.
It is not like that in Global Talent Visa Australia.
Through the process of expressing your interest in the Global Talent Independent program, you have to make sure the documents show your best aspect of your expertise in the Targeted Sectors.
The Global Talent Visa (GTV) on the other hand has gained popularity as it was an attractive option for several skilled and talented individuals because it was designed to be a streamlined pathway to permanent residency for those who are considered as high-calibre, outstanding global talents.
So how would you know whether the Global Talent Visa or another skilled visa is suitable for you? Below are some of the considerations
Migration planning levels 2022-23 – a clear focus on Skilled Migration with 30, 000 more allocations and less than 30,000 for Family and partner visas.
This shows the significant impact of covid-19 to the labor shortages of Australia now the government is trying to attract more skilled migrants, driving innovation and investment as part of the 2022-23 budget.
The 2022-23 permanent Migration Program ceiling will be capped at 160,000 places.
Migration – Skill stream
The Morrison Government’s Migration Program will focus on skilled migration, with a return to a pre-pandemic composition of roughly two-thirds/one-third across the Skill and Family streams.
The Skill stream will increase to 109,900, more than 30,000 places above 2021-22 planning levels.
There have been significant growth in number of quotas for each stream in Skilled Migration such as:
Employer Sponsored Visa: 8,000 more allocations
Skilled Independent 189 Visa: roughly 10,000 more allocations for the new program years 2022-2023. This is published to deal with the current huge backlog in the Department of Home Affairs
Skilled Regional visa 491 or visa 494 will more than double to 25,000 places to support growth in regional Australia.
Business Innovation and Investment (9,500 places), Global Talent (8,448 places) and Distinguished Talent (300 places) are experiencing a modest reduction in the allocations.
This may not be as bad as it sounds for Business Innovation and Investment Visa, because the processing of those business visas have been slow and may not have reached allocations.
The drop in Global Talent visa allocations looks dramatic, but it is useful to remember, that in 2021, while there was an allocation of 15,000, just over 9000 was granted.
Australia is still proven to be the most favorable destination in the world for highly skilled workers and investors.
Occupation lists will be reviewed and updated in early 2022-23 to reflect changes in Australia’s labor market, based on advice from the National Skills Commission.
Migration – Family stream
As part of the Government’s migration program, the Family stream will provide an estimated 50,000 places to support family reunion.
The Partner and Child visa categories are estimated to deliver 40,500 and 3,000 visas respectively (delivery of Partner and Child visas will be subject to demand and visa processing requirements); while 6,000 places will be available for Parent visas; and 500 places for Other Family visas.
This sounds bad, but the Partner visa allocation was nearly doubled during the covid pandemic.
From 2022-23, Partner visa processing will move to a demand driven model.
Granting Partner visas on a demand-driven basis will provide the flexibility to meet the demand for Partner visas in a given program year, and assist in mitigating future growth in the Partner visa pipeline while maintaining immigration integrity.
Working Holiday Makers
There is an increase in the cap for Working Holiday Maker – the 462 visa
11,000 additional WHM visas will be available for prospective backpackers.
This is reasonable when Australia is pushing their programs which support significantly on labor shortages in critical sectors such as the Agriculture Visa program, Working Holiday Makers.
Humanitarian Visas
The 2022-23 Humanitarian Program will be maintained at the current ceiling of 13,750 places
an additional 16,500 places will be available for Afghan nationals under the Humanitarian program and will be equally allocated over the next four years.
There will be 4000 places available for Ukrainians under the Temporary Humanitarian visa. Minister Hawke has commented that Ukrainians will be considered displaced persons that may return to their homeland in the future. They will have access to Medicare and work rights.
Funding the Immigration Department
The budget has released decreased funding for the Department of Home affairs Immigraiton services over the next five years. Funding will go down each year.
2021-22: $3,917m
2022-23: $3,335m
By 2024-25: $2,848m
So how achievable are the targets, with cutting the Department.
Looking at the breakdown of the expenditure can is quite revealing:
Australia spends twice as much, over 2 billion a year, on the management of unlawful non-citizens. While it spends less than a billion, 822 million, on managing the entire skilled and immigration program.
So, the obvious way to improve the budget on Immigration is to spend less on detention and then you have more for visa services and Citizenship.
The best way to do this, is to give those in detention, that can safely be released, Bridging visa and work rights. This will save millions and possibly billions.
Greater funding for the skilled part of the Immigration budget could boost Australia’s post covid recovery and help with skills shortages.
