Highlights
- Visa changes from the 1st of July will offer skilled workers new pathways to permanent residency in Australia.
- There will be more places for working holiday-makers and the chance for graduates affected by COVID-19 border closures to make up for their time locked out of Australia.
- Ben Watt, a lawyer with migration agents VisaEnvoy, says the changes present exciting prospects for some with a focus on supporting the economic recovery from COVID-19.
'Trabaho, Visa, atbp.' is a podcast series that features issues and information about migration to Australia every Thursday on SBS Filipino.
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Ano-anong mga visa subclass ang maaapektuhan ng mga pagbabago simula ika-1 ng Hulyo 2022?
SBS Filipino
30/06/202206:32
What are the changes for some visa classes that will come into effect 1 July?
One will see the pathway made easier for temporary skill shortage subclass 482 visa holders to apply for permanent residency.
From July 1st, these people will be allowed to apply for the Temporary Residence Transition or TRT visa, which lets skilled workers who are nominated by their employer live and work in Australia permanently.
But the new pathway will only be accessible for two years from this date.
Those eligible will need to have been in Australia for at least one year between the 1st of February 2020 and the 14th of December 2021.
Another change will affect 457 visa holders.
It means they will no longer be restricted by age from applying for permanent residency through the TRT stream.
The change, which now specifies no age limit to pursuing this option, will also only be accessible for two years.
To be eligible for the age exemption change people had to have been in Australia between 01 February 2020 and 14 December 2021.
There are also changes for recent graduates.
Temporary graduate visa holders who lost time due to COVID-19 travel restrictions will be allowed to apply for a replacement visa.
To be eligible, people must hold a valid visa in this category, or have previously held one that expired on or after February the 1st, 2020.
They must also have been outside Australia between 01 February 2020 and the 15 December 2021.
The measure was announced expecting that it will benefit approximately 30,000 current or former visa holders.
The COVID-19 border closure also meant working holiday makers were locked out of the country, placing strain on industries normally reliant on their contribution.
But from July 1 there will be a 30 per cent cap increase, over 2022-23 only, to the number of places available to working holiday makers from several countries which face a cap as part of the subclass 462 visa arrangement.
From the new financial year, Mongolia and Brazil will also have access to Australia’s Working Holiday Maker visa program, and there will also be changes to age limits and caps for some countries.
This includes a five-year increase in the age limit for Italian and Danish citizens from 30 to 35 years of age.
