A Few Noteworthy Facts About The Recently Implemented Australian Skilled Visas
Australia has until recently proclaimed the enactment of two individual skilled visas during the middle of this month. These two visas will help the various skilled workers to obtain permanent residence in Australia itself and subsequently the citizenship of Australia. But again there are some advantages and disadvantages pertaining to these two visas which are worth taking into consideration.
What the skilled visas are all about?
If you are residing in Australia for the past few years then there is a good news waiting for all of you. The Australian government has implemented two different skilled visa categories. But in order to avail of the absolute privilege of these visas, the applicant needs to live in a regional area in Australia itself.
And there are also certain criteria that the applicant needs to comply with the proper and expected way. And if the applicant does so, he/she will be able to acquire a permanent residency in Australia and gradually can obtain permanent citizenship in Australia as well.
With a great deal of zeal and exuberance, the Australian government announced on Saturday itself that skilled migrants who are committed to reside in any of the regional places of Australia will get access to these two skilled visas as compared to anyone else.
And when it comes to the list of occupations that these two visas cover, there are options aplenty to choose from. Be the person is a journalist, real estate agents, accountants, paramedics, filmmaker or simply a historian in comparison with others, he/she will effortlessly be able to apply for these two visas.
After the procurement of any of these two visas, the applicant will get the privilege of permanent residency only if he/she has lived there at least for the past three years and not less than that.
Names and individual functions of these two visas
If you are still oblivious about the names and the different facilities of these two skilled, then please have a quick glance at the below-given information.
- The Skilled Employer-Sponsored Regional(Provisional): This particular visa has been primarily designed for those applicants who have been chosen by an employer from a regional area in Australia
- Skilled Work Regional(Provisional): This particular visa has been designed for those applicants who have been nominated by the state or territory government or have been sponsored by any of their family members who to live and work as a skilled candidate at any of the regional areas in Australia
What are the benefits of these two visas?
The Australian government has also until recently changed the actual definition of regional Australia. Apart from Sydney, Brisbane, and Melbourne, the whole of Australia has been termed as regional to serve various migratory purposes.
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This basically implies that the applicants who are qualified enough can migrate only to the satellite cities like New Castle, Wollongong or Geelong, all three of them located near Sydney and Melbourne. Also apart from these cities, there is another option to opt for named as the Gold Coast, which only a 1-hour driving distance from Brisbane.
Juan Rincon, a migration agent told the SBS Spanish that these cities are potential enough to grant the different facilities pertaining to these two visas. He went on saying that regional migrants can benefit immensely through the means of these two visas and they can avail the privilege of Medicare from there which will automatically reduce the running family expenditure and their children will be allowed access to public education as well.
Rincon continued that the states apparently seem quite interested in this as it has created an incentive to live in small cities.
Some more benefits of these two visas
The ‘graduate visa’ that has been designed for the international students will be granted only to those candidates who have studied in Australia and want to extend their stay period for the next three or four years if the students have taken up the concerned course for only two years according to the concerned migration agent.
Besides, most of the prominent Australian states have allowed the grant of permanent residency in connection to most of these graduate visas of Australia. Hence, pursuing your dream career from Australia can be a boon also to become the permanent resident of Australia.
On this note, Mr. Rincon pointed out that Perth contains a particularly exciting program.
The Northern Territory
The Northern Territory is also offering to those people some interesting opportunities who speak multiple languages which have taken place for the development of various industries like agriculture, tourism, renewable energy, mining as well as space industry.
Martin Ferreyra, the Director of the AUSTRADE NT told the SBS Spanish that the geographical position of the Northern Territory is immensely lucrative for market opportunities to thrive across Australia and abroad.
And its southern part has access to the market that consists of more than 24 million people in Australia. Also, he told that there is a market of approximately 400 million people in the Southeast and South of Asia and China which is only a 5 hours distance from Darwin.
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And this has made a prosperous opportunity for the Latin American migrants for NT offers a comfortable lifestyle, great job opportunities, Ferreyra exclaimed. He also told that Latin America has still got to become aware of the study and work-related facilities that the Northern Territory provides.
Disadvantages of the skilled visas
The major drawback that most of the applicants face while applying for any of these two visas is that, even if they have lived in the regional territory of Australia, the minimum salary requirement to crack the application process is $53,900 AUD and also a year’s waiting period that has been strongly criticized by the Australian Migration Institute as well.
And Rincon opines that this particular requirement is completely unjust. Permanent residency for the next three years cannot be made compulsory against a salary of $54000(AUD). ‘I would look for an amendment to it, he continued.
Regions are being prepared for an influx of migrants
A research has been done until recently by two economists of the University of Adelaide, George Tan and Andreas Cebulla and they have inferred that Australian skilled migration program is unable to achieve its complete economic potential and many of the migrants are unable to find suitable opportunities according to the academic and professional achievements.
A survey done on at least 1700 skilled migrants living in South Australia itself by the Adelaide University inferred that 53% of them weren’t getting the scope to optimize their skills and abilities whereas 44% of percent of it is working for a different job unlike for what they had applied for in the visa.
Also, around 15% of them claimed to be unemployed most of the time while the survey was ongoing which is double of the unemployment rate in South Australia as stated by George and Andreas in an article of The Conversation.
After the survey came to end, it was concluded that there is a sharp mismatch between the expectations of new migrants and the real face of the labor market both from the employees’ and employers’ expectations and available jobs.
There were many migrants who lamented upon the extreme level of effort they had to put in while obtaining the regional skilled visa in Australia but the unsatisfying result they got after that. In fact, many of them had this misconception of getting an assured job through the means of this visa.
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Migrants face Discrimination
According to Rincon’s experience, many migrants pertaining to different cultural, linguistic as well as religious backgrounds have encountered discrimination while living in Australia. And it’s, of course, a bitter reality that clients have complained about it he retorted.
Hence, the various parts of the nation have to be educated about welcoming migrants from different parts of the globe wholeheartedly which will help in boosting up acculturation.
To eradicate this issue completely, Juan Rincon also believes that the federal government must invest to promote cultural competency and infrastructure for enhancing job avenues for the different migrants out there and this makes these regional areas more impressive in terms of better employment.
He believes that this is a type of a chicken and egg situation which implies that does the market generate work or work generates a market.
Delayed visa processing
The New South Wales Government had delayed the nomination commencement for the new regional visa comprising the early 2020 points as revealed last week by one of the regional visa certification bodies of the country.
Also, the Riverina Regional Development Australia was not granted permission to implement its plan in spite of the availability of the new visas as reported by ABC News. An insider of the NSW’s Treasury official told the ABC that the New South Wales is considering its nomination process very carefully and will come with an update within a short time.