Immigration Update: Important Changes For Australian Skilled Migration In October 2020

The Australian Migration Program 2020-21 and features have been adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The continuing effects of Corona virus and stringent border closures are considered the chief reasons behind this occurrence. Crucial information related to this will be divulged on 6th October 2020 as the Budget process of Australia will be conducted on that day.

Important News: International Students And Temporary Visa Holders Affected By Covid-19 Border Closure Get Massive Relief

A Look At The Notable Highlights

The demand for Australia’s migration will be primarily decided by the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. The ScoMo government has already started executing effective measures as a result of this. Hopefully, Australia’s Migration Program will again witness an increasing demand through these measures. A strong emphasis on Australia’s economic recovery should also be a part of these measures. As a result, many migration professionals are hoping to get good news. So, before delving deeper into this news article, let’s focus on its prominent highlights which are outlined below.

• Overseas learners are prioritised over the local students regarding their visa application
• Applicants serving the critical sectors of Australia will be prioritised under the state nomination program and
• The government of Australia has decided to proclaim their migration levels on 6th October.

Australia’s international borders will hopefully reopen within the next six months. The Treasury of Australia is in fact quite hopeful about it. This requires the offshore travellers to go for a fortnight’s quarantine after arriving. This will let people start resuming their conventional activities to recover Australia’s economy reasonably. Skilled workers trying to fill the vacant positions will keep on suffering, although. This means that Australia’s situation will get normal but not completely what it was before COVID-19.

Visa Price Changes

The visa prices of Australia increase every year on 1st July. This is chiefly done according to the Consumer Price Index (CPI). This results in an upsurge of three to four percent in the visa price range of Australia.

The Australian government has decided not to increase their visa application charges this year. Every year this increment is made as Australia’s living standard becomes cumulatively costlier than before. As the increment made, it could recover the economic slump Australia faced for nominal visa applications this year.

Onshore Applicants Get An Edge

More and more onshore visa applications are supposed to be approved during the rest of 2020. This is done for many reasons. One of the significant reasons is to create less pressure on the offshore arrivals cap. Another reason is the declining job prospects for offshore migrants. This will assist them in filling the seats of the family visa stream positions. This is also advantageous for the Australian government as they are able to to avoid the hassle of declining offshore applicants.

Important News: Temporary Visa Holders Can Return To Australia Without Any Exemptions

Stress On Regional Employment

The Australian government is ready with 25,000 positions for regional visa applicants. Out of this, about 23,372 positions have already been filled up. The government has even promised to proclaim new measures during the new budget session. Offshore applicants and local youngsters can avail this opportunity. They are allowed to undertake various farming jobs. This way they can fill out the regional employment shortfalls of Australia.

The Perspective of Migration Officials

The Australian government is chiefly doing this to encourage new migrants in settling in the regional areas of Australia. This is to retain their adherence to their ‘congestion-busting-agenda’. The present regional program has to be amended. This is because it denies regional businesses to recruit skilled workers for their organizations. Ironically, these workers are inadequately committed to stay and live in regional Australia.

The points based system has worked out well for regional Australia. Conversely, the demand-based-migration has been successful in bringing people to regional Australia for some exclusively new job opportunities.

A Look At The General Skilled Migration

Applicants who want to improve Australia‘s workforce can apply for visas concerning the General Skilled Migration (GSM) stream. Applicants are chosen according to selected occupations to migrate to an Australian state or territory. This again lets them to comply with the changing business needs of Australia within a specific territory or state. The government provides quotas to all its jurisdictions concerning their GSM stream. This is done every year in the month of May via the budget procedure.

The Remaining Procedure

According to this, each state and territory selects business and skilled migration for certain visa categories. These include the following:

• Skilled Regional Sponsored Visa 491 and
• Skilled Nominated Visa Subclass 190

As per an important update, the states have reopened their skilled visa nomination programs. Ironically, they are offering this privilege based on a limited number of occupations.

The States Receive A Small Number of Nomination Positions

The COVID-19 pandemic finally led to a delayed announcement of the Australia’s budget session. This has again led the states in getting a limited number of nomination positions pertaining to their temporary visa categories. These positions are concerned with a small number of occupations imperative for Australia’s critical sectors. These include the following areas of interest:

• The engineering sector of Australia
• The sector of information and communication technology of Australia and
• The healthcare sector of Australia

If carried out properly, the new applicants of the state and territory selected visas can recover Australia’s economic downfall. This will let them to become an indispensable part of the Migration Program of Australia.

A Viewpoint of The Economists

The Federal Budget is getting held at the perfect time to help recover Australia’s economic condition. One feasible way would be to invite more and more skilled migrants when the border closures open again. This will hopefully alleviate the stringent border closures and a drop in Australia’s total offshore migration reasonably.

Reduction in Migration Cap

The borders aren’t reopening before January, 2021. It would be better if the government can reduce the conventional migration cap of 160,000 somewhat. The government however can use this number superficially but target a much less number of visas. Say for instance, 100000-110000 until the situation becomes normal. This will give off an impression that the government is completely of a positive perspective about Australia’s economic recovery.

Changes In Planning Levels

The Australian immigration department wants to retain its migration cap to 1, 60,000 in July this year. This level was decided for the 2019-2020 Migration Program. This plan included crucial factors like the programs’ composition and size etc. Out of this about two-thirds of the permanent visa options have been kept aside specially for skilled migrants. Applicants of the family reunion migration programs can optimise the remaining third portion of the cap. This is a temporary arrangement which will stay valid until Australia’s budget announcement is made in October 2020.

Total Overseas Migration

A sharp decline will arrive in the number of total overseas migration to 35,000 in 2020 and 2021. The Australian government is quite apprehensive about this fact. Alternatively, this number should be somewhat between 16,000 and 220,000. This ensures a proper maintenance of the GDP per capital growth every year. The budget session of 6th October, 2020 will unveil an even worse picture concerning the net overseas migration.

It will affect the present and forthcoming financial years of Australia reasonably. This will lead to an Australia with a smaller and aged population than before. To get more information on such matters please contact Migration Agent Perth at ISA Migrations. They will provide all the desired assistance!