The 457 visa

The Subclass 457 – Business (Long Stay) – Standard Business Sponsorship visa is the most commonly used program for employers to sponsor overseas workers to work in Australia on a temporary basis. Subclass 457 visas can be valid for any nominated period between one day and four years, but are not, in themselves, a pathway to permanent residency (PR).

However, 457 visas can be used as a stepping stone to PR by articulating with a Subclass 856 visa under the Employer Nomination Scheme, which allows Australian employers to sponsor highly skilled workers, who are foreign nationals, for a permanent visa to work in Australia.

As permanent residents of Australia, holders of ENS visa holders can:

· live and work in Australia on a permanent basis
· study in Australia at school or university
· receive subsidised healthcare through Medicare and the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS)
· access certain social security payments (subject to waiting periods)
· be eligible for Australian citizenship (subject to the residency eligibility criteria) and
· sponsor people for permanent residence

ENS

Sponsorship under the ENS requires: an eligible nominated position, an eligible sponsor and a visa applicant.

If a current 457 employer meets the eligibility requirements to be an ENS sponsor, they can apply to sponsor their subclass 457 employee under the ENS – enabling 457 holders to progress to permanent residency without the disruption and uncertainty of having to seek another sponsor.

In addition, there are far fewer obligations required to be addressed by ENS sponsors than by 457 sponsors, making the ENS option a win-win situation for both parties.

How it works

There are three ways in which onshore applicants obtain permanent residency under the ENS.

Firstly, people who have a positive skills assessment and at least three years full-time work experience in their occupation before their ENS application is lodged, are eligible to be sponsored. In exceptional circumstances, the three year full-time work requirement can be waived.

Subclass 457 visa holders can apply for an ENS visa without a skills assessment if they have worked full-time in Australia in their nominated occupation on their 457 visa for the last two years prior to the ENS visa application being made. The last twelve months has to have been with the employer sponsoring them under the ENS.

The third pathway to obtaining an ENS relates to people who have been nominated to fill a senior executive position with a salary of more than $165 000 per annum (excluding superannuation or allowances). They can apply for an ENS visa without obtaining a skills assessment, or having worked for 2 years on a 457.

What DIAC says

DIAC has made no secret of its overall policy intention to move towards a position of assessing skilled migration applications on the basis of evidenced need for the applicant’s skills.

Accordingly, it will become increasingly important for people migrating under the General Skilled Migration to consider their migration pathways strategically, with the overall goal of obtaining permanent residency as soon as possible, so they are protected against any further changes in legislation or policy.

We are experts in all aspects of skilled, sponsored and family migration, having assisted thousands of families, individuals and corporate clients since the firm was established in 1983.

If you would like to discuss your visa options, contact Chris or Susan today for a friendly, obligation free discussion and professional advice.

The Irish Central online publication reports that a shock survey has found that 22% of Irish are seeking to migrate, with Australia being one of the favourite destinations.

Sadly, the article reports that the level of personal debt in Ireland has reached record levels , with 27 percent of the Irish saying they feel ashamed because they cannot pay a bill while 20 percent are worried that they may lose their homes.

Click HERE to read the full story.

Source:  The Irish Central 

The following link outlines the new priority processing arrangements:

http://www.immi.gov.au/skilled/general-skilled-migration/pdf/priority-processing-14-july-2010.pdf

and this link is to the FAQs:

http://www.immi.gov.au/skilled/general-skilled-migration/pdf/gsm-priority-processing-faqs.pdf

Please note DIAC’s advice on page 1 of the first link that  the changes to priority processing do not change the criteria for grant of a visa.  

If you’d like to discuss the implications of these latest changes on your visa application, or if you’re considering migration to Australia and would like to discuss all your visa options, please contact Chris or Susan for an obligation free consultation.

When in caretaker mode, the government of the day has to avoid making major policy decisions or undertakings that would commit the incoming government.

There are no specific guidelines for what constitutes a “major” decision, but apart from policy and resource considerations, one of the issues that have to be considered is whether the decision is a matter of contention between the government and the opposition.

So there are a few scenarios that could apply to the already uncertain future of State Migration Plans.

• If signing off on SMPs is considered a major undertaking, or one that is a matter of contention between the govt and opposition, they won’t be able to be signed off until after the election. Under those circumstances:
• If the current government retains power, it will to a large extent be business as usual after the election and their sign-off will retain whatever priority Evans’ advisers have allocated to it.
• If the Opposition wins, there will be a settling in period where the new Ministers will need to be briefed by their staff on issues across their entire portfolio. That will cause a delay of at least a few weeks in the signing off process, even if the Opposition is in favour of retaining SMPs. If the Opposition decides not to proceed with SMPs, there will be further delays while it implements its own policy position on state sponsorship.
• On the other hand, if signing off on SMPs is considered to be merely routine business of government, any signature-ready SMPs could be signed off by Evans any time up to the election

As there are no firm rules about what constitutes a major policy decision or undertaking, it is unfortunately a case of having to wait and see how the govt decides to proceed.

 _________________________________________

THE GILLARD GOVERNMENT

Extract from presentation by the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, at the Population Australia 2050 Summit, 28 June 2010.

• We are moving from the ‘Australia needs skills’ to ‘Skills Australia needs’ approach
• A program that is shaped by employers’ needs rather than by the desire of prospective migrants to come to Australia.
• We are also reviewing our migrant selection process.
• We are reviewing the Points Test scheme to ensure that it is not heavily distorted towards a handful of occupations—a problem that has been addressed through our recent changes to Skilled Occupations List.
• But there is still further work to be done. We need to ensure that our points test enables us to select highly innovative and well trained migrants to ensure we have a solid human capital base for Australia’s longer term prosperity.
• My department is contemplating a new migrant selection model.
• Under this model, prospective immigrants will be invited to lodge an expression of interest to emigrate to Australia, and will be selected for migration as and when the need arises.
• Australia’s net migration levels should be driven by permanent migration not temporary.
• Thanks to recent reform measures, it is expected that the net overseas migration figure will return to a sustainable long-term average

THE ALTERNATIVE GOVERNMENT:

 Extract from Coalition Policy Directions Paper

•  The primary purpose of a nation’s migration programme is economic, namely to supplement natural increase to create critical market mass in the domestic economy and service the skills needs of a growing economy.
• The migration programme run by the Coalition will once again have the primary focus on providing skilled migration on both a permanent and temporary basis and supporting the viability of rural and regional communities around Australia.
• Key features of the Coalition policy will include:
  •  reinstatement of a genuine critical skills list designed to reflect genuine occupational skills needs of industry
  •  liberalisation of arrangements for temporary business visas (457s)subject to clear standards, to make them more accessible to business, especially small businesses, and business in regional areas, with proven skills shortage needs
  • ensuring at least two thirds of our permanent intake is for skills migration encouraging settlement on either a temporary or permanent basis in regional and rural areas.
• Further details of the Coalition skilled and regional migration policies will be contained in the Coalition immigration and citizenship policy.

Reflecting the increasing economic importance of the African region, the world’s most expensive city for expatriates was Luanda, the capital of Angola, with the capital cities of  Chad and Goban also making it into the top ten most expensive for the first time.

New York is the base city for the index and comparisons are made across a wide range of areas including food, accommodation, clothing and entertainment.

SOURCE:

For more information, please visit Mercer Worldwide Cost of Living Survey 2010

DIAC has also advised how the transitional arrangements will work – in other words, how the introduction of ANZSCO will affect people who have already obtained skills assessments based on ASCO.

To try and simplify DIAC’s advice, we’ve cut and pasted what we see as the key points below, but  please contact us, or refer to the full link to access ALL DIAC’s information about how these transition arrangements might affect your application: 

http://www.immi.gov.au/employers/anzsco/transitional-arrangements.htm

 In summary, this is how DIAC says it will work:

 With the introduction of ANZSCO, Skills Assessment Authorities will assess a visa applicant’s nominated skilled occupation according to the ANZSCO standard. 

However, some employers may have already nominated a person to fill a vacant position according to the ASCO standard, or a prospective visa applicant has already had their skills assessed according to ASCO but need to lodge a visa application nominating the same occupation according to ANZSCO. 

 To ensure that prospective visa applicants and employers who want to sponsor or nominate someone under the skilled visa program are not disadvantaged, guidelines have been developed to allow ASCO-based documents and information to be accepted after the introduction of ANZSCO in certain circumstances.

 Examples:

• A nomination or visa application lodged after 1 July 2010 will have an ANZSCO nominated occupation, but the applicant might submit an ASCO skills assessment, provided that the skills assessment is still valid.
• A visa applicant who lodged their application before 1 July 2010 with an ASCO nominated occupation, may need to submit an ANZSCO skills assessment if it is subsequently obtained after 1 July 2010.

 ASCO/ANZSCO Correlations

 To support the combination of an ASCO skills assessment in and a nominated ANZSCO occupation, DIAC has examined each acceptable ASCO occupation code and correlated it to its matching ANZSCO occupation code(s). This has been done for each of the following lists:

• the Skilled Occupation List (SOL) as at 1 July 2010
• the Employer Nomination Scheme Occupation List (ENSOL) as at 1 July 2010.

The links below show the full list of correlations from ASCO occupations to ANZSCO occupations for the SOL and the ENSOL.

• Skilled Occupation List Correlations – 1 July 2010 
• ENSOL correlations – 1 July 2010 

Only those ASCO-ANZSCO correlations above can be used under the transition arrangements. 

Occupational information such as valid skills assessments can only be used under transitional arrangements if all the following circumstances apply.

• a departmental-endorsed ASCO-ANZSCO correlation for that particular occupation exists
• that occupation continues to be an acceptable occupation for skilled visa program purposes
• the skills assessment is still valid (validity periods are determined by skills assessing authorities and may differ between occupations/authorities).

If any of the above circumstances do not apply, then the occupation information may not be considered under skilled visa program transitional arrangements.

 If you are unsure whether your skills assessment is still valid, you will need to contact the relevant authority that issued the skills assessment.

 As one of Australia’s longest-established migration law firms, commencing in practice in 1983, McGrath Migration Lawyers has assisted thousands of families to migrate to Australia.

Contact us with all your migration requirements for fast, friendly, ethical and professional advice; or for a free visa eligibility assessment.

Click HERE to access it.

Schedule 3, which starts on page 29 lists the new SOL which will come into effect on 1 July; and Schedule 4, which starts on page 37, lists the occupations which will be able to be State sponsored from 1 July.

As one of Australia’s longest established migration law firms, in continuous practice since 1983, we are experts in skilled, family, business and employer sponsored migration.

We invite you to contact Chris or Susan if you have any questions about the implications of the new SOL or State Sponsored list on your visa application,  or any other migration-related enquiries, for a fast response, and friendly, professional advice.

Peter Mares’ Article 

DIAC has now provided the following information about the Bill: 

“ On 26 May 2010 the Migration Amendment (Visa Capping) Bill 2010 (the ‘Bill’) was introduced into the Parliament. The legislation seeks to fine tune existing laws to provide the Government with a tool for the targeted management of all aspects of the migration program.

The Migration Act 1958 currently provides the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship with the power to cap and terminate all applications for a certain class or subclass of visa. The new Bill proposes to allow the Minister to cap and terminate applications based on certain objective characteristics, rather than having to cap an entire subclass or class of visas. Example: The Minister could limit the number of General Skilled Migration visas that may be granted in a financial year to applicants who have nominated particular occupations, to ensure the General Skilled Migration program is able to deliver the broad range of skills the Australian economy will need in the medium to long-term.

The Bill is not currently operative and no actual cap is being considered at present. This Bill seeks only to give the Minister the power to implement a cap in future if necessary.”

Our comment – why, in an election year, when the Rudd Govt is under fire for its economic management, would a Minister authorise the expenditure of public money on the introduction of legislation that there is no current intent to use?  And how far ahead is the “future”?  One week?  One year?

Is DIAC really coming clean on its plans to use the legislation?  We think there might be a little left unsaid in this story.  Only time will tell.