New Changes to Skilled Visa Priority
On October 28, 2022, the Minister of Immigration officially announced that it would streamline the visa application consideration process and expedite the processing of high-priority applications.
All visa applications are processed according to the “Order of Considerations” established by the Department Home Affairs. To facilitate more efficiency, the Department Home Affairs increased its staff significantly in May 2022 to speed up visa application processing.
Hence, over 2,780,000 visas being approved since June 1st, including over 43,000 Temporary Skilled Visas and over 47,000 Permanent Skilled Visas.
Ministerial Direction No. 100
According to the Ministerial Direction No. 100 as above, applicants working in Health and Education sectors will be given priority in their visa processing and even applicants who are applying from out of Australia will also be given priority. In detailed below:
- Prioritises applications in relation to healthcare and teaching occupations, as well as offshore permanent and provisional applications.
- Helps small businesses seeking to recruit overseas workers. It speeds up processing for all occupations and makes the process less complicated. This change will allow more applications to be processed faster, particularly for the critical Temporary Skill Shortage visa, which is designed to respond quickly to labour market needs.
- Restores priority for Accredited Sponsors in all sectors who are trusted employers and key businesses that drive economic productivity. Efficient processing of these applications allows the Department to have more capacity to handle other applications as well
- Ceases the Priority Migration Skilled Occupation List (PMSOL) and critical sectors.
– The PMSOL was outdated and no longer reflected the critical workforce shortages seen across Australia.
– Applications with occupations that were on the PMSOL or in critical sectors will continue to be processed efficiently given the improvements in visa processing since the Government committed additional funding and staff to reduce processing times.
– Sectors that had occupations on the PMSOL also had numerous occupations that weren’t on the PMSOL. These occupations will now be able to be processed faster, resulting in a better service overall. - Reduces the number of priorities, which will increase efficiencies and assist in reducing processing times across caseloads. It allows the Department to consider applications which were not prioritised under the previous direction, while progressing steady volumes of incoming visa applications.
– The reduction in the number of priorities includes removing priority for the Global Talent and Business Innovation and Investment Programs. Visa applications for these programs will still be processed efficiently in line with planning levels made under the annual Migration Program.
Lists of Visas Subject to Review
- Subclass 186 (Employer Nomination Scheme) Visa
- Subclass 189 (Skilled – Independent) (Points-tested stream) Visa
- Subclass 190 (Skilled – Nominated) Visa
- Subclass 191 (Permanent Residence (Skilled Regional)) Visa
- Subclass 482 (Temporary Skill Shortage) Visa
- Subclass 491 (Skilled Work Regional (Provisional)) Visa
- Subclass 494 (Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional (Provisional)) Visa
- Subclass 858 (Global Talent) Visa
The Highest Priority among these is:
- Visa applications in relation to a Healthcare or Teaching occupation.
- For employer Sponsored Visas, visa applications where the applicants is nominated by an Approved Sponsor with Accredited Status/
- Visa application in relation to an occupation to be carried out in a designated regional area.
- For permanent and provisional visa subclasses, visa applications that count towards the migration program, excluding the Subclass 188 (Business Innovation and Investment (Provisional)) Visa.
- All other visa applications.
Check out the new processing priorities in the Ministerial Direction No. 100
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