Australian visas: New immigration policies to roll out in 2019!

There has been unprecedented rise in the numbers of those students and professionals who applied for Australian visas last year. Better times lie ahead for these individuals with some changes expected in Australian immigration in 2019. They no longer will have to move to 5 big cities in the country in search of jobs and other benefits.

Seeking employment in these cities is not a standard norm with the administration creating better opportunities for these youth in the regional areas across the country. However, the administration is planning to grant them different privileges.

LIST OF NEW POLICIES INCLUDE-

• As part of the proposal forwarded to the administration earlier, migrants can apply for regional areas across the country to avail permanent residency benefits.
• There is no need to migrate to Melbourne and Sydney. There has been overcrowding in both cities in the last couple of years.
• Low-skilled migrants with limited English can benefit from PR pathway.

Interestingly, immigration issue remained one of the priorities for the government since the start of this year. It was the government that introduced DAMA (Designated Area Migration Agreements) with NT (Northern Territory) and Great Southern Coast of Victoria. Both of them offered a PR pathway to low-skilled migrants with limited English proficiency.

According to government sources, more agreements as part of the Australian visa process are expected to be signed in other regions to address labour needs.

Under the DAMA provision, there is no compulsion if you have fewer skills, inadequate language skills and a low source of income. If you are a semi-skilled migrant worker, you can access a pathway to permanent migration.

Must Read: Understand Australia, redesign your dreams to Immigrate

SPONSORED PARENT VISA

Recently, the government introduced a new visa to parents of every migrant. Under the provision, every parent is expected to benefit with temporary sponsored parent visas valid for 5 years. Under a new arrangement, parents can stay in the country.

Under the new visa process, parents of migrants can choose a 3-year visa that fetches a fee of $5,000 whereas $10,000 fee announced for a 5-year visa. Besides, there will be an opportunity for a single renewal with a number of these visas subjected to an annual cap of around 15,000.

• If you want to sponsor children of visa holders, you have to ensure parents have health insurance with no need for any healthcare debt to be incurred.
• Migrant couples can sponsor one set of parents as well.

In a significant step, the government wants to improve the immigration program thus matching the needs of specific regional locations.

BUSINESS VISA WITHOUT INVESTMENT PROOF

Last year, a special visa was rolled out to boost the South Australian economy. More applicants are likely to apply for it as the applicant numbers applying for this visa are expected to climb this year.

• In March 2019, the business visa came into effect with no capital outlay required unlike other innovation and business visas.
• It was the government endorsing Temporary Activity Visa-Subclass 408 wherein visa holders are allowed to stay in the country for 3 years along with their families.
• The special visa program is expected to continue for 3 years until November 2021.

DECLINE IN PERMANENT IMMIGRATION NUMBERS

However, there are no significant changes as far as intake of Australian permanent immigration is concerned.

• Since 2011, the government restricted the immigration numbers to 190,000.
• For the first time, actual intake fell to over 162,000 since 2007. This is in proportion to cut in the family and skilled visas.

Interestingly, the government said it would allow more powers to both states and territories while keeping a check in the immigration intake of respective areas.

CITIZENSHIP

The government enforced a few changes since 2017. Under Australian Citizenship law, permanent residents had to wait for 4 years and pass the English language test before applying for citizenship. Both the government and the opposition were at loggerheads for the past couple of years.

On the contrary, English and skill requirements were relaxed for Australian PR across regional areas in the country. The government made concessions in income, skill and English language requirements especially for work visas in the regional areas.

The reason being employers can find local workers with specialized skills wherein vacancies can be filled. New agreements provided migrant workers with a PR pathway.

CONCLUSION

Parents, students, professionals and those looking for Permanent Residency stand to gain this year. Few visas have been enforced already with others in the pipeline. Seek information on the number of visas by consulting our highly-efficient and resourceful immigration teams of Aussizz Group – Australia. These teams are specialised in delivering a range of immigration services.