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What’s New with the Visa 457

Source: Australian Immigration Department.

The Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Chris Bowen MP, has announced the government will look to halve 457 visa processing times and implement a new temporary migration initiative to address the skill needs of the resources sector – while shoring up strong investment in domestic training.

Mr Bowen said the new Enterprise Migration Agreements (EMAs) would allow major resource projects to gain access to overseas labour for genuine skills vacancies that cannot be filled from the Australian labour market.

‘This new initiative will streamline negotiation arrangements for access to overseas workers and guarantee faster processing times for visa applications,’ Mr Bowen said.

‘EMAs will be a custom-designed, project-wide migration arrangement uniquely suited to the resources sector, ensuring skills shortages do not create constraints on major projects and jeopardise Australian jobs.

‘With $380 billion of investment in the pipeline for resources projects, we are approaching a critical juncture in the construction phases of a number of major projects. Access to overseas labour will ensure the peak workforce needs of these projects are met, realising the economic and employment benefits of the projects.’

Mr Bowen said overseas workers would only be a temporary solution, with the ultimate focus on local skills and training.

‘To be approved for an EMA, projects will need to develop a comprehensive training plan, demonstrating how the project will invest in the up-skilling of Australians to meet future skills needs in the resources sector,’ he said.

‘This plan will need to set measurable targets for training that develops skills in occupations where there are known or anticipated shortages.

‘Overseas labour will only be supplementary, with resources projects required to demonstrate effective and ongoing local recruitment efforts.’

Mr Bowen said EMAs would be available to projects with capital expenditure of $2 billion or more and a peak workforce of 1500 workers.

Existing migration options will continue to be available to resource projects that do not meet these thresholds, including about two weeks’ processing for decision-ready temporary skilled subclass 457 visas.

‘While processing times for 457 visas have reduced by 30 per cent over the past five years, the government will establish a new processing centre in Brisbane and aims to reduce processing times even further,’ Mr Bowen said.

‘The goal is to deliver a 10-day median processing time for applications which are complete at the time they are lodged.

‘This additional processing site, with a significant number of extra visa processing staff, will ensure that complete applications are allocated and processed as quickly as possible.

‘The 457 visa program benefits Australian industry by providing access to the global market of workers when suitably skilled workers cannot be found locally.’

The program is uncapped, demand-driven and highly responsive to the economic cycle. It provides a flexible avenue for employers to fill immediate and short-term skills vacancies and is on track to record its strong year yet.

Mr Bowen said the Department of Immigration and Citizenship would also deliver an improved regional strategy, to ensure regional employers secure the information they need about various migration and visa programs available to help them fill skilled vacancies.

‘The robust integrity framework introduced in 2009 will continue to ensure that only genuinely skilled workers enter Australia,’ he said.

‘These protections will ensure this initiative will not be used to undercut Australian wages or exploit overseas workers.’

Today’s announcement follows the government’s acceptance in March of all the National Resources Sector Employment Taskforce’s 31 recommendations, which included the introduction of EMAs.

Help for immigrants in Far North Queensland

A Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) team will visit regions of Far North Queensland affected by Cyclone Yasi in the coming days, as part of its regional outreach program.

Officers will travel to regions including Tully and Innisfail to provide support to temporary visa holders, including overseas workers and tourists who may be concerned about their immigration status.

“If people in the affected areas hold a visa which is about to expire, or work for a business which has been affected, the department urges them to contact DIAC as soon as possible to discuss their options,” a departmental spokesman said.

“DIAC officers will be on the ground in affected areas shortly to assist these people.”

Officers will also meet with local farmers and businesses to discuss potential sources of labour, such as working holiday makers, as they start the massive clean-up and rebuilding effort.

“Working holiday makers are an ideal option for Far North Queensland landholders who are seeking an immediately accessible labour force on properties affected by Cyclone Yasi,” the spokesman said.

“Many overseas workers in Queensland showed a keen interest to assist in the clean-up in regions of the state devastated by the recent floods, and DIAC is equally keen to assist the victims and volunteers as they cope with yet another natural disaster.”

Working holiday makers may also wish to volunteer in the clean-up and rebuilding and DIAC officers will be on hand to provide advice and information to ensure visa holders undertake volunteer work in a manner that is consistent with their visa conditions.

Construction work following a natural disaster, whether it is paid or unpaid, can be counted as part of the specified work in a regional area of Australia that visa holders need to complete to apply for a Second Working Holiday visa.

More information on working holiday visas and DIAC assistance following Cyclone Yasi can be found at www.immi.gov.au.

The Australian Future Skills List – Where is it?

Guest Blogger: Embrace Australia
So what has happened to the Australian Future Skills List that we were promised back in December? As Australian visa applicants drum their fingers impatiently, waiting for news on the FSL we take a look at what could have gone wrong.

The Critical Skills List (CSL) was introduced back in January 2009 in order to prioritise those applications with occupations that were desperately needed to fill the skills shortages Australia was experiencing at the time.

The CSL was meant to update the rather outdated MODL and closely represent real skill shortages all over Australia. If you had a skill that was in the MODL you still had a strong application, but if your skill was in the CSL it meant that your application would be processed a lot quicker.

The CSL was meant to work in harmony with the Australian states own critical skills list, however some of their skilled occupations in demand are not on the CSL. For instance Western Australia has included Production Manager on their skills in demand list and have even noted: “The shortage appears to be most severe for mining production managers with underground hard rock experience relevant to the Australian mining industry.” Yet the Critical Skills List does not list Production Manager as an occupation in demand.

At the time of the CSL’s introduction however, Senator Chris Evans, the Minister for Australian Immigration and Citizenship, reassured applicants that the CSL does indeed work closely with the state governments: “The Critical Skills List will be reviewed regularly, in consultation with the States and Territories, industry and unions to ensure that it remains valid and current in the changing circumstances.”

Then came September 23rd and new regulations for priority processing which meant that if you had managed to get state-sponsorship but did not have an occupation on the Australian Government’s CSL, your visa application would not receive priority. That means that Western Australia would have to wait for its Production Managers. Rather a monumental mistake by the government surely, since Western Australia is currently going through a mining boom. The wait would not be a short one either as applicants were told by the DIAC that their visa applications might not now be finalised for up to three years.

The Future Skills List is proposed to reflect more accurately the skills that are in severe demand, much as the CSL was meant to do. The government may use it in an attempt to ‘save face’, thereby ensuring that state skills in demand are included on the FSL, or they may not. It’s difficult to tell without more information. However the FSL is intended to replace both the MODL and the CSL, the latter being phased out slowly.

But where, you may ask, is this Future Skills List? The Australian Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) had stated that it expected to announce the FSL back in December. But there was no word from the DIAC about it. Now we are into January and all across the internet, Australian migration forums are all echoing with the same question – where is it?

Susan Wareham McGrath a migration agent and member of the Embrace Australia community has this to say on the subject of the missing FSL: “DIAC originally intended to announce the results of the MODL Review in December 2009 after it had gone to Parliament. It wasn’t able to meet that timeframe and Parliament will next sit between 2 and 11 February. Hopefully, things will progress soon after that, but it depends on the Order of Business during the sitting. If it doesn’t make it during the February sitting, Parliaments next sitting will be 9 – 18 March.”
“Unfortunately, all we can do at this stage is “watch this space” and keep an eye on the daily Order of Business and Hansard between 2 – 11 February.”

So there you go, hopefully all will be revealed this month and speculation about the occupations that will appear on the FSL will be put to rest. No doubt many Category 5 applicants will be hoping that the government have taken notice of the skills shortages in many regional states of Australia and that the FSL accurately reflects these shortages. If not then it’s back to the drawing board for many frustrated Australia visa applicants.

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