Australian Visa Changes With the New Financial Year 2022 – 23

1st July 2022 is the beginning of the new financial year 2022–23 in Australia and it has an important place in Australian Immigration as well. This year, there have been some significant changes that are about to come. The changes are not only going to support the inland applicants but also bring new opportunities for the overseas candidates as well. This year will be a reflection of the strong economic reforms and important immigration rules implementation that have been planned due to the Wuhan virus COVID-19 pandemic situation. If you are looking to Migrate to Australia or you are already there and looking to settle in Australia then you should keep an eye on these three key changes.

• Temporary skill shortage visas
• Temporary graduate visas
• Working holiday maker visas

Temporary Skill Shortage Visas

• As a part of the new reforms, the Australian government has made an easy pathway for the Temporary skill shortage (TSS) subclass 482 visa holders to Apply for Australian Permanent Residency.
• There were more than 52,000 candidates who were on subclass 482 or related subclass 457 visas until 31 March.
• These visa subclasses have ceased the scope to apply for a further visa in March 2018. However, according to the new changes from July 1st 2022 all these visa holders can apply for the Temporary Residence Transition (TRT) visa.
• These visa-type holders can only apply for a further visa if they are nominated by their employers to work and live permanently in Australia.
• Here one of the important points is that only those candidates eligible to apply who have valid subclass 482 or 457 visas in the last two years.
• As per the conditions, those candidates who are in Australia from 1 February 2020 to 14 December 2021 can apply for a particular visa type.
• Apart from this, the subclass 457 visa holders who fall in the Short-term Skilled Occupation List (STSOL) can apply for the stream.

Temporary Graduate Visas

The changes in the temporary graduate visa are one of the most important updates to Australia immigration under the 485 Subclass Temporary Graduate Visa. Here are some of the significant points of the visa type.

• The purpose of the visa is to support those candidates who have lost their time due to the travel restriction that can occur because of the Wuhan COVID-19 Virus.
• Those eligible aspirants can apply for a replacement visa.
• Only those candidates can go ahead with the visas who previously hold the temporary graduate visa that expired on 1st February 2020 or after.
• Moreover, these candidates should also have been outside of Australia between 1 February 2020 and 15 December 2021.
• There are approximately 30,000 candidates who are currently or formerly holding Temporary Graduate visa holders.

TEMPORARY GRADUATE VISA (SUBCLASS 485) UPDATE AND REQUIREMENT

Working Holiday Maker Visas

• Due to the Wuhan COVID-19 virus pandemic candidates who have visited Australia faced locked out in the country.
• On the other side who have a visa but are unable to travel to the country as well.
• But as per the new reforms from 1st July, a 30 percent increase only for the year 2022 – 23.
• This year countries like Mongolia and Brazil also got access to the Australian working holiday visa program. Moreover, the government has also increased the cap for this financial year under the subclass 462 visa arrangement for specific countries.
• For instance, Italian and Danish citizens will increase by 5 years for 30 to 35 years age people.
• The cap of 1400 places has also increased under the same visa subclass for the countries like Hungary, Austria, and the Slovak Republic.
• This year for two countries India and Australia signed a significant and historical “Free Trade Agreement” on 2nd April 2022. In addition, as part of the FTA, the Australian government has opened the Working holiday maker visas for Indians as well.

AUSTRALIA OPENS NEW OPPORTUNITY “WORK & HOLIDAY VISA” FOR INDIANS

Conclusion

For this financial year, the Australian government has planned several reforms last year and this year we are looking at the impact of them. However, most of the reforms have been designed by the previous government and a couple of months back the government changed. (Read more about the last government’s planned reforms) Now for the time being the new government is implementing a similar strategy but it may change sooner or later.