There is some bad news for you if you were eyeing a job in Australia. According to the new stringent Australian visa rules, Indians won’t be able to get jobs in Australia that easily. Moreover, the most popular visa category for overseas skilled workers has been abolished.
TSS Visa to Replace 457 Visa
The subclass 457 visa category was the one used by most people wanting to take up jobs in Australia which the Australian government has abolished from March 2018. TSS or the Temporary Skill Shortage visa has replaced the 457 visa.
Going by the statistics first published in India Times’ report, almost 22% of the 90,000 457 visa holders are Indians. Thus, a lot of Indians have been affected.
Now, the TSS is the visa that’d regulate people wanting to take up jobs in Australia. It is going to be difficult for people to have permanent residency in the country as the new visa norms are both stringent and restrictive.
People who are newly entering a job or the ones already graduated from Australian universities will additionally find it difficult to get jobs as the norms require 2 years of work experience. And it’d become expensive to hire overseas workers.
Even the labour rules would be stringent according to experts although the same hasn’t been declared yet.
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The Difference in TSS Visa & 457 Visa
The difference apart from how hiring is going to be difficult and the effect of that on Indians is that while the 457 visa’s maximum duration was of 4 years, on the other hand, the TSS visa is divided into 2 types.
Short-Term Skilled Occupation List (STSOL) includes occupations which require temporary skilled workers, with a duration of max 2 years which can be extended to 4 years in certain situations.
The second type is the Medium & Long Term Strategic Skills List (MLTSSL) stream visa type. This kind of visa has a duration of up to 4 tears and is given for occupations covered under the MLTSS List.
Dan Engles, MD, Visa Solutions Australia explains how exactly this can be an issue,
“Short term TSS visa holders are not eligible to apply for permanent residence. The medium or long term TSS visa holder may apply for permanent residence, after having held the TSS visa for a minimum period of three years.” He adds, “Unless you (i.e your occupation) are on the correct list, options for permanent residency are restrictive.”
Cyrus Mistry, director of Easy Migrate Consultancy Services, points out:
“In some cases, the permanent residency pathway through company sponsorship has been removed. To illustrate: There were a lot of applications in the hospitality industry (cooks, restaurant and hotel managers) under the 457 visa category. Many of them came from the international student stream who, after qualifying, found Australian employers to sponsor their visa. These occupations are now on the STSOL list which means they can’t apply for company-sponsored permanent residency.”
To put into simpler words, the Australian government has changed the visa norms and has shifted various ‘skilled workers’ occupations from longer visa duration category to shorter duration visa category.
This change of visa duration coupled with new restrictive visa norms is going to make it difficult for Indians to get jobs in Australia & moreover, to have permanent residence!
What do you think about this visa change policy of the Australian government?
Let us know in the comments below.
Picture Credits: Google Images
Sources: India Times, Business Line, Hindu + more
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