Federal Budget General Australia Migration Updates
By admin
The recent budget updates published at budget.gov.au and provided by the migration institute of Australia outline key updates specific to the Australian Governments plans for the 2021-22 Migration Program planning levels which will remain at 160,000.
OVERVIEW
Family & Skilled stream placed will be maintained at their current 2020-21 planning levels, with a continued focus on onshore visa applicants, included in this is reducing the onshore Partner visa pipeline.
Skilled visas – around 50% of the program dedicated to skilled visas and giving priority to highly skilled migrants in the employer sponsored, Business Innovation and Investor Program and Global Talent visa cohorts.
Family visas – the number of places available will be set at 77,300 places for 2021-22.
Focusing on the proportional allocation of places to the Business Innovation and Investor Program, Global Talent and Family visas, an overall decrease in other skilled migration visa places is evident.
Humanitarian Program will be maintained at 13,750 places in 2021-22. The size of the program will remain as a cap rather than what the government will target.
As previously noted, Net Overseas Migration (NOM) is expected to fall from around 154,000 persons in 2019-20 to be around -72,000 persons by the end of 2021, before gradually increasing to around 201,000 persons in 2023-24.
Temporary Visa Holders
The requirement for applicants the Subclass 408 Temporary Activity visa to display their attempts to depart Australia if they intend to undertake agricultural work/activities has been removed by the Australian Government.
The period in which a temporary visa holder can apply for the Temporary Activity visa has also been extended from 28 days prior to visa expiry to now 90 days prior to visa expiry.
Global Talent Visas
$550 million will be allocated over the next four years to attract the highly talked about talent and business from overseas. Another update is that fast tracked advice will be provided by the Australian Taxation Office for foreign investors. On top of that Individual tax residency rules will be simplified.
In regard to the Global Talent visa services provided by the Global Talent Taskforce – the streamlining of visas will go ahead to target highly skilled persons when the circumstances are more favourable.
Student Visa Holders
Employers in the hospitality and tourism industry will receive more support from the Australian Government to assist them in finding workers/employees by temporarily allowing student visa holders to work more than 40 hours a fortnight instead of being restricted to this time limit. Please note that this only applies to the tourism and hospitality industries.
Other
There was no announcement on visa application charges
No announcements were made related to international students in the Budget
Economic growth is expected to hit 4% although this number is moderated by financial the assumptions on which this has been based
The Government will provide funding to continue the Global Service Centre to respond to enquiries from individuals, businesses and industry on visas, citizenship, trade, and customs related matters
