Minister Hawke’s announcement on 25 November 2021 that enhanced visa pathways to PR would be available to existing Temporary Skill Shortage (subclass 482) visa holders in the short-term stream and legacy Temporary Work Skilled (subclass 457) visa holders who no longer meet the age requirement is currently being actioned. To enable this the legislation is currently under development and the arrival of this is expected to be around the middle of this year.
Now there is a big chance for eligible applicant’s visas to expire within this period of amendment and the Department of Home Affairs is aware of this chance and has put arrangements in place for the applicants who are affected by this. Their recommendation is that the affected applicant use the ‘COVID visa’ (SC 408 Visa) to allow the applicant to remain in the country legally whilst they are waiting on this pathway to come into play. This also applies to the applicants who are unable to lodge another SC 482 visa while in Australia due to the restrictions associated to doing to.
The new pathway that is going to be introduced will include all the occupations on the STSOL (Short Term Skilled Occupation List) and will not be restricted to specific regions. More information will be released via our website blog, and we will provide updates as it becomes available
The new pathways will be for all occupations on the STSOL list and not restricted to specific regions. Other conditions will be released once the legislation is in effect. To find out if you may be eligible for the permanent residency transition pathway, please contact us for a consultation
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