As of 1 July 2024, the Australian Government has enacted several significant updates to its immigration system. These changes affect visa eligibility, application charges, and processing procedures across various visa subclasses.

Occupation Lists Updated

• The Medium and Long-term Strategic Skills List (MLTSSL) and the Short-term Skilled Occupation List (STSOL) have been revised.
• Several occupations have been removed.
• Updates will now occur every six months to better reflect the nation’s workforce needs.

Eligibility Changes

• Applicants must meet updated age and English language requirements, especially for General Skilled Migration and Employer-Sponsored visas.
• For skilled independent visas (Subclass 189), the age limit has been reduced to under 45 years.
• English language exemptions have been tightened; high-earning applicants are no longer automatically exempt.

Accredited Sponsorship

• Businesses must meet stricter workforce composition requirements to gain accredited status:
  • Low-volume users: ≥90% Australian employees.
  • High-volume users: ≥75% Australian employees.
  • Government entities and Australian Trusted Traders are automatically eligible.

Police Clearance

• All 457 visa applicants, including dependents aged 17+, must submit police certificates for any country where they have resided for 12+ months in the past decade.

Training Benchmarks

• Employers must contribute to the Skilling Australians Fund from March 2018 onwards.
• Until then, minor clarifications apply for satisfying Training Benchmarks A and B:
  • Benchmark A: 2% of payroll into an industry training fund.
  • Benchmark B: 1% of payroll on training Australians/permanent residents.

Visa Application Charges (VAC)

• VACs have increased across most visa categories.
• Charges are now indexed annually and include service improvements and cost recovery measures.

New Visa Stream for New Zealand Citizens

• A dedicated permanent visa stream for New Zealand citizens is now in effect.
• Eligibility requires long-term residence and meeting income, health, and character standards.
• This change streamlines the path to Australian citizenship.

Online APEC Business Travel Card (ABTC)

• Transition to a fully digital ABTC system has been completed.
• Applicants will now receive their travel card electronically, enhancing processing efficiency.

Passenger Cards

• Australia has retired the physical passenger arrival and departure cards.
• Traveller information is now collected digitally through the Digital Passenger Declaration (DPD).

Source: bal.com