“Skilled Visa E-news September 2017” (c) border.gov.au

Occupations update
When are the next changes to the lists of eligible skilled occupations?

Consistent with the Australian Government’s announcement, the lists of eligible skilled occupations will be reviewed every six months, with the next update expected in January 2018.

457 update
Reminder regarding evidence of LMT

As advised in the last newsletter, nomination applications lodged on or after 1 October 2017, are required to provide additional evidence under policy in order to satisfy the Labour Market Testing (LMT) requirement (where required) – that is:
a copy of relevant advertisement(s)*; and
if fees were paid, receipt for any fees paid.
The current Domestic Recruitment Table (DRT) will no longer be accepted as sufficient evidence under policy of having tested the Australian labour market – and hence, that there is no suitably qualified and experienced Australian citizen, Australian permanent resident or eligible temporary visa holder readily available to fill the nominated position.

Market salary rates
Agents are reminded to ensure that they are providing sufficient supporting documentation to demonstrate that market salary rate provisions are met and that the documentation required depends on whether there is an equivalent Australian worker performing the same work in the same location.

Processing times update

ENS and RSMS processing times have increased due to an increase in lodgement numbers since April 2017.
Processing times for complete subclass 457 applications are significantly shorter (up to 3 months) than processing times for incomplete applications (currently up to 10 months).

Adding newborn children
Agents are requested to remind their clients with on hand visa applications to advise the Department as soon as children are born and provide a birth certificate in order for the child to be added to the application on departmental systems (regulation 2.08).

Completing the 457 Subsequent Entrant (SE) online form

Some users seem to be confused by the question ‘Give details of the associated primary visa applicant/holder’ on page 2 of the subclass 457 subsequent entrant online form.
In answering this question, some users are entering the biodata details of the SE instead of those of the subclass 457 visa holder.
Where this occurs, the application is able to be submitted by the user, but it cannot be validly lodged. This is because the data in the SE applications does not match the information in departmental systems about the 457 visa holder, and prevents lodgement systems from being able to ‘link’ the applications.
Manual intervention by a departmental officer is required to correct the data error within the SE application form, this can only occur once authorisation to amend the application data has been provided by the authorised contact for the application.