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Temporary resident (skilled) report

1.20 Top 15 citizenship countries for primary applications granted in 2022-23 to 30 September 2022
2022-23
Citizenship Country
India 1,390 4,290 209.5% 29.6%
United Kingdom 1,150 1,890 64.1% 13.0%
Philippines 570 1,550 170.9% 10.7%
Ireland, Republic of 490 560 13.2% 3.9%
China, Peoples Republic of (excl SARs) 210 470 127.4% 3.3%
Sri Lanka 100 430 334.7% 2.9%
South Africa 160 420 163.4% 2.9%
United States of America 220 300 40.0% 2.1%
Malaysia 120 300 146.7% 2.0%
Korea, South 190 270 43.9% 1.9%
Brazil 120 260 122.9% 1.8%
Italy 170 220 24.1% 1.5%
Japan 130 210 62.8% 1.4%
France 160 210 30.6% 1.4%
Nepal 110 200 77.3% 1.3%
Other Countries 1,390 2,930 110.0% 20.2%
Total 6,680 14,490 117.1% 100.0%

1.18 Top 15 nominated occupations for primary applications granted in 2022-23 to 30 September 2022
Nominated Occupation
261313 Software Engineer 440 1,220 176.5% 8.4%
261111 ICT Business Analyst 150 710 373.8% 4.9%
351311 Chef 600 700 15.4% 4.8%
253112 Resident Medical Officer 660 700 5.3% 4.8%
261312 Developer Programmer 180 480 158.7% 3.3%
224711 Management Consultant 70 320 373.1% 2.2%
221213 External Auditor 80 300 279.5% 2.0%
321211 Motor Mechanic (General) 60 290 405.2% 2.0%
221111 Accountant (General) 270 280 1.8% 1.9%
263212 ICT Support Engineer 30 240 621.2% 1.6%
261311 Analyst Programmer 240 230 -3.4% 1.6%
263213 ICT Systems Test Engineer 40 220 429.3% 1.5%
261112 Systems Analyst 30 210 711.5% 1.5%
225113 Marketing Specialist 90 200 120.9% 1.4%
351411 Cook 80 200 142.0% 1.4%
Other Occupations 3,650 8,220 125.1% 56.7%
Total 6,680 14,490 117.1% 100.0%

Sydney family breathes ‘sigh of relief’ after health insurer settles $550,000 in medical bills

(c) sbs.com.au https://www.bupa.com.au/migration-agents/JflVGUjvK0WNI0kBioi1RA

An Indian family in Sydney says having health insurance coverage proved to be lifesaving when an unexpected illness struck.

A Sydney-based family is advocating for compulsory health insurance for people coming to Australia on a visitor visa.
Their concern comes after they had a personal experience of dealing with a massive medical bill that amassed during the treatment of a visiting family member.
Health insurance is meant to cover any medical conditions, injuries or accidents that may affect the policyholder.
But people often wonder if it is worth taking the risk of not having insurance cover.
Health experts say Australia’s medical system is one of the costliest in the world so you better have it.
This was brought home to the Singh family in Sydney when they battled both cancer and the trauma of its associated treatment costs.
The illness struck unexpectedly.
In March 2018, 64-year-old Kanwaljit Singh and his wife travelled to Australia from India.

Their son Harkanwalpreet Singh, who lives with his family in the Sydney suburb of Quakers Hill, had made health insurance arrangements prior to their arrival in Australia.
Mr Singh told SBS Punjabi that only after two months of stay with the family his father was diagnosed with Leukemia – the blood cancer.
“It was shocking news for our family. My father was living a very healthy life until now. It was tragic to see this happen,” he said.

‘A terrible time’
Mr Singh said his father’s medical bills are now well over $550,000. But luckily, they were covered in full by their health insurer, Bupa.
“It was a terrible time to go through. But I am glad that we were here in Australia and more importantly, we had this insurance policy. Now we can breathe a sigh of relief,” he said.
“There was a lot of paperwork involved. We had to supply them all the fine details of my father’s health. To my understanding, the insurer wanted to make sure that it was not a pre-existing disease, and of course it was not in our case.”
Mr Singh said he is very thankful to the hospital staff and the insurance company who helped him when things were spiralling out of his control – both emotionally and financially.
“The medical system treated us very well. Over the last two years, we have so many positive stories to talk about, including the treatment and other support that we received from nurses, doctors and other specialists.”

‘Don’t take it lightly’

Prabhdeep Bhalla has been working in the insurance sector for the last eight years. She strongly advises people travelling to Australia to have health cover.

“You shouldn’t take it lightly. It could be one of the most important decisions of your life,” she says.

Ms Bhalla suggested the policyholders should check all the terms and conditions very carefully.

“If you don’t understand, ask again. It is important that you understand its consequences,” she adds.

“The insurance becomes even more important when the visitors are in old age. They tend to be more prone to having health issues”

“Visa troubles for Aussie startups persist as Global Talent Scheme (GTS) pilot delayed for months”

Australian startup founders are still facing significant visa issues, with industry figures claiming the new visa options revealed in the wake of the 457 visa abolition aren’t giving founder sufficient access to international talent.

The Federal Government effectively put visa issues to bed earlier this year with the unveiling of a new ‘Global Talent Scheme’ visa and the 457-replacement Temporary Skill Shortage (TSS) visa.

The new visas were heralded as a “game-changer” for the startup scene, but months down the line attitudes have grown cold after political turmoil in Canberra has effectively halted progress, leaving startup founders with limited access to global talent.

The Global Talent Scheme visa promised to create a specific ‘stream’ just for startups, which would allow them to hire for five positions each year via the visa, with a pathway to permanent residency given after three years. There were a number of concessions stapled to the visa, however, with startups needing to be ‘verified’ by an independent panel prior to using the visa class.

Hopes were high for the new visa stream, however, speaking to StartupSmart, StartupAus chief executive Alex McCauley says the Global Talent Scheme visa is well and truly on the backburner, failing to miss its target for a pilot launch on July 1. McCauley sits on the advisory and independent panel for the Global Talent Scheme visa.

“Unfortunately it’s been quite slow coming in. The pilot was meant to start on July 1, but there have been no visas issued under the scheme yet,” he says.

“Part of the reasons for that is the shifting around on a political level in Canberra, but in the meantime, startups have been applying for the regular TSS visa, which just looks a lot like the 457 visa.”

TSS visa worse than the 457

Comparing the TSS visa to the 457 visa is even too generous according to some founders. The TSS visa has been criticised as being too restrictive to startups looking to hire internationally, with Jo Burston, founder of labour hire and migration consulting firm Job Capital telling StartupSmart the TSS visa is far from a holistic solution for businesses.

The renowned business owner and startup scene advocate says her experience working closely with businesses looking to hire international talent has laid bare the faults of the TSS visa, namely the significant processing times and high costs. Additionally, Burston says many founders just “don’t know what to do” when it comes to the incredibly complex Australian visa space.

For a short-term TSS visa, the cost of sponsoring an applicant starts at $1,175, and for a medium-term visa they start at $2,455. Additionally, businesses now must pay a bevy of fees and levies, including a $2,000 to $7,000 levy depending on the business’ turnover, and a requirement to dedicate 1-2% of its payroll to an industry training fund.

Burston says these costs are an “instant barrier” for smaller businesses and young startups who were hoping to employ overseas workers, saying the spendings can compound quickly if businesses want to employ multiple international workers.

She also criticised the labour market testing required of companies as part of the TSS visa, which requires businesses to undertake four months of job-searching prior to hiring an international worker for the role.

“This hinders any company looking to get a worker into Australia really quickly, especially those who need someone with very specific skills to run a certain project,” she says.

“A lot of companies have shied away from the process which has led to them not having the expertise they need, simply because they didn’t want to put themselves through six months of dealing with Home Affairs.”

While McCauley agrees on the slowness of the TSS visas, he thinks the costs are mostly a non-issue for startups, who he says will be employing workers on significant salaries in the first place.

However, although the startup advocate says it’s better to have the TSS visa rather than be in “limbo” like the community was last year, he says the TSS visa is nowhere near as good as the 457 visa in isolation.

“The government wanted to make it harder for businesses to get visas, and that’s what they’ve done,” he says.

But once the Global Talent Scheme is up and running, McCauley says startups will have a solid visa option, even despite Australia’s “slow-moving immigration apparatus”.

Further changes unlikely

If startups are still hopeful for sweeping policy changes on visas, Burston warns founders might be waiting for a while, saying the 457 visa class was abolished by the government to keep it off the political agenda and the topic is too “politically safe” for either party to foray into.

“I can’t see anything changing any time soon without some major lobbying. It’s not going to happen,” she says.

McCauley mostly agrees, saying while “anything’s possible” he doubts any major changes to the visa will happen in the near future but says some changes on the edges could be made.

He’s hopeful to see some progress soon on getting the TSS visas finalised and established, saying they just need to be “signed off” on by the government.

“We need to get things moving, but stuff takes time in government, and even more time if there are political issues in Canberra,” he says.

(c) smartcompany.com.au

“457 visa repeal leaves talent gap in advertising”

Top recruiters believe the 457 visa repeal is contributing to a bigger talent gap in the advertising industry, but is it time the industry stopped complaining and focused on training local execs?

Speaking at the AdNews Lessons in Leadership event, the panel shared their frustrations with recruiting from overseas following the overhaul of the 457 visa that moved a number of advertising specific roles to the list of occupations only eligible for the short term visa, which does not offer a route to permanent residency.

Iknowho consultant Sheryn Small agencies are shying away from sponsoring people as it’s become more expensive and a more difficult process, which in turn has made it harder for recruiters to find talent.

“Fortunately or unfortunately, a lot of the talent pool, particularly in the advertising industry, comes from abroad,” Small said.

“It’s having an impact on our ability to find people in the market and to also employ people with international experience, which used to be really attractive for a lot of agencies. It’s a lot tougher to do.”

Small was speaking on the panel alongside Publicis Communications talent acquisition director Courtney Robinson, Scout managing director Patrick Flaherty, Hourigan International leadership consultant Simon Hadfield and Commtract CEO Luke Achterstraat.

Robinson said research from Publicis found that Australia loses 15% of its talent to overseas opportunities and there are no international candidates to plug those holes following the 457 changes.

“We’re losing a lot of people and not able to get them back,” she said.

Flaherty argued that the talent shortage and skills gap is nothing new, particularly for media agencies struggling to fill complex data and technology roles, so it’s time the industry accepted the 457 changes as a reality and focused now on training.

(c) adnews.com.au

“Industry calmed by foreign visa changes”

Chief executives, engineers and scientists are some of the key occupa­tions that will benefit from changes to the government’s shake-up of the skilled migration program aimed at putting Australian workers first.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said that, from today, all permanent skilled visas would have “tightened English-language and lower maximum-age requirements”, while flagging further measures to improve the integrity of the foreign-worker system.

The changes are accompanied by a range of measures that also take effect today, including penalty rate cuts for retail and hospit­ality workers, the lifting of the temporary deficit levy, a 3.3 per cent increase to the minimum wage, a 2 per cent pay rise for ­polit­icians, a pause on the indexation of family payments, and a major overhaul to the superannuation system, including a universal cap on concessional contributions at $25,000.

In April, the government announc­ed plans to abolish the contentious 457 foreign-worker visa program and create a new Temporary Skill Shortage visa, to start in March next year.

The changes unveiled yesterday were made in response to industr­y feedback, after concerns were raised at the way the new TSS visa program had been divided, with some industry sectors saying they would be unable to attract world-class talent.

This was because Mr Dutton created two TSS visa categories: a short-term, two-year stream and a medium-term stream allowing workers in “high skill and critical need occupations” to stay for up to four years.

As part of the shake-up, the list of eligible occupations underpinning the 457 visa program was heavily condensed from 651 to 435 occupations, with 216 removed.

Yesterday’s changes mean 36 occupations are being restored to the four-year visa stream. They include­ petroleum engineers, biochemists, horse trainers and metallurgists. Other occupations such as helicopter pilot, music director and nurse researcher have been restored to the two-year stream.

The government has also shuffled­ around the occupations between the streams. While only two occupations, mining production manager and anaesthetist, have been shifted from the four-year visa stream to the two-year stream, 23 occupations have been upgraded by being moved into the four-year visa stream. These include statisticians, university lecturers, chief executives, botanists, zoologists and meteorologists.

President of the Association of Australian Medical Research Instit­utes Tony Cunningham said the changes represented “really great news for medical research”.

Ai Group chief executive Innes Willox said the tweaks made by government addressed legitimate concerns raised by industry. “Ai Group members had … been very concerned by the earlier downgrading of chief executive, managing director and corporate general manager to the short-term list,” Mr Willox said.

Business Council of Australia chief executive Jennifer Westacott said the overhaul addressed the “genuine concern that a two-year visa is not long enough to attract and retain the best talent from around the world”.

(c) Joe Kelly theaustralian.com.au

“Government Modifies Visa Programme”

The Australian federal government has modified its 457 visa occupations list to once again include categories vital to the Thoroughbred racing and breeding industries. The industries were faced with a shortage of skilled workers when categories were removed from the 457 visa’s skilled migration occupation list that would allow foreign nationals to come to Australia to fill positions in stables and on stud farms. The categories added include ‘jockey’, ‘horse breeder’ and ‘horse trainer’.

“Racing Australia commends Immigration Minister Peter Dutton’s early acknowledgement of the potential problems faced by the Thoroughbred racing and breeding industry and his department’s efforts to resolve them,” said Racing Australia Chief Executive Officer Barry O’Farrell. “Mr Dutton was very clear: if we could demonstrate the proposed changes would

damage Australia’s $5-billion racing industry he would act. Working with all industry sectors, we prepared a strong case and we’re delighted Mr Dutton has responded positively. We also acknowledge the strong support of Deputy Prime Minister and Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce.”

“Our use of skilled migration visas is relatively small compared to other industries, but those who are employed fill roles that are critical to the ongoing operation of the horse racing and breeding sectors,” O’Farrell added. “Today’s decision provides the certainty required by those responsible for managing

the operation of Australia’s Thoroughbred studs, stables and racetracks.”

Basil Nolan, president of Thoroughbred Breeders Australia, said, “On behalf of the TBA I’d like to thank the government for listening to us breeders, as well as the broader racing industry, on what our needs are. We don’t employ big numbers of foreign workers, but those that are here are a vital part of the workforce and in a global business such as breeding we need to continue to have access to these highly skilled people. We also owe thanks to Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce, who met with us to discuss this issue face-to-face and gave us a commitment he would assist on our behalf. I should also point out that it is testament to the continued efforts of TBA under our Chief Executive Tom Reilly to improve our industry’s standing in Canberra that we were able to have such a meeting and receive such a commitment. Finally, I would like to thank Barry O’Farrell at Racing Australia for his ongoing efforts on this issue as well as the Australian Trainers’ Association and NSW Trainers’ Association.”

(c) thoroughbreddailynews.com

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