October/November 2018 Newsletter
October/November 2018 Newsletter
If you have any suggestions or feedback as to areas you’d like to be covered for our December issue, please email us at our mailing address and we will do our best to include this for you. In the meantime, we hope you enjoy our issue for October/November!
Click here to email us with questions for our December 2018 issue
2. Home Sweet Home: Our New Office!;
3. ENS (Subclass 186) Transitional Arrangements;
4. English Language Requirements for ENS (Subclass 186) Visas;
5. Skilling Australians Fund (SAF) Levy;
6. Client Feedback Surveys – We want to hear from you!;
Home Affairs do have ‘grandfathering’ arrangements available to those whom had applied for or held a Temporary Work (Subclass 457) visa on or before 18 April 2017. These arrangements essentially maintain a permanent residency pathway for certain Subclass 457 visa holders. If you believe you may be within this cohort that could be eligible for grandfathering, do reach out to one of our migration agentswhom can affirm this for you.
People who held, or had applied for, a subclass 457 visa on or before 18 April 2017 will be able to access certain existing provisions under the Temporary Residence Transition stream:
- Occupation requirements remain the same (i.e. there are no restrictions as long as the nominee continues to work in the same position for the same employer as approved for their subclass 457visa);
- The age requirement will remain at less than 50 years of age; and
- The work experience requirement, and the requirement to have worked at least two out of the three years and prior to nomination on a subclass 457, will remain at two years.
A summary table has been provided below to assist applicants to determine which options may remain available to them:
Applicant CohortTRT requirements expected to apply
OR
New requirements apply subject to the transitional provisions outlined below:
- occupation list requirements will not apply;
- the age requirement will remain at less than 50 years of age with existing age exemptions still available; and
- the minimum period an applicant is required to have been employed in their nominated occupation as the holder of a subclass 457 or TSS visa will remain at two years.
All other applicants. New requirements apply.
For ENS visa applications, applicants are required to meet the English language criteria, all visa applicants must have either completed at least five years of full-time study in a secondary education institution or higher education institution where instruction was delivered in English, or have passed an English Language test.
If you don’t meet the five-year study requirement, you will need to provide evidence of your English Language test results. There are two English Language tests we recommend, being IELTS (https://www.ielts.org/) or Pearson Academic (https://pearsonpte.com/). Our agents can advise what score you’re required to achieve based on new legislation.
As of 12 August 2018, employers are required to pay a Skilling Australians Fund levy for every nomination on the Temporary Skills Shortage (subclass 482), Employer Nomination Scheme (subclass 186) and Regional Sponsored Migration (subclass 187) streams. This levy will be payable at time of lodgement of the nomination, and the amount payable is determined by the annual turnover of the sponsoring employer’s business.
For Employer Nomination Scheme (subclass 186) and Regional Sponsored Migration (subclass 187) nomination applications, the fee is fixed at $5,000.00 for businesses with a turnover of over $10 million. For businesses with a turnover of under $10 million, the fee is fixed at $3,000.00.
If you wish to participate in the survey, please follow the below link:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/BX5W933
We greatly appreciate your feedback!
