http://www.affinitymigration.com.au/

Fireside with Affinity, North Sydney (2025)

07/06/2024

Yoga and martial arts instructors, and dog trainers are among the jobs being prioritised for skilled migrants in Australia.

While building and trade professionals, including construction project managers, building inspectors, electricians, carpenters and joiners are included on the Confident On List, others are not being prioritised in Australia's skills migration stream.

What occupations do you think Australia should be prioritising?

27/11/2023

BREAKING NEWS!

The Department of Home Affairs released a range of new legislation on 25 November 2023, which came into effect on the SAME DAY.

The GOOD News? Subclass 482 Visa holders on the Short Term occupation list will now be eligible to apply for Permanent Residency under the Subclass 186 TRT visa, subject to meeting all the relevant criteria.

Contact us Today to find out more!

#482 #186

08/05/2023

Minister Giles and Minister Wells announced an Aged Care Labour Agreement to address the skills shortages in this sector.

The Agreement provides additional incentives for employers to attract workers, including an expedited two-year pathway to permanent residency. In addition, ongoing business and union engagement will promote transparency.

To access an Aged Care Industry Labour Agreement, the employer must first enter into an MoU with a relevant industry union(s) – the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation, the Health Services Union or the United Workers Union.

The Aged Care Labour Agreement is available on the Department's website.

08/05/2023

By the end of 2023, the Temporary Residence Transition (TRT) stream of the Employer Nomination Scheme SC 186 will be amended.

-All Temporary Skill Shortage (TSS) SC 482 visa holders will be eligible for ENS visas sponsored by their employers.

-Applicants will need to continue to work in the occupation nominated for their TSS visa(s).

-Sponsored visa holders will be eligible for ENS TRT after two years (down from three years) of sponsorship on a TSS by their employer.

-Applicants will need to meet all other nomination and visa requirements for the TRT stream of the Employer Nomination Scheme visa.

-The limit on Short Term stream TSS visa applications that can be made onshore has also been removed in the interim.

01/05/2023

The Albanese Government will increase the Temporary Skilled Migration Income Threshold (TSMIT) from $53,900 to $70,000 from July 1.

Frozen since 2013, around 90% of all full-time jobs in Australia are now paid more than the current TSMIT, undermining Australia’s skilled migration system.

The new $70,000 income threshold is approximately where the TSMIT should have been if it had been properly indexed over the previous 10 years.

What does this mean for businesses who currently sponsor roles with a market salary below the new TSMIT?

29/04/2023

From 1 July 2023, New Zealand citizens who have been living in Australia for four years or more will be eligible to apply directly for Australian citizenship. They will no longer need to first apply for and be granted a permanent visa. These changes apply to New Zealand citizens holding a Special Category (subclass 444) visa (SCV) who arrived in Australia after 26 February 2001. Protected SCV holders will continue to be eligible to apply directly for Australian citizenship.

For New Zealand citizens who are long-term residents in Australia, this will be achieved by backdating their period of permanent residence for citizenship purposes. This will allow them to meet the 12-month permanent residence period under the general residence requirement.

With effect from 1 July 2023:

- All New Zealand citizens holding an SCV will be considered permanent residents for citizenship purposes.
- New Zealand citizens granted an SCV before 1 July 2022 will have their period of permanent residence for citizenship purposes backdated to 1 July 2022.
- New Zealand citizens granted an SCV for the first time on or after 1 July 2022 will be considered a permanent resident for citizenship purposes from the date of their SCV grant.

The above provisions will apply to New Zealand citizens in Australia. It will also apply to New Zealand citizens who are overseas, but held an SCV immediately before last leaving Australia.

These provisions will not apply to citizenship applications submitted before 1 July 2023.

https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/news-media/archive/article?itemId=1047

10/01/2023

New Zealand Stream - Subclass 189 - Temporary closure

The following changes to the New Zealand stream of the Skilled Independent (subclass 189) visa came into effect on Saturday 10 December 2022.

The stream has been temporarily closed to new applications and the regulations have been amended to enable the streamlined processing of the on-hand caseload.

The temporary closure means an application cannot be made from 10 December 2022 until 1 July 2023.

08/01/2023

The India-Australia (AIECTA) and United Kingdom-Australia Free Trade Agreements have been passed, with the former taking effect on 29 December 2022.

The AIECTA will provide:

-1000 x Subclass 462 (first) Work and Holiday Program visas for 18-31 year old Indians per year
-Indian students graduating with First Class Honours bachelor degrees in STEM fields (including ICT) will be eligible for an extra year on post study visas (three years total).

The UK agreement will remove the regional work component for UK nationals and increases the eligible age to 35 years.

07/01/2023

UPDATE - Subclass 408 Pandemic Stream

The Immigration Department implementing a less restrictive policy on visa condition 8107 work limitation for these visa holders, due to ongoing labour and skills shortage. The visa holders may change employment and work for more than one employer. There is no need to contact the Department to advise of changes in employment.

Visa holders working in Australia should continue to work while they have their SC 408 visa. If they are no longer employed, they should find new employment or make arrangements to leave Australia

03/01/2023

The past 2 weeks have been a time of celebrating the past 12 months and taking time away to relax from the rigours of the demands of work and life.

As a tradition, I take the last week of my holidays to do 2 things:

1. Reflect on the year that was
2. Plan for the year ahead

How do you approach your final week of holidays?

07/10/2022

Did you know we have a booking assistant called Amelia who will help you to make an appointment with one of our Migration Consultants in a few simple steps.

Amelia is a valued part of our team and she's the only one who works 24 hours a day, all year round without needing a break...not even a toilet break.

Try it out today!

https://affinitymigration.com.au/booking/

(P.S. Amelia is not a real person)

05/10/2022

Key Deadline Announced!

Student visa holders (non-Masters and non-PhD) are normally restricted to working 40 hours a fortnight, however, as a response to the skills shortage in Australia, the Department of Home Affairs removed this limitation with no end date at the time.

The Department of Home Affairs has now announced the deadline for this concession will end on 30 June 2023, which means students will be required to adhere to the working hours limitations on their visas again.

Depending on what happens with the labour market in the next 8 months, this could place alot of stress back on employers who are heavily dependent on international students being able to work full time.

Contact us today if you are a business facing this dilemma and would like to plan well ahead of time.

03/10/2022

What are the origins of our Labour Day Public Holiday?

The history of Labour Day in Australia spans over a century. It is an important annual event that remembers those who struggled and succeeded to ensure decent and fair working conditions in Australia. During the mid to late 1800s the working day was long and arduous, where some employees would work up to 12 hours a day, six days a week.

Many Australians saw the need for better working conditions and in the 1850s there was a strong push for this. On April 21, 1856, stonemasons at the University of Melbourne marched to Parliament House to push for an eight-hour working day. An agreement with employers for a 48-hour week was eventually reached and Australian workers welcomed the new eight-hour day.

30/09/2022

Daylight Saving starts in New South Wales on Sunday 02 October at 2AM.

Remember to wind your clocks 🕑 one hour forward! In other words, sleep one hour earlier!

27/09/2022

A few posts ago I touched on the topic of State Hopping - those who relocate from state to state hoping to secure permanent residency through state nomination.

Island Hopping and State Hopping share some key similarities - entering the unknown and the hope of finding what you are looking for.

State Hopping can yield wonderful results, namely the golden ticket towards a visa grant. However, it can be fraught with dangers too, namely if you Hop at the wrong time under the wrong advice. States normally reset their policies starting 01 July of every year and begin to release it to the public between that date and end of August.

It is almost always a bad idea to State Hop between May to August of each year. We recently came across a few Mechanical Engineers who state hopped to NSW in June 2022 under the advice they were given. Disappointment quickly followed as they realised in September 2022 that NSW were not going to sponsor Mechanical Engineers under the 190 visa and the minimum points score for the 491 visa was well above their reach. Ideally, these candidates should have waited until NSW released their policy, then made the decision to move to NSW or another State or remain in their current State.

Contact us today if you are in this situation or share this with a friend who is experiencing this.

21/09/2022

Congratulations, your visa has just been granted!!!

Most people's first reactions is to go out and celebrate the good news. Why wouldn't you?

Well, two reasons to not celebrate first is because there are two very important things you should be doing:

1. Set a reminder in your calendar for your visa expiry date...and maybe set an additional reminder for 30 days BEFORE your visa actually expires.

2. Read the conditions on your visa to understand what you can and cannot do. Breaching a visa condition is no small joke, because the consequences of a cancellation will not appear funny when you are farewelling Australia at the airport.

If your visa expires whilst you are in Australia and you haven't yet lodged a new visa, you are UNLAWFUL. Excuses such as "I was busy and simply forgot" will not hold up. Once you are unlawful, and depending on how long you have been unlawful, your options become extremely limited.

Now go out and enjoy that celebration once you have done Steps 1 and 2!

19/09/2022

When it comes to obtaining permanent residence through state nomination, there are three types of people we see:

1. State Hopping - those who go from state to state with the hopes of being nominated
2. State Shopping - those who stay in one state but continuously browse the options in other states, waiting for the perfect moment to move
3. State Lodging - those who have decided to remain in one state, hoping to be nominated by the same state, and not very willing to move to another one.

There are pros and cons to each category.

Which category do you belong to?

13/09/2022

A program for deep-pocketed international investors to buy their way into Australia could be axed under a review of the nation's migration system. The significant investor visa allows skilled migrants to have their visa applications fast-tracked if they invest $5 million in Australia.

Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil said "Most Australians would be pretty offended by the idea we've got a visa category here where effectively you can buy your way into the country,"

The comment from the Minister misses alot of key facts about the program:

1. Not everyone has AUD 5 million to invest into Australia - we are talking about an extremely small portion of candidates
2. The investment creates jobs within the investment firms which manage these funds
3. A portion of the funds are invested into start ups to support Australia's tech industry
4. This is a 2 stage visa process, meaning it could be anywhere between 7-8 years before an applicant gets permanent residency (not exactly fast-tracked is it?)
5. Most of these applicants end up investing further money into Australia through property acquisitions, everyday expenses and sending their children to private school.

Whilst it is difficult to calculate exactly what the financial contribution of these wealthy individuals are, the facts above hopefully give you an idea of the benefits it does bring about.

Fireside with Affinity

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