Government Announces Stimulus to Regional Migration

On 10^th May 2011 a number of initiatives encouraging migration to regional areas of Australia were announced as part of the Federal Budget. These include:

• 16,000 places allocated to the RSMS (Regional Skilled Migration Scheme) for 2011-12 (an increase of 5,000 over likely 2010-11 numbers).
• The introduction of Regional Migration Agreements.
• Enhanced Regional Outreach Strategy

The RSMS is a permanent visa which requires a job offer by an employer operating in a regional area. The requirements are far easier than other skilled migration schemes - an English score of 4.5 average is required in the IELTS test, and a diploma level education or equivalent work experience. By comparison, under the 457 program, an English level of 5 minimum in IELTS is required for trade occupations - and the 457 is only a temporary visa. For General Independent Migration, under the new points test to come into effect from 1 July 2011, it will be almost impossible to qualify without a score of 7 minimum in each band of IELTS.

Even though the criteria for RSMS are already very low, the Government announced that the criteria for RSMS will be streamlined even further for people already in Australia on 457 visas. Already there are grounds to be concerned that the RSMS visa is becoming the "soft option" for migration to Australia, with reports of positions being created solely to procure a migration outcome. Also, it is doubtful that regional employers really need people with low skill levels - many shortages would be for more highly skilled positions such in the medical profession.

An RSMS visa can be cancelled if the sponsored employee does not stay with the employer for two years, but in practice RSMS visas are not monitored by the Department of Immigration after grant and there is little evidence that this power is actually being exercised by the Department of Immigration. The RSMS visa is a permanent visa and cancellation is not an easy option for DIAC.

Two Stage Process

The Department of Immigration has increasingly adopted a 2-stage process for permanent residence in other migration streams - general skilled, partner and business migration to name a few - with better results than a model where a permanent visa is granted initially, then possibly cancelled later due to non-compliance. Regional concessions were previously available under the 457 program, but were eliminated in September 2009 during the Global financial crisis.

Changes to ENS Occupations List and Salary Level

Changes to the Employer Nomination Scheme (ENS) program have come into effect. The changes are to the following areas:

1. Minimum salary level to be exempt from skills assessment or 2 years residence in Australia to qualify for ENS
2. A number of occupations have been added to the ENS Occupations List, and one removed

Minimum Salary

There are 3 possible skill options which an applicant must meet for grant of an ENS visa. Broadly speaking these are:

1. Skills assessment in the occupation plus 3 years of work experience in the occupation
2. 2 years in Australia on a long-stay work visa (most commonly a 457 visa)
3. Meeting a minimum salary level for high level executives

The change introduced on the 5th of December is to the third option - the previous minimum salary to meet this skill option was $165,000, and this salary level has now been raised to $250,000. The Department claims that this change has been introduced because salaries have moved since the introduction of this skill option in 2005.

No change has yet been made to the minimum gazetted salary for occupations otherwise - these remain at $65,020 for IT professionals or $47,480 for other occupations.

Changes to ENS Occupations List

A number of occupations seem to have been excluded by accident by DIAC from the ENS Occupations List when they moved from the previous ASCO system of occupational classification to the ANZSCO system on 1 July 2010. The reason for the exclusion of the occupations seems to have been that a number of ASCO occupations were split into a number of specialisations under ANZSCO. As a result, the closest match was included in the new ANZSCO ENS List, but a number of the specialiations which would have been included in the relevant ASCO occupation were excluded. A good example of this was the occupation of Graphic Designer - this was split under the ANZSCO system into specialisations such as Illustrator, Multimedia Designer and Web Designer as well as the occupation of Graphic Designer itself.

The following occupations have now been added to the ENS Occupations List:

However, there are a number of occupations, particularly in the IT sector which are still not included in the ENS List without any sound reason such occupations:

The occupation of Medical Technicians (Not Elsewhere Classified) has been removed from the ENS List. This is consistent with the exclusion of other medical technicians such as Anaesthetic, Cardiac, Operating Theatre and Pharmacy Technicians.