Expanding employer-sponsored pathways to permanent residence

The Federal Government has recently announced changes to the employer-sponsored pathway to permanent residence.

These changes apply to:

• Temporary Skill Shortage (subclass 482) (TSS) visa applicants and;

• Temporary Residence Transition (TRT) of the Employer Nomination Scheme (subclass 186) (ENS) applicants.

Changes to TSS applications

TSS visa applicants in the short-term stream will not be restricted to a maximum of two applications. Previously, a TSS visa holder in the short-term stream could only apply once for an extension in Australia. The recent changes remove the cap allowing TSS holders to apply for a third or subsequent TSS visa onshore.

Changes to the nomination requirements for the TRT stream of the ENS viss

• Sponsoring employers can now nominate all TSS visa holders for permanent residency, including short-term and labour agreement streams.

• Nominated occupations will not be confined to the skilled occupation list, rather, they just need to be listed in the Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupation (ANZCO)

• The duration that the TSS workers must hold their visa and work in their nominated occupation is reduced from 3 years to 2 years.

The above changes apply to applications made after the 25th November 2023.