The Prime Minister announced yesterday that there will be special arrangements for Hong Kong nationals to be able to extend their stay in Australia, apply for a permanent visa, and to attract global talent and export-orientated Hong Kong businesses. He also may have hinted revisions to the skilled occupation lists are near.

The international response to Hong Kong security laws that criminalises acts of secession, subversion, terrorism, and collusion with foreign forces, which may involve curtailing freedoms guaranteed when the UK handed over control of the territory to China in 1997 has been varied. These include banning high-tech US exports to Hong Kong, EU economic sanctions, the winding back of extradition treaties by Canada, and the UK offering citizenship to certain Hong Kong residents.

Australia has followed suit with some of these measures including suspending its extradition treaty with Hong Kong, but their major policy announcement is to provide specific visa arrangements for the 13,750 or so Hong Kong passport holders who are either in or outside Australia holding Australian visas, or who have existing visa applications pending a decision.

These arrangements include:

• Current and future Hong Kong students to be eligible for a minimum 5-year Subclass 485 – Temporary Graduate visa after they complete their studies;

• Existing Hong Kong 485 visa holders can apply to extend this visa for a further 5 years;

• Existing Hong Kong temporary skilled visa holders, presumably on the Subclass 457 – Temporary (Work) Skilled visa and the Subclass 482 – Temporary Skill Shortage visa, will be eligible to extend their visa for a further 5 years with a pathway to a permanent visa at the end of that period; and

• Future Hong Kong 482 visa applicants will be granted a 482 visa for 5 years either through the standard business sponsor program after meeting occupation list and labour market testing requirements or the Employer Sponsored Global Talent program, where their annual income must be above the Fair Work High Income Threshold (FWHIT), which was indexed to $153,600 from 1 July 2020. There will be a pathway for a permanent visa after 5 years.

Presumably, amendments to regulations for the Subclass 186 - Employer Nomination Scheme visa will occur to make a permanent employer-sponsored visa available.

In addition to the above, the government has sensed a couple of business opportunities and have leveraged immigration policy for this purpose. Firstly, they will be prioritising visa applications from Hong Kong passport holders for the independent Global Talent visa (that comes under the Subclass 124 - Distinguished Talent visa and 858 - Distinguished Talent visa) and business skills visas, namely the Subclass 188 – Business Innovation and Investment (Provisional) visa and Subclass 132 - Business Talent visa.

Secondly, they will be developing incentives for export-orientated businesses who are regionally headquartered in Hong Kong to relocate to Australia. This will include economic incentives and pathways to permanent visas for critical staff based in Hong Kong.

The finer details of all the above have not yet been released.

New skilled occupation lists coming soon?

Perhaps the biggest announcement may have gone unnoticed. In his media release, the prime minister refers to the “updated skills list”.

This no doubt references the various skilled occupation lists changes proposed by the Department of Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business that have been delayed by COVID-19 according to their website, which also states that the process is stuck at the penultimate Stage 6 and its recommendations to the government. The last stage is, of course, the announcement and implementation of any changes.

From the media release, this looks like it will be sooner rather than later.