Hot on the heels of the Prime Minister’s visit to New Zealand, amendments to the Subclass 189 - Skilled – Independent visa under the New Zealand stream will see relaxed income criteria for visa applicants but not a decrease in the threshold and an added exemptions to income and residency requirements due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Greater flexible income and residency requirements from 1 July 2021

The Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Aff​airs announced last week that the regulations to 189 visas under the New Zealand stream will be amended to make it easier for applicants to meet the criteria for grant.

While the requirement of being usually resident in Australia starting on or before 19 February 2016 for a continuous period of at least 5 years immediately before applying will remain, there will be an allowance for time spent outside Australia due to COVID-19 travel restrictions to be counted towards this requirement. This is likely to operate similar to the concession period allowances currently operating on many visas.

The second amendment will see the number of years the primary applicant needs to meet the minimum income threshold in the last five years before applying reduced from four to three years. One of those three years will need to be the most recently completed income tax year. Income tax years run from 1 July to 30 June.

Added exemption to income requirements

In addition to the amendments coming on 1 July 2021, a new instrument that commenced yesterday adds a COVID-19 exemption to the income requirements. This exemption allows applicants who would have likely met the minimum income requirement for the 2019-20 income year but could not meet this requirement to provide various forms of evidence that they are exempt from meeting the income requirement for that year only.

This exemption adds to the existing parenting orders, workplace compensation, and parental leave exemptions that apply to any income year.

Furthermore, the minimum income amount has remained at $53,900 for this income year, which is the same as the Temporary Skilled Migration Income Threshold (TSMIT) used for other skilled visas. The difference between the minimum income for a 189 visa under the New Zealand stream and the TSMIT is that the income is taxable income as listed in their Notice of Tax Assessments issued by the Australia Taxation Office. The amount of claimed tax deductions that reduce taxable income will need to be considered for those near the threshold.