Announcements this week show how serious the government is in trying to support Australia’s economic rebound by providing work rights for temporary visa holders who were either unable to be in Australia when their visa is in effect due to the international border closing or who have or will enter Australia shortly.

408 “COVID” visa for 6 months for all sectors except critical sectors

Perhaps the biggest announcement was that the subclass 408 – Temporary Activities visa under the Australia Government endorsed events (COVID-19 Pandemic event), aka the “COVID” visa will be available to any visa holder who has work rights and for any visa holder who does not have work rights but an offer of employment from a Commonwealth-funded aged care service at the time they apply.

This will be available for temporary visa holders in Australia from 21 February 2022 and temporary visa holders who were in Australia prior to 21 February 2022. This likely means offshore applications will be possible.

For those working in the current list of critical sectors (agriculture, food processing, health care, aged care, disability care, child care, or tourism and hospitality) a 408 visa will be granted for 12 months, and therefore there is no change to current settings. For all other sectors, it will be a 6-month visa.

Applicants will still need to lodge this application within the 90-day window before their substantive visa expires or the not recommended path of lodging within 28 days after their visa expires.

Amendments to the instrument have yet to occur.

Two other changes of interest are:

• Border-restricted affected subclass 476 - Skilled-Recognised Graduate visa holders, all exclusively engineering graduates and their family members, will have their visas extended by 24 months. This is expected to take into effect in April 2022, and like with other visa extensions, no application is required and the Department of Home Affairs will notify visa holders to confirm.

• Secondary visa holders of a subclass 407 – Training visa can work full-time immediately until at least April 2022. These visa holders are subject to the same visa condition 8104 that secondary student visa holders must comply with. This condition, when applied to 407 visa holders, restricts them to working only 40 hours per fortnight. As with similar relaxed work-related visa conditions, instead of amending regulations, the Department of Home Affairs will choose to look the other way to any breaches.

Moreton Bay and Ipswich regional from 5 March 2022

The postcodes in and around Moreton Bay and Ipswich will be considered regional from tomorrow, 5 March 2022. The new instrument deems the following postcodes as either a specified designated city or major regional centre: 4019 to 4022, 4025, 4037, 4074, 4076 to 4078, 4300, 4301, 4303 to 4305, 4500 to 4506, 4508 to 4512, 4514 to 4519, and 4521.

This amendment has major ramifications for several visas:

• Occupations on the subclass 482 – Temporary Skill Shortage visa occupation list of Regional Occupation List can be nominated where the location of employment is in one of these postcodes.

• Subclass 494 – Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional (Provisional) visas will be available, again where the location of employment is within these postcodes.

• Subclass 187 - Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme visas under the Temporary Residence Transition stream will be available.

• A second 485 – Temporary Graduate visa can be granted to those who studied, lived and worked in these or another regional area as the holder of a 485 visa under the Post-Study stream. They also must have studied in a regional area to be granted their first 485 visa.

• Business owners can qualify for residing and running a main business in these postcodes for a Subclass 888 – Business Innovation and Investment (Permanent) visa and the closed Subclass 892 – State/Territory Sponsored Business Owner) visa.

• Scoring an additional 5 points for a General Skilled Migration visa: 189 - Skilled – Independent visa, 190 - Skilled – Nominated visa and Subclass 491 – Skilled Work Regional (Provisional) visa, if the applicant met the Australian study requirement in one of these postcodes. Eligible relatives usually living in these postcodes can also sponsor for a 491 visa.

Temporary visa holders living and working in these postcodes will want to assess their permanent visa options very carefully.