Many legislative instruments were registered last week for changes that came into effect on 1 July 2023. Below is a summary of these and how they may affect applications in the future.

Temporary Skilled Migration Income Threshold increase to $70,000

The biggest and perhaps most important change was the increase to the Temporary Skilled Migration Income Threshold (TSMIT) from $53,000 per annum to $70,000 per annum from 1 July 2023. The TSMIT is the threshold of the guaranteed annual earnings, that do not include non-monetary benefits or compulsory superannuation, of a nominated worker. This applies to three major visas:

• Subclass 482 - Temporary Skill Shortage visas,

• Subclass 494 – Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional (Provisional) visas, and

• Subclass 186 - Employer Nomination Scheme visas.

It also applies to nominations for subclass 457 – Temporary Work (Skilled) visas and subclass 187 - Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme visas under the Temporary Residence Transitional stream, where appropriate.

As the criteria for nomination applications are all time of decision unless expressly stated in the regulations, such as satisfying labour market testing, some may have been worried that even if a nomination application was lodged prior to 1 July 2023, it still may be assessed under the new instrument.

This will not occur as the amending instrument specifically states, in paragraph 10, that this change will not affect nomination applications lodged prior to 1 July 2023.

A further protection is subsection 12(2)(a) of the Legislative Instruments Act 2003 (Cth), which states that any instrument that would take effect before the date it is registered, in this case, 27 June 2023, would have no effect if it would disadvantage a person other than the Commonwealth or an authority of the Commonwealth.

What many do not realise is that this is only one monetary hurdle. The other is satisfying the Australian Market Salary Rate (AMSR) which many commentators and legislators fail to grasp.

There are a few exemptions to the TSMIT. One is the salary arrangements for independent contractor occupations, which are restricted to medical practitioners and general managers, and some labour agreements, which generally include a TSMIT discount.

A recent announcement from the Department of Home Affairs confirms that there will be no change to the income requirements for a subclass 191 – Permanent Residence (Skilled Regional) visa, which is zero, as there has never been an instrument made. This is despite their own pre-pandemic announcement that there would be and it would be the TSMIT.

Medical assessments amendments

The health matrix has been amended with a couple of substantive changes. The first is that urine tests will no longer be necessary from 1 July 2023 unless indications require analysis of a condition where a urine test would be necessary for its assessment, such as a condition listed on a visa applicant’s health declaration. Instead, a blood test will be necessary, listed as a serum creatinine/eGFR test.

The change is to better screen for chronic kidney disease for which it has been advised that a blood test is more appropriate. Considering a blood sample must be taken for other tests including for HIV and Hepatitis B and C, this should result in faster medical appointments.

The second change is a shuffling of some countries between low risk for Tuberculosis (Schedule 1) and high risk for Tuberculosis (Schedule 2) of the instrument according to updated information from the World Health Organisation (WHO). Eighteen countries moved to Schedule 1 and two, Kosovo and Niue, were removed from Schedule 1 and therefore are in Schedule 2. Schedule 2 is any country not listed in Schedule 1.

The benefit of Schedule 1 countries is that citizens of these countries who have not spent more than three or more consecutive months in the last five years in countries in Schedule 2 are not required to undertake visa medicals for long-term temporary visas unless special conditions apply or a condition requires an assessment.

It is particularly important to know that those who have dual citizenship and where one country is not listed in Schedule 1, will be required to undertake visa medicals regardless of whether they spent any time in that country or even hold a valid passport from that country.

Prior to this change, a great benefit was the streamlining of medical assessments for further temporary visa applications when the applicant is in Australia. In many cases, temporary visa holders, despite being listed as requiring visa medicals, would not need to do them. As visa medicals are valid for only 12 months, this is a relief to those seeking to renew a long-term temporary visa and where the applicant’s health and circumstances have not changed to warrant another assessment.

UK age cap increase to 35 for Working holiday maker visas

After the entering into force of the Australia-United Kingdom Free Trade Agreement (AUKFTA), the cap for any United Kingdom national including British National (Overseas) has increased to 35 years old.

The change to remove the need to undertake specified Subclass 417 work for these passport holders is expected to come into effect from 1 July 2024.

International Trade Obligation exemption for citizens, nationals, or permanent residents of the UK

Also affecting UK citizens as well as their permanent residents, it is important to note that on the day the free trade agreement was in effect on 31 May 2023, labour market testing to nominate this cohort for a 457 visa or 482 visa was not required.

Despite the amending instrument to recognise the free trade agreement was registered back on 23 November 2022, it only commenced on 31 May 2023.

International trade obligations only apply to 457/482 nomination applications and do not apply to 494 nomination applications.

Specified qualifications for 485 visa extensions

Subclass 485 – Temporary Graduate visa holders that studied certain qualifications can apply for an additional 485 visa from 1 July 2023 as previously reported.

The list of all eligible 3,264 qualifications has been released, and gladly so has the CRICOS code for each qualification, making it easy to search and confirm.

Papua New Guinea added to the Work and Holiday visa program

Papua New Guinea was added to the list of countries where a subclass 462 – Work and Holiday visa is available. From 1 July 2023, PNG passport holders who have successfully completed at least 2 years of post-secondary study, who are more than 30 years old, and who have the PNG government’s support can apply for this visa.

Government support is crucial to this visa application, where necessary, as without it any application is not validly made.

Closure of 189 visa under the New Zealand stream

The subclass 189 - Skilled – Independent visa under the New Zealand stream closed on 1 July 2023 for good despite not being able to make an application from 10 December 2022.

This pathway was paused until 1 July 2023, and it was announced that NZ citizens who have or held a subclass 444 – Special Category visa would be considered a permanent resident for the purposes of applying for Australian citizenship from 1 July 2022 provided they were in Australia prior to that date. If they first enter Australia at any time after, they are considered to be permanent residents.

Those that have a 189 visa application processing, may want to consider withdrawing the application as it will probably serve little purpose in paying the substantial second visa application charge to have this approved.

Roll back of student visa work rights to 48 hours per fortnight

To many international students chagrin, unrestricted work rights are no more except for those exempt due to their studies or those working in the aged care sector. More detailed information can be found in a dedicated article on the matter.

Increase in visa and citizenship application fees

Of no surprise is the increase in visa application charges and citizenship application fees. While most received a reasonable index and in the low single-digit percentages, the subclass 188 - Business Innovation and Investment (Provisional) visa under the Significant Investor stream welcomed the first five-figure base application charge of $13,860.

There are also minor and regular amendments to payments of visa application charges in foreign currencies, which are slowly being phased out as more applications move to the online ImmiAccount platform and payments are being made by credit card.

One wonders what changes are next…

The one many are waiting for is the opening up of the 186 visa under the Temporary Residence Transition stream to all 482 visa holders including those in the Short-term stream and those whose occupation is on the Regional Occupation List.

It was confirmed in a news article by the Department of Home Affairs that not only will it be open to all 482 visa holders, but the working requirements will be reduced from 3 years with the same sponsor, down to 2 years, with unpaid leave likely not counting. This effectively rolls back the requirements to before March 2018, when 457 visas were finally abolished.

The other major anticipated change will be the repealing of the “COVID” visa, subclass 408 - Temporary Activity under the Australian Government endorsed events stream (COVID-19 Pandemic event). No announcement of when this will cease has been made. A good guess for the earliest date will be the end of the year if unrestricted work rights for those in the aged care sector (a critical sector) will be rolled back.