Skills in Demand Visa and National Innovation visa commences 7 December 2024; Core Skills Occupation List released

A media release by the Department of Home Affairs today announced that the Skills in Demand visa and National Innovation visa will commence on 7 December 2024. It confirms the Skills in Demand visa will replace the subclass 482 – Temporary Skill Shortage visa, however, it may be that the subclass will be renamed instead of abolished.

In preparation for this major change that will occur over the weekend, the Core Skills Occupation List (CSOL) was released today, containing 456 occupations that refer to a newer version of the ANZSCO as occupations now considered typical such as 224114 Data Analyst and 225114 Content Creator (Marketing) is on the CSOL.

The CSOL will affect the Core Skills Pathway, which is one of three pathways available under the Skills in Demand visa. It is likely to be the one that is closest to the current requirements for a subclass 482 visa not under the Labour Agreement stream.

What is interesting is that some occupations never considered for a temporary work visa, such as child carer occupations like 421111 Child Care Worker and 421114 Out of School Hours Care Worker will be available.

It is unknown whether any caveats will apply to restrict some of these occupations to regional areas or have other restrictions. There is also no further information on any other aspects of the Skills in Demand visa or the National Innovation visa, which is the visa that will replace the business skills program.

The anticipated reduction of the work experience criterion for 482 visas in the Medium-term stream and Short-term stream that was expected on 23 November 2024 did not take place. Likely, this was due to the rollout of the Skills in Demand visa being only two weeks later.

One thing that can be confirmed is that the current occupation list for subclass 186 - Employer Nomination Scheme visas under the Direct Entry stream will contain the same occupations as the CSOL. In most cases, this will require a skill assessment from the relevant assessing authority.

As this new visa and list will come into effect on Saturday, those preparing to lodge a 482 nomination or a 186 nomination under the Direct Entry stream in an occupation that is not on the CSOL must lodge these applications before ImmiAccount is closed for maintenance at 8:30pm AEDT on 6 December 2024.