Many regulations and related instruments for the Skills in Demand (SID) visa were registered today, only a day before this new visa comes into effect on 7 December 2024. With little in the way of details, employers and visa applicants must adjust to the new requirements of Australia’s predominant temporary work visa.

The first item to note is that there will be no new subclass. The Skills in Demand visa will take the same subclass number as the Temporary Skill Shortage visa. However, it is anything but a simple rebadge.

Any 482 visa application lodged prior to tomorrow not being affected by these changes.

There are three streams to the SID visa: Specialist Skills stream, Core Skills stream, and Labour Agreement stream. The first two streams replace the Medium-term and Short-term streams, which means this visa is geared towards a distinction between higher-lower incomes rather than long-short-term occupation shortages. The Labour Agreement stream will effectively retain existing criteria. What happened to the Essential Skills Pathway for lower-paid but critical occupations is anyone’s guess. Occupations that were planned for this stream are likely to be accessed under labour agreements.

The main instrument amends not only subclass 482 visas but also related nominations, sponsor obligations, and employer-nominated permanent visas. Only key aspects are highlighted.

A great part of the instrument involves amending existing regulations to change the name of the subclass from “Temporary Skill Shortage” to “Skills in Demand”, such as with prescribed grounds for visa cancellations, refunds, and certain exemptions to being a member of the family unit. There are, however, significant aspects to this new visa.

Income thresholds

Instead of the Temporary Skilled Migration Income Threshold (TSMIT) there will be two income thresholds in the Migration Regulations 1994 (Cth) (‘Regulations’):

• A core skills income threshold set at the current TSMIT of $73,150, and

• A specialist skills income threshold was initially set at $135,000.

These will be minimum annual earnings requirements (not including non-monetary benefits or superannuation) as part of the relevant nomination application.

These thresholds will be indexed in line with Average Weekly Ordinary Time Earnings (AWOTE) on 1 July every year. It can only be indexed upwards.

Skills in Demand nomination requirements

As with the Temporary Skill Shortage visa, an approved nomination is required for each primary sponsored Skills in Demand visa applicant.

For the Specialist Skills stream the nominated occupation must correspond to an occupation and its corresponding 6-digit code in Major Group 1, 2, 4, 5, or 6 in ANZSCO. This therefore excludes trades workers, machinery operators and drivers, and labourers. This means as well that the occupation does not need to be on the CSOL, however, if the occupation is on the CSOL and a caveat applies to that occupation, it will apply to the nominated occupation under this stream.

For the Core Skills stream, the nominated occupation must correspond to an occupation and its corresponding 6-digit code as listed by a separate instrument. This list of 456 occupations is registered. Of note is that the caveat list has been significantly reduced. A particularly interesting aspect is the need for some occupations requiring an international trade obligation to apply.

As previously reported, a newer ANZSCO will apply. This will be the ANZSCO in force on 23 November 2022 for only SID nominations and subclass 186 nominations under the Temporary Residence Transition stream according to a new instrument. For all other visas, the now pre-historic ANZSCO, which was in force on 27 June 2013 still applies, with the exemption of the occupation list for 186 nominations under the Direct Entry stream. This stream refers to the newer ANZSCO within the instrument.

An employer will not be required to specify which stream they are applying under except for the Labour Agreement stream. If the occupation and the nominee’s annual earnings meet the Specialist Skills stream, that will be the stream the application is made under.

The annual market salary rate requirement (AMSR) still applies, however, the threshold will now be the relevant income threshold of the stream with exemptions if the nominated annual earnings are at least $250,000 or it is reasonable to disregard this provision, which is likely to apply to contractor occupations (medical practitioners and general managers) or where there is a significant accommodation allowance.

A new criterion for the Specialist Skills stream is the need to demonstrate that the business has the financial capacity to employ the nominee for at least 2 years for at least the AMSR for each year. This is to prevent inflating salaries to access this stream.

Another major change is that in either stream, the sponsor can nominate a period of up to 4 years. Previously, the maximum number of years for occupations on the Short-term steam was two years unless certain international trade obligations apply.

Skills in Demand visa applicant amendments

While most of the amendments were made to the nomination requirements, two key changes to the visa requirements are:

Reducing the relevant work experience requirement from at least 2 years to at least 1 year. This can be on a full‑time, part‑time, or casual basis but must be equivalent to a full-time year and must have been carried out within 5 years immediately before the application is made.

Primary visa applicants still must demonstrate their skills, qualifications, and employment background as per the ANZSCO classification with a mandatory skill assessment for certain occupations as was the case previously.

The English language test is now standardised across the Specialist Skills and Core Skills streams to be at least 5.0 in all four bands of an International English Language Testing System (IELTS) test or equivalent. There are the same exemptions, and also higher English proficiency requirements if necessary for licensing purposes.

Subclass 186 Employer Nomination Scheme visa changes

The SID is added to the list of temporary skilled visas: subclass 457 – Temporary Work (Skilled) visa and subclass 482 (Temporary Skill Shortage) visa to be nominated under the Temporary Residence Transition stream.

Importantly, the requirement to have held one of the temporary work visas, and have worked on a full-time basis for at least 2 of the last 3 years unless in a contractor occupation has been removed from the nomination application and inserted as a criterion for the corresponding visa application. Furthermore, any full-time sponsored employment undertaken in Australia on these visas can count towards the two-year requirement with unpaid leave not counting.

Sponsor obligations

These are amended to not unfairly prejudice sponsors when a sponsored worker ceases employment by not requiring them to ensure that primary sponsored person works or participates in the nominated occupation, program or activity when they cease.