Like clockwork, 1 July is an important date for Australian immigration. Not only is it the start of the program year for permanent migration, but many legislative changes are made that will affect current and future aspiring migrants.

Temporary Skilled Migration Income Threshold (TSMIT) up 4.5% to $73,150

An important aspect of all nominations for employer-sponsored visas, including under labour agreements, which sometimes provide proportional concessions, is the salary arrangements of the nominated overseas worker.

One of the hurdles to an approved nomination is that the nominee’s annual earnings, excluding any non-monetary benefits, in relation to the occupation, which is effectively their salary, will not be less than the temporary skilled migration income threshold (TSMIT).

Despite the TSMIT’s first word being temporary as if it applies only to nomination applications for the subclass 482 – Temporary Skill Shortage visa, it is also a benchmark for the provisional subclass 494 – Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional (Provisional) visa, and the permanent subclass 186 – Employer Nomination Scheme visa. It also applies to the permanent 187 – Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme visa where a nominee is eligible although there are likely to not be many left.

The TSMIT jumped just under 30 per cent on 1 July 2023 after years of no change. It will increase by a perfect 4.5 per cent on 1 July 2024 to $73,150, according to a recent article by the Department of Home Affairs.

The new TSMIT will apply to all nomination applications lodged from 1 July 2024. It is also likely to apply to the new Skills in Demand visa and the Core Skills Pathway.

This comes as no surprise as the government has made it known they intend to increase the TSMIT annually and by a certain benchmark, which will be revealed soon.

The methodology of originally calculating the TSMIT is also unknown and likely arbitrary, given so much speculation leading up to the 1 July 2023 increase. The TSMIT was a threshold designed so the nominee and their migrating family members have sufficient access to cash payments to support themselves in Australia without imposing additional costs on the Australian community. How this makes sense when 494 visa holders and 186 visa holders have access to Medicare is hard to reconcile.

The article is wrong in one major respect. Nominations require the salary to be at least the TSMIT and the annual market salary rate. This is because the annual market salary rate must also be at least the TSMIT. A nomination must be refused if the annual market salary rate is below the TSMIT unless exempt.

There are few exemptions to the TSMIT and annual market salary rate. These exemptions are creatures of policy as there is a regulatory provision to disregard these requirements.

Graduate visa changes: Master by research and doctoral degree graduates survive age cut to 35

The whipping boy of visa reforms, the subclass 485 – Temporary Graduate visa will get another round of punishment due to commence on 1 July 2024.

The first is changing the names of the streams. The Graduate Work stream will be renamed to the Post-Vocational Education Work stream. The Post-Study Work stream will be renamed to the Post-Higher Education Work stream. For the latter stream, applicants will no longer be required to have granted their first student visa in an application lodged on or after 5 November 2011, which is the day the recently replaced genuine temporary entrant requirement commenced.

This will hopefully make it easier to identify which stream the visa applicant is eligible for. The education and occupation requirements for the Post-Vocational Education Work stream, namely that the visa applicant nominates an occupation on the Medium and Long-term Strategic Skills List (MLTSSL) and meets the Australian study requirement by obtaining highly relevant vocational qualifications in that occupation remain. It is assumed a provisional skill assessment will also be required.

The second, and perhaps the most important, change is the eligible age a primary applicant must be. Currently, for the first graduate visa, the primary applicant must be under the age of 50. From the first of July, the primary applicant must be no older than 35, except for Hong Kong and British National Overseas passport holders and masters by research and doctoral degree graduates, who will need to be under 50 years old to make a valid application.

The third, and almost as important, change is that visa grant periods have been reduced. For the Post-Vocational Education Work stream the length will revert to 18 months. For the Post-Higher Education Work stream, it will be 2 years for bachelor and master by coursework degrees and 3 years for master by research and doctoral degrees. For both streams Hong Kong and British National Overseas passport holders will be granted a visa for 5 years.

There are longer stay periods for Indian nations under the Australia-India trade agreement. If they have studied a bachelor’s degree (with first class honours in a STEM field or ICT) or any master’s degree they will be granted a visa for 3 years, and 4 years for doctoral degree graduates.

Stay periods are important, however, there will be no disconnect between the graduate stay period and the work experience required to be eligible for a 482/TSS visa. This is because, by the end of the year, the necessary work experience will be reduced from two years to one.

The second Post-Higher Education Work stream will remain for regional graduates, but the ‘select’ degree extension and Replacement streams will cease.

2024-25 planning levels: employer-sponsored visas doing the heavy lifting

Lastly, as part of this month’s budget, the planning levels for the 2024-25 program year were announced.

The total number of permanent visas (for which provisional visas are included) will be reduced by 5,000 to 185,000 places with 4,900 places taken from the skilled stream and 100 from special eligibility visas. The makeup of all family visas was unchanged.

What is evident, however, is the continued shift away from General Skilled Migration visas, particularly the subclass 189 – Skilled – Independent visa. Those places were drastically cut by a substantial 45 per cent from 30,375 places to 16,900 places.

Conversely, 186 visas increased by just under 20 per cent from 36,825 to 44,000 places. This is likely due to the realisation that demand-driven employer-sponsored visas produce better outcomes than any other visa program. Those expecting an invitation for a 189 visa, particularly when invitations have been restricted to healthcare and teaching occupations should not hold their breath.

There are likely more changes to come.