The Federal Budget was handed down last night, and as always it contained migration-related reforms. Most were foreseen.

Work experience requirement for 482 visas reduced to one year from 23 November 2024

A major reform is the work experience requirement for Australia’s temporary employer-sponsored visa. This was hinted at in their Migration Strategy when it suggested a change to make it easier for international graduates to meet the skill requirement for a subclass 482 – Temporary Skill Shortage visa.

It is now confirmed in the second budget paper that the mandatory work experience for a subclass 482 – Temporary Skill Shortage visa, and likely the new Skills in Demand visa, will be reduced from two years to one year from 23 November 2024.

This reform will apply to all streams: the Short-term stream, Medium-term stream, and Labour Agreement stream. For the first two streams the regulation currently requires that:

The applicant has worked in the nominated occupation or a related field for at least 2 years.

This, however, will not change the other skill requirement that applies for all streams, which is clause 482.212(3) and that:

The applicant has the skills, qualifications and employment background that the Minister considers necessary to perform the tasks of the nominated occupation.

The way this criterion is assessed under policy is whether the applicant has the necessary qualification according to the nominated occupation defined under the Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO). In some occupations, a certain number of years of work experience can substitute for the qualification, but for many licensed occupations, such as medical practitioners, lawyers, engineers, and nurses, a qualification is mandatory.

For the Labour Agreement stream, the two-year work experience requirement can be disregarded, and this will occur if the labour agreement approves an occupation where the work experience requirement is less than 2 years.

It is highly likely that the new Skills in Demand visa, which will probably commence after 23 November 2024 because why would they bother amending a visa subclass if they will abolish it, should carry the same work experience requirements.

Business Innovation and Investment Program (BIIP) closing

The writing has been on the wall for business skills visas for quite some time. Early last year, a Productivity Commission report slammed the program for performing “poorly on almost all fronts” and showed that this program provided a negative net fiscal impact. This means that on average these visa holders take more from government services than they put in with tax receipts.

Additionally, invitations were halted for all business skills visa streams this program year, as there was already a backlog of subclass 188 – Business Innovation and Investment (Provisional) visas that will make up the allotted 1,900 places in the program year.

As this visa runs on the same Expression of Interest model as General Skilled Migration visas, unless an applicant has already received an invitation, they will not be able to apply for this visa. Refunds of visa application charges will be available from September 2024.

This should not affect existing 188 visa holders applying for the permanent subclass 888 - Business Innovation and Investment (Permanent) visa as an invitation is not required, but only that the nominating State or Territory government agency or the CEO of Austrade has not withdrawn the nomination.

New National Innovation visa replacing the Global Talent visa

Some consolation to the BIIP closing is a new National Innovation visa which will replace the subclass 858 – Global Talent visa in late 2024 to “target exceptionally talented migrants who will drive growth in sectors of national importance.” How this visa fares, and the effectiveness of the existing Global Talent visa program has not been assessed.

No information on what the requirements will be were mentioned.

Subclass 476 – Recognised Graduate visa permanently closed from 1 July 2024

While not in the budget papers, it is now known that the subclass 476 – Recognised Graduate visa will close permanently from 1 July 2024. It is unsurprising given the government took the extraordinary step of cap and ceasing this visa at the end of last year.

International student visas capped by university; net overseas migration to halve to 260,000 by 2024-25

The Budget estimates that the net overseas migration will halve from 528,000 in 2022–23 to 260,000 in 2024–25 and the government’s intervention and policies will contribute to a reduction of around 110,000.

One way of doing this will be by capping the number of international students that can be enrolled by each university based on factors such as how much purpose-built student accommodation they provide. Caps can increase should more of this accommodation become available for both local and international students.

This is to alleviate housing pressures, particularly in major capital cities where the majority of universities are located.

There is no mention of any cap for other international education providers, such as vocational colleges.

Lastly, a data-matching program between the Department of Home Affairs and the Australian Taxation Office of income and employment data will occur to mitigate exploitation of migrant workers.