Australian Skilled Migration Occupation List Review Suggests Changes

Australian Ministers for Immigration, and for Employment, and Skills, jointly announced review of occupation lists catering to skilled visas and invited submission of stakeholders placing an emphasis from residents of regional areas.

Recommending Changes in the Occupation Lists

The announcement is the result of the focus of Department of Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business that has to recommend changes to the construction of occupation lists from July 2017 when the government created the subclasses in occupation lists except in general skilled migration.

The DESSFB conducted the consultation processes three times in Oct 2017, Nov 2017, followed by May - June 2018. The main change in occupation lists following these reviews happened in March 2019 with up gradation of 36 occupations to the general skilled migration jobs.

Listed and general practitioners needed obtaining the health workforce certificate for all temporary or permanent visas in the Employer Sponsored Schemes.

The future review can produce a substantial change varying from the changes that happened since its inception.

Needing an Overhaul

There was a promise to review the occupation lists regularly, biannually, but it did not happen owing to some contradictions regarding the availability of occupations and the need for addressing skill shortages.

Additionally, there is a question regarding assistance to regional areas. The occupation list catering to the Subclass 187 – Regional Migration Scheme visa is considerable and has many occupations at Skill Level 3 and above. Additionally, the occupation list for Subclass 494 – Skilled Employer Regional visa will be enormous similarly.

The DESSFB is not singularly to be blamed because The ANZSCO, serving the classification of occupations and compiled by Australian Bureau of Statistics was criticized as being totally out of date without any review.  The parties interested in expressing their opinion can provide submission when the DESSFB begins accepting online submissions.

Conclusion

The traffic light bulletin, which identifies occupations necessary for change, is scheduled for publishing, in Dec 2019, and the review will end in March 2020. The proposed changes will be made in subsequent weeks.