On 27 April, the Minister for Home Affairs mentioned at the NPC that by the end of 2023, all temporary skilled visa holders would have a clear pathway to PR. At the press conference, however, the Minister only mentioned this briefly in passing, with no details provided and without even specifying which visas the term temporary skilled visa actually covered.
Encouragingly, last Friday the Department of Home Affairs website officially announced the new policy for subclass 482 visa holders, which can fairly be described as throwing the door wide open.
Take note: this announcement is not merely an idea or a proposal. Since it has been issued through the Department of Home Affairs website, it means the framework for changes to employer sponsorship over the short-to-medium term has essentially been confirmed. The exact timing of each step is expected to be updated before long.
This article summarises the key points.
01. All 482 visa holders will be able to transition to PR
First: all 482 visa holders will be able to transition to PR, no longer limited to occupations on the long-term list
First, note the Department’s wording: will not limited to the Medium and Long-term strategic skills list. This means every occupation on the 482 list will be eligible for transition to PR. This effectively clears the path for the overwhelming majority of applicants with two years of work experience.
Previously, because occupations on the short-term 482 list had no pathway to PR (apart from specific cohorts covered by the COVID concession), many applicants did not consider applying for a 482 visa and instead opted for the more economical subclass 408 visa. Since both grant full-time work rights and neither offered a direct pathway to permanent residency, why not take the free 408 option.
The situation is now dramatically different. Occupations on the short-term list can also transition to PR, which means any occupation eligible for 482 employer sponsorship can lead to permanent residency.
The short-term list currently contains more than 200 occupations, many of which are very common roles.
For example, Cook (previously only Chef could transition to PR).
Marketing and PR roles such as marketing specialist, advertising specialist, sales and marketing manager, public relations professional, and graphic designer.
Finance and investment roles such as finance manager, finance broker, and investment adviser.
IT roles with lower entry thresholds such as ICT customer support, ICT sales representative, ICT support engineer, and web developer can all transition to a subclass 186 permanent residency visa.
Also on the short-term list are cafe or restaurant manager, conference and event organiser, copywriter, recruitment consultant, organisation and methods analyst, information and organisation professionals (nec), technical sales representatives (nec) including education sales representatives, private tutors and teachers (nec), teacher of English to speakers of other languages, retail buyer, insurance agent, program or project administrator, contract administrator and many more.
In the near future (possibly by year-end), the 200+ short-term list occupations including the ones above will all open a direct pathway to PR. The new policy is highly likely to cover both current 482 holders and new 482 applicants. So there is nothing stopping you from applying for a 482 visa right now and taking advantage of the new policy that follows.
It also means more employers can and will be willing to offer sponsorship.
Many prospective employer-sponsored applicants want to transition to permanent residency eventually, not just work in Australia for a few years and leave. But if their occupation happened to be on the short-term list, there was previously no direct pathway to PR. Both employer and employee might have considered whether they could find a comparable role in the same industry on the long-term list — for instance, whether a Cook could be repackaged as a Chef.
But anyone with some employer-sponsorship experience in the migration industry knows that one of the core requirements of employer sponsorship is the Genuine Position test — the authenticity of the position, meaning the employer must demonstrate that the nominated role is genuinely required. In the past, in order to secure PR, employers were pushed toward higher-threshold occupations such as chef, ICT security specialist, or business analyst, which narrowed the pool of eligible employers considerably. In plain terms, proving that a business needs an ICT security specialist is an entirely different proposition from proving it needs an ICT test engineer.
So the first major benefit of this new policy is that not only are the eligible occupations expanded to cover almost every industry, but the pool of employers able to meet the requirements also expands several-fold.
02. 482 visa holders can transition to PR after just two years
Second: 482 visa holders only need to work for their employer for two years before transitioning to PR
This is the most exciting and easiest to understand change — a faster pathway to permanent residency!
Previously, applicants had to work for their employer for three years before transitioning to PR. Now it is just two years.
Do not underestimate the one-year reduction; the benefits touch every aspect of the process.
One: it accelerates the PR transition. This is simple arithmetic and needs no elaboration.
Two: it reduces the risk of hitting the age cap. The age limit for the subclass 186 permanent residency visa is 45. Completing the transition in two years provides much greater certainty and peace of mind for applicants in their early 40s.
Three: it reduces exposure to employer-side issues. Going from three years to two years cuts the probability of adverse changes in the employer’s business by one-third, making employer sponsorship safer and more reliable.
03. Applicants on the 482 short-term list will no longer be capped on the number of applications
Third: applicants with occupations on the 482 short-term list will no longer be subject to a cap on the number of applications they can make.
The Department’s original wording is: the Government is also removing limits on the number of short-term TSS visa applications that can make in Australia.
As we know, under the previous policy, applicants with short-term list occupations applying for a 482 visa were capped on the number of applications they could make onshore. Apart from certain ITO exemptions, most could only renew their short-term 482 visa once within Australia. This limit is about to be removed.
In the author’s view, this brings two advantages:
If an employee encounters problems while their employer is sponsoring them for the subclass 186 visa, or if the employer runs into operational difficulties that make transitioning to PR harder, the employee can change employers and renew the 482 visa indefinitely until the PR transition is complete. This provides a safer, more certain buffer on the path to permanent residency.
While the short-term 482 visa still had an application cap, applicants had to prove GENUINE TEMPORARY ENTRY (GTE). The author cannot guarantee it, but it stands to reason that with the cap removed, the GTE requirement may also be removed, eliminating another major reason for visa refusals.
Those are the three most important benefits we currently know about in the 482-to-PR reform. The Department of Home Affairs website has also said more information will be released before the new policy is implemented. We expect most of the details to be finalised before the end of 2023!
Summary: this new policy amounts to a general amnesty for the employer-sponsored visa program. It signals that applicants across every industry with two years of work experience will have a pathway to PR — and a faster, more efficient and safer pathway at that.
Best of luck to everyone!
How do you apply for a 482 employer-sponsored visa?
If you are not yet familiar with what the 482 employer-sponsored visa is, here are the application requirements:
Application steps:
A 482 visa application involves three main steps: employer sponsorship approval, employer nomination, and the applicant’s visa application.
Processing speed:
482 processing is currently very fast, with grants possible within three months. It is also worth emphasising that there is no annual cap on 482 grants — unlike the 189, 190 and 491 visas, which depend on yearly quotas.
Eligible occupations:
The short-term and long-term lists together contain more than 400 occupations, covering virtually all common roles, and under the new policy all of them can transition to permanent residency.
Basic requirements for 482 applicants
- The occupation must be on the MLTSSL (long-term list), the STSOL (short-term list), or in some cases the ROL (regional occupation list)
- No age limit (though the transition to PR must occur before age 45)
- At least 2 years of full-time work experience in a field related to the nominated occupation (or pro-rata part-time or even casual equivalent)
- Most occupations do not require a skills assessment (certain occupations excepted)
- For long-term list occupations, English proficiency of at least IELTS 5 in each band or equivalent (valid for 3 years)
- For short-term list occupations, English proficiency of an IELTS overall score of at least 5, with no band lower than 4.5, or equivalent (valid for 3 years)
Employer sponsorship success stories
The team led by the registered migration agents and lawyers at NewStars Group has handled a large number of successful employer-sponsorship cases!
482 grants! 482-to-186 transitions! 186 direct-entry cases! Accounting! Engineering! Marketing! Chefs! Long-term list occupations — and plenty of short-term list occupations too!
A selection of recent success stories is shown below.
Employer sponsorship can be applied for both onshore and offshore — with about 1.5 years of work experience you can already start preparing in advance
