Australia Visa Processing Priorities Are Now Changed

The Department of Home Affairs (DHA) has changed the priorities for the Australian visa process. According to the new visa process, the health and education sectors will be highly prioritized.

DHA will be implementing new directions to prioritize specific visa applications. Accelerating the skilled visa processing times is an action that eventually clears the backlogs. These steps will help sort Australia's workforce needs.

The new visa process is effective from 28 October 2022. Health and Education sectors are at the top of the priority list.

Following are the skilled professionals that come under the priority of the new visa process:

• ANZSCO Sub-major Group 25 - Health Professionals
• ANZSCO Minor Group 241 - School Teachers
• ANZSCO Minor Group 411 - Health and Welfare Support Workers
• ANZSCO Unit Group 1341 - Child Care Centre Managers
• ANZSCO Unit Group 2346 - Medical Scientists
• ANZSCO Unit Group 2721 - Counselors
• ANZSCO Unit Group 2723 - Psychologists
• ANZSCO Unit Group 2725 - Social Workers
• ANZSCO Unit Group 3112 - Medical Technicians

ANZSCO occupations:

• 134311 - School Principal
• 421111 - Child Care Worker
• 423111 - Aged or Disabled Career
• 423312 - Nursing Support Worker
• 423313 - Personal Care Assistant.

What is the Priority Migration Skilled Occupation List (PMSOL)?

PMSOL is to find occupations with critical skills which help contribute to Australia's economy. It is an initiative to recover the economy from the COVID-19 pandemic. The list comes from expert analysis and advice from the National Skills Commission and Consultation with Commonwealth Departments.

Know the list of priorities for skilled visa processing:

• Visa applications that come under healthcare and education
• Employer-sponsored visas- visa applicants nominated by an approved sponsor with accredited status
• Visa applicants with an occupation who will be working in a designated regional area
• Permanent and provisional visa subclasses, visa applications under the migration program excluding the Subclass 188 (Business Innovation and Investment (Provisional)) visa.
• Other visa applications

The DHA spokesperson said that the applications under PMSOL and other critical sectors would continue as usual while prioritizing the list. The Government increased the funding and staff to reduce the processing times.

The spokesperson also mentioned that the PMSOL and other sectors of September 2020 were time-consuming and based on complex assessments, which contributed to backlogs of visa applications. Also, the PMSOL is an outdated list in which most occupations are not in national shortage.

There were 44 occupations as a part of the PMSOL, including accountant (General), Civil Engineer, Transport and electrical engineer, Veterinarian, Analyst Programmer, Developer Programmer and Software Engineer.

Neha Singh, a migration expert from Melbourne, has implemented the new visa processing priority list. She said that the focus is currently on filling the occupational shortage in the health and education sectors. "I can see that approvals are already being granted faster", she added.

Since 1 June 2022, the department has approved 43,000 temporary skilled and 47,000 permanent skilled applications.

According to the DHA records, temporary skilled visa grants in 2022-2023 are up to 120 per cent, if compared to last year at the same time. Also, 260 extra staff joined to work on faster visa processing.

Australia Migration Program 2022-2023

Australia released the budget for October 2022-2023 that focuses on the migration system boosting the workforce, and building community. The Government welcomes skilled professional to support the national economy and growth.

The country aims to use a migration to cover the critical skills and labour shortages. Australia's permanent migration is up to 195,000 visas in 2022-2023, which is 35,000 more than the previous migration rate of March 2022.

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