New TSS Visa

The changes which were foreshadowed last April were finally implemented in the early hours of Sunday 18 March 2018 (after the regulations were released last Friday). There is now a new Temporary Skills Shortage (subclass 482) visa and there have also been changes to the ENS visa.

Basically:

  1. there are less occupations available and they have been divided into “short term” and “long term” needs list. That division of short/long term is also reflected in two different streams of the TSS visa;
  2. visas will only be granted for 2 years in the short term stream and 4 years in the long term stream;
  3. applicants who want to transition to permanent residence will need 3 years (not 2) working on the TSS;
  4. there will be stricter requirements for trying to find a local person to do the job (i.e. labour market testing will be more stringent) – see IMMI 18/059
  5. there will be more onerous English language requirements – see IMMI 18/032;
  6. the legislation to impose a “training levy” (instead of the current benchmarks) has currently not passed parliament, but in the meantime the training requirements are set out in  legislative instrument IMMI 18/017;
  7. there have also been changes to income threshold, annual earnings and new concept of Annual Market Salary Rate – see IMMI 18/033;

For a more detailed summary of the changes, one of the better places to look is the DHA skilled visa newsletters which are published on its website.

I am of course happy to help with any specific questions.

Creative commons acknowledgment for the photograph.