After much ado, the employer-sponsored 457 visa program has been abolished and the same has been replaced with a new visa program known as Temporary Skill Shortage. The said change has come into effect from Sunday, March 18th.
The Migration Legislation Amendment (Temporary Skill Shortage Visa and Complementary Reforms) Regulations 2018 has abolished the employer-sponsored visa and has replaced it with the TSS visa. This falls under the Subclass 482 visa. The visa will be available in two streams, namely, short term and medium term. Both of them have more tight requirements with regards to the English language, especially for the longer duration visa. Before applying for this visa, the applicants are also required to obtain a positive skill assessment.
The short-term visa, under TSS, will be issued for a period of two years and will not pave the path for permanent residency. The medium-term visa will be issued for a period of up to 5 years and will require the applicant to have a band score of 5 overall and minimum 5 in each component of the International English Language Testing Service (IELTS). These tight requirements are making the researchers wonder if the numbers of applicants are all set to fall since lesser number of students will be able to stand on the parameters. 457 visa was quite popular among migrants and international students with it’s quicker and easier permanent residency pathway.
