The Australian Government has announced that the new Global Talent Scheme comes into effect from 1st July 2018 and will be trialled for one year.

It is believed that the new visa will attract people with exceptional technical skills and talent, which can be transferred to the Australian work-force and in turn encourage business growth.

Highlights of the new Global Talent Scheme:

A key feature of the Global Talent Scheme is that it will be split into two streams:

• Established business stream

• Start-up stream

Successful applicants under both streams will have access to a 4-year visa within the Temporary Skills Shortage (TSS) Visa Programme which came into effect on 18 March 2018, providing visa holders a pathway to permanent residency after three years and certain age cap concessions.

Applications will be simpler and have faster processing times.

The new visa scheme in its current form is not limited to a specific list of occupations.

The features of the two streams:

• Established business stream

• Business must be publicly listed or have an annual turnover of at least A$4 million for each of the past 2 years

• Access up-to 20 positions per year

• Available to accredited sponsors and other businesses

• If the position ends, the visa holder has 60 days to find a new sponsor and a new visa or depart Australia

• Business must show a good history i.e. no breaches of workplace or immigration law

• Business must demonstrate a track record of giving first preference to Australian workers

• Labour market testing for the specific position

• Applicants must meet health, character and security requirements

• They must have no family relationship with directors/shareholders

• Qualifications must be compatible with the highly skilled role

•  Applicant must have at least 3 years work experience directly relevant to position

• Capacity to pass on skills and help develop Australians workers

• Position must have minimum annual earnings of A$180,000

Start-up stream

• Business operates in STEM-related (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) field

• A ‘start-up authority’ must endorse the business

• Access up to 5 positions per year

• Business must show a good history i.e. no breaches of workplace or immigration law

• Business must demonstrate a track record of giving first preference to Australian workers

• If the position ends (eg the start-up ceases trading) the visa holder has 60 days to find a new sponsor and a new visa or depart Australia

• Labour market testing for the specific position

• Applicants must meet health, character and security requirements

• They must have no family relationship with directors/shareholders

• Qualifications must be compatible with the highly skilled role

• At least 3 years work experience directly relevant to position

• Capacity to pass on skills and develop Australian workers

• Minimum annual earnings at the market salary rate (this can include equity, but must have a cash component that is no less than the Temporary Skilled Migration Income Threshold (currently A$53,900)).

SAF Related Visa Information

The online forms are now operating in a similar manner to citizenship forms, where applicants cannot lodge the application without first uploading the required evidence.

However, if you do not answer the questions correctly and you will not be asked appropriate further questions or be prompted to attach required LMT evidence.

If you are lodging an application that involves:

• a waiver of LMT due to an International Trade Agreement,

• an intra corporation transfer, or

• alternative LMT evidence for a select occupation or select position,

applicant must indicate this correctly in the first section of the form, otherwise, applicant will not be prompted to answer further relevant questions or attach required evidence before paying and lodging the application.

For example, the Department reports some applicants have answered ‘no’ to the request for the ITO waiver (International Trade Obligation), but have later attached evidence that would support such a waiver.  Such inconsistencies are leading to refusals.

Similarly, if required evidence is not uploaded at the correct time during the application and even if uploaded immediately after the application is lodged, the application will be refused and the SAF levy will not be refunded.

Do not ignore the warning message on the LMT page that requires you to make these attachments 

Evidence of advertising 

Job advertisements must run for 28 days – members must show evidence of the full 28 days.  Many online advertisements are removed after the expiry date and cannot be easily validated by VPOs.

Members are again warned to provide sufficient evidence of the 28 days advertising, for example:

• Screenshots taken on the first and last date of advertisement, demonstrating that the full 28 days occurred

• Reports from the advertiser verifying the start and end dates of the advertising.

Select occupations and select positions

Members are also reminded that the evidentiary requirements for demonstrating an Australian cannot be identified for a select occupation or position are different to those of other LMT (Labour Market Testing) and are NOT interchangeable.

All LMT requirements are contained in Legislative Instrument (LIN 18/036). 

>> MIA Notice 120 – 2018