5 years New Skilled Regional (Provisional) visas – To Commence in Nov 2019

Department of Home Affairs is introducing two new visas for skilled migrant and dependent family members to work and live in regional Australia.

1. Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional (Provisional) visa
2. Skilled Work Regional (Provisional) visa

These two visas allow applicants to stay in Australia temporally for up to 5 years and the holders of these visas will be eligible to apply for Permanent Residence Visa which will commence in November 2022. Regional Australia can be defined as follows:

STATE	AREAS
NSW	Everywhere except Sydney, Newcastle, the Central Coast and Wollongong
QLD	Everywhere except the Greater Brisbane area and the Gold Coast
VIC	Everywhere except the Melbourne metropolitan area
WA	Everywhere except Perth and surround areas
NT	Everywhere
SA	Everywhere
TAS	Everywhere

For these new visas, employers can access to over 70 more regional occupations to sponsor migrants than the non-regional equivalent visa. As these visas are for regional areas in Australia, applicants are able to obtain extra five points for regional nomination. Benefits to international graduates from regional institutions This provides additional benefit to the applicants who graduated from the regional institutions an additional year for post-study and work rights in a regional area. This also allows the holders of 485 visa to maintain their ongoing residence in regional area. More information will be announced by Department of Home Affairs in the coming weeks. If you are interested in this visa and would like to have more information, please do not hesitate to contact us at info@straistlawyers.com or call us on (08)8410 9069.