The Interior Ministry is moving towards online electronic hosting for all temporary and permanent residence visa applications. If you meet certain requirements as a permanent resident, you can apply for Australian citizenship. It gives you the right to vote and the right to benefit from certain government services and benefits. The Australian migration programme has evolved over the years in line with the political, social and economic requirements of the government of the day. These changes are reflected in the changing ethnic composition of migrants to Australia and the change in the balance between skilled and family flows of the programme.
A number of policies have been put in place to increase the likelihood that new migrants can find work and achieve economic independence, reducing the risk of migrants becoming an attack on the state treasury. This followed concerns about the employment outcomes of new migrants following the economic downturn of the early 1990s. Moreover, the past decade has seen a shift in the balance of the migration program away from the family flow in favor of the skilled stream. In 1996-97, skilled migration accounted for 47 percent of the migration programme; by 2008-09, that figure had risen to 67 percent.
Those with temporary primary permits usually manage to properly apply for most of the country’s permanent residency visas. Australian migrants are permanent residents of Australia who have a migrant or permanent residence visa and can live and work in Australia indefinitely. Although migrants are not citizens, they have the opportunity to become citizens after meeting the residency requirement. There are several ways to emigrate to Australia, through family, work, refugee or humanitarian status. Skilled vocational visas: Australian work visas are usually granted to highly skilled workers. Candidates are evaluated according to a points-based system, where points are assigned to certain educational standards.
Whether it’s students, immigrants with PR visas, or investors and business people, the country has something for everyone. One of the main immigration hotspots, Australia is home to immigrants from over 150 countries and has a diverse society with different cultures, languages and social lifestyles. New Zealanders have the opportunity to live and work permanently in Australia without a permanent residence visa.
In addition, the skilled migration flow is a points-based system and is the most popular immigration program for obtaining a PR visa. Australia offers unlimited labour rights to dependents of skilled workers who are sponsored on permanent and temporary entry visas. There is no restriction on the number of visas that must be offered to professionals and other skilled visitors using the temporary entry regime. Australia also has a relatively more flexible and up-to-date temporary entry scheme, compared to most other destinations.
In 2009, following the global financial crisis, the Australian government lowered its immigration target by 14% and reduced the permanent migration programme for skilled migrants to 115,000 people for that financial year. In 2010-2011, the immigration permit was adjusted so that 67.5% of the permanent migration program would be for highly skilled migrants and 113,725 visas were granted. Recent policy changes in the skilled flow of the migration programme further highlight the relationship between the migration migration to Australia programme and the labour market needs of the Australian economy. In the wake of the GFC, australia’s migration programme was not only scaled back, but also reformed to ensure that migrants to Australia meet the specific needs of the economy and fill the gaps in the labour market where they currently exist. It remains to be seen whether these reforms will have the desired effect to fill the critical deficit in the Australian labour market, and whether temporary migration will serve to fill these needs.
It will be interesting to see in the coming months and years how policies related to permanent and temporary migration will be developed, particularly in the context of the debate on sustainable population. It is this growth of temporary migration, rather than permanent migration under the Migration Programme, that has stimulated the growth of net overseas migration levels. The NOM is calculated taking into account the addition to the Australian population resulting from the difference between those who leave permanently or in the long term and those who arrive permanently or long-term.
The largest categories of temporary migrants who have arrived in Australia in recent years are foreign students and temporary skilled migrants, particularly those arriving on a temporary business visa. The 457 visa allows employers to sponsor skilled workers from abroad for a period of three months to four years. It was introduced by the Howard government in 1996 as a means of attracting more skilled workers to Australia and in response to the demand for temporary access routes to Australia among overseas workers. It offers employers a faster and more flexible way to recruit skilled workers than is possible under the permanent migration programme. Eligible foreigners under existing and future visa programs are likely to benefit from a more streamlined process and path to permanent residency.