Impact of COVID : Present and Future of Immigration

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Australia has strict border measures in place, inter alia strict quarantine rules, travel restrictions, regional caps on international travel. These measures have its due impact on the immigration process as well. The Department is prioritising processing visa applications for those travellers in the exempt categories to support urgent travel. Some services relating to the visa application process are impacted by COVID-19. This includes overseas panel doctors, English language testing facilities, biometric collection and paper application lodgement centres. While these services are unavailable, many applicants cannot meet visa requirements. Authorities confirmed that applicants will be given additional time to complete checks and provide the requested information.
Migration Plan 2020-2021 is yet to be announced due to deferring of Financial Budget till October 2020 as a result of pandemic. Migration Plan 2019-20 is to be followed until any further notice.
The Department of Home Affairs has issued an interim allocation of subclass 491, 190, 188 and 132 visa nomination places to states and territories which will be updated after October budget. The Department of Home Affairs has directed that until this time, all nominations must be justifiable in relation to their likely contribution to Australia’s economic recovery, and follow three priorities:

a) High quality subclass 188 and 132 (Business Innovation and Investment Program) nomination applications.

b) Applicants critical to supporting response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including individuals providing critical or specialist medical services, critical skills required to maintain the supply of essential goods and services, or delivering services in sectors critical to Australia’s economic recovery.

c) Applicants currently in Australia who can demonstrate their capacity to meaningfully contribute to economic recovery.


Invitation Rounds

As per website of Department of Home Affairs, the Government is closely monitoring migration and visa settings to ensure they are consistent with public health measures, are flexible and do not displace job opportunities for Australians, so that Australia can effectively respond to the immediate and subsequent impacts of COVID-19. Invitation rounds had taken place in May, June, July and August 2020 as targeted. However, during the last round, only 110 invitations were issued under Skilled Independent visa (subclass 189) and 90 invitations for Skilled Work Regional (Provisional) visa (subclass 491) – Family Sponsored. These figures are very low in comparison to pre- COVID invitations. For instance, in February,2020, 1,000 invitations were issued for Skilled Independent visa (subclass 189) and 500 invitations for Skilled Work Regional (Provisional) visa (subclass 491) – Family Sponsored.

State Nominations

The last invitation round for state nomination of Canberra Matrix was in 31 August,2020. Although eligibility criteria need to be satisfied at the date of matrix submission, Applicants impacted by COVID-19 can request a waiver of the ‘continuous employment’ eligibility criteria in case of travel ban, self-isolation, closed/reduced business hours.
NSW is currently closed to applications for nomination under the Business Innovation and Investment Program (BIIP) and the Skilled Work Regional (Provisional) visa (subclass 491).NSW will open to new nominations once the Commonwealth Department of Home Affairs provides with an allocation of positions for 2020-21. Invitation rounds for NSW nomination under the Skilled Nominated visa (subclass 190) will also commence at this time.
As per website of Northern Territory, onshore General Skilled Migration (GSM) nomination applications and all Business Investment and Innovation Program nomination applications will continue to be accepted and assessed, but no nominations can be issued until the Northern Territory has been allocated quotas. Offshore GSM nomination applications remain closed.
In respect to Queensland, it is seen that business and skilled migration program will remain closed on 1 July 2020 until further notice. BSMQ will not be accepting any Expressions of Interests (EOIs) submitted on Skillselect from 1 July 2020.
Victoria’s 2020-21 Victorian skilled visa nomination program (subclass 190 and 491) will open on Tuesday 8 September 2020. It is also following the priority criteria in response to COVID pandemic.
Tasmania has also announced that nomination as per provisional allocation will be based on priority as directed by Department of Home Affairs. All new and existing nomination applications will be considered according to these priorities, with those in critical roles being nominated first. Existing applicants who are not in critical roles will be considered only after priority applications for critical roles have been processed. Decisions on non-critical role applications may not be available until October or later. Only those applicants with the most compelling claims will be nominated. This requirement will be reviewed after the Federal Budget in October when full details of the 2020-21 nomination allocations and requirements are announced by the Department of Home Affairs.
According to a news report dated 21st August,2020, the Western Australian State Nominated Migration Program is currently suspended. WA Migration Services will not issue invitations to apply for State nomination during the suspension period.
The Occupation list for South Australia will updated only after middle of October,2020.

Critical Skills

As per the Department advisory, the priority will be given to applicants with critical skills needed during and post COVID Pandemic. Travel exemption for individuals in critical sectors or with critical skills is granted by the Commissioner of the Australian Border Force. It contemplates travelling at the invitation of the Australian Government or a state or territory government authority for the purpose of assisting in the COVID-19 response, providing critical or specialist medical services, including air ambulance, medical evacuations and delivering critical medical supplies or people with critical skills required to maintain the supply of essential goods and services (such as in medical technology, critical infrastructure, telecommunications, engineering and mining, supply chain logistics, agriculture, primary industry, food production, and the maritime industry),those delivering services in sectors critical to Australia’s economic recovery (such as financial technology, large scale manufacturing, film, media and television production and emerging technology), where no Australian worker is available, providing critical skills in religious or theology field and whose entry would otherwise be in Australia’s national interest, supported by the Australian Government or a state or territory government authority.
In Canberra Matrix, the ACT Occupation List was replaced by the ACT Critical Skills List on the 19 August 2020.
For Tasmania critical role include those: directly assisting in Tasmania’s COVID-19 response directly engaged by Tasmanian Government, providing critical or specialist medical services or delivering medical supplies potentially associated with COVID-19 response. This includes all general nursing and medical positions with the Tasmanian Health Service directly involved in the supply of essential goods and services (medical technology, critical infrastructure, telecommunications, engineering and mining, supply chain logistics, agricultural technology, food production, and the maritime industry) including highly skilled and specialised roles in infrastructure engineering and maintenance such as dams, large-/high-complexity bridges, irrigation schemes, transport logistics planning and maintenance, agriculture such as artificial insemination technicians, wool classers, livestock pregnancy scanners, the supply of essential goods and services which would be in jeopardy without the applicant.

Trend Analysis of Occupation ceiling for period 2019-2020 and 2020-2021

The Department of Home Affairs has announced the occupation ceilings for 2020-2021.The new occupation ceilings indicates that the Australia’s migration program for the new financial year is driven by the need to fight the corona virus pandemic and post COVID economic recovery. The occupations where the ceiling has raised can be generally categorised into health care and related professionals, education related and occupations closely related to infrastructure development.
Instances of occupations for which ceiling raised are Occupational Therapists, General Practitioners and Resident Medical officers, Medical Laboratory Scientists, Other Medical Practitioners, Midwives, Registered Nurses, Construction manager, Engineering Managers Other specialist managers, Auditors, Company Secretary and corporate treasurers, Civil Engineering Professionals, Electrical Engineers, Early Childhood (Pre-primary School) Teachers, Secondary School Teachers, Special Education, Teachers, University Lecturers and Tutors, ICT Business and Systems Analysts, Motor Mechanics, Structural Steel and Welding Trades Workers, Metal Fitters and Machinists, Bricklayers and Stonemasons, Carpenters and Joiners, Plumbers , Electricians, Electronics Trades Workers etc.
On the other hand, occupation ceiling threshold has been decreased for Accountants (reduced from 2746 to 1000), Artistic directors and media producers, Management consultant, Architects and Landscape Architects, Industrial, Mechanical and Production Engineers, Industrial, Mechanical and Production Engineers, Software and Applications Programmers, Database and Systems Administrators and ICT Security Specialists, Computer Network Professionals, Solicitors, Psychologists, Social Workers, Sports Coaches, Instructors and Officials
The above analysis clearly indicates the shifting of focus of health and infrastructure related occupation. There is a reliable prediction of the high demand for medical practitioners, nurses, psychologists during and after COVID-19, to address the needs of society. Further, as the world is shrinking to work from home, there may be surge in technology related occupations and infra structural development. It also enables people to explore novel concepts like staycation, remote office, which may have increase the appeal of regional settlement and increase the demand for regional skilled visas. As the post COVID world is expected to be different than one we experienced till date, there will be resultant wave in the migration pattern. As the events so far are unprecedented in nature, it is not surprising that its impact is unfathomable.

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