Latest Australia Immigration Updates announced in Jobs and Skills Summit 2022

Australia has announced key skilled migration updates in the recent Jobs and Skills Summit held at the start of September 2022. Considering the role of skilled migration in answering the questions posed by ongoing skills and labour shortage crisis, DHA has declared a few key measures in the recent Jobs and skills Summit. 

Hence, migration clearly was one of the most discussed subjects prior to and during the summit. 

Australia Jobs and Skills Summit –September 2022

In this summit, government has announced several updates with regard to skilled migration. Some of these updates are as follows:

• The cap for 2022-23 permanent skilled migration has been raised to 195,000 from 160,000 places
• This resulted in 34,000 places in the regions for this year, i.e. 9,000 more than the formerly announced.
• Structuring a big lift under the state and territory sponsored visas – from 11,000 previous year to 31,000.
• Move away from the emphasis on short-term migrants, toward permanency, citizenship and nation building.
• Extending visas and easing work limitations on international students to reinforce the pipeline of skilled labour, and providing extra funding to clear the visa backlog
• An additional $1 billion in joint Federal-State funding for fee-free TAFE in 2023 and faster delivery of 465,000 fee-free TAFE places

Australia lifted all Covid-19 related restrictions on 6 July 2022. Since then, Most of the State nomination programs of Australia are consistently inviting the state nomination application from the skilled worker applicants. A few of the most active State Nomination programs of Australia are as follows:

• South Australia Skilled South Australia’s Skilled and Business Migration program

• Victoria Skilled Migration Program

• Migration Queensland State Nomination Program

• ACT (Australian Capital Territory) nomination program

• Western Australia (WA) State nomination Migration Program 

 Considering the skill shortage and increased number of in demand occupations, Department of Home Affairs, Australia is likely to ease the entry of newcomers in months to come.