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Migration to Australia

Skilled Migration
Business Migration
Family sponsorship
Employer nomination
Humanitarian Program

Skilled Migration
To sustain its population growth and fill specific skill shortages, Australia is looking to attract skilled migrants to its shores. The Skilled Migration Permanent Residency visa is specifically designed to target migrants who have skills or outstanding abilities, which will contribute to the Australian economy.

In recent years, Skilled Migration has accounted for more than half of all migration to Australia. In 2001-02, around 53,000 out of 93,000 places under Australia's Migration Program were made available to the Skilled Stream. An additional 7,000 places will be offered in 2002-03, which is 58 per cent of the total program - a significant increase from just 29 per cent in 1995-96.

There are three visa types under Skilled Migration:
Skilled Independent visa - if you do not have a family sponsor, or choose not to be sponsored. To qualify for this category, you must satisfy the Basic Requirements of the visa as well as pass the Points Test.

Skilled Sponsored visa - if you have a family sponsor and an assurance of support. To qualify for this category, you must satisfy the Basic Requirements of the visa as well as pass the Points Test.

Skilled Designated Area Sponsored visa - if you have a family sponsor living in a particular region of Australia. To qualify for this category, you must satisfy the Basic Requirements of the visa, but there is no Points Test.


Business Migration
The Business Skills Migration Program is designed for successful Senior Executives, Business Owners and Investors who are committed to owning and managing a business in Australia and who wish to obtain permanent residency status.

There are four main visa types under Business Migration:
Senior executives visa
For senior executives of a major business with a genuine commitment to participate, as a substantial owner, in managing a new or existing business in Australia.

Business Owner visa
For successful owners or part -owners of a business with a legitimate interest in establishing and managing a business in Australia.

Investment Linked visa
for successful investors or business people willing to make a substantial investment and maintain business or investment activity in Australia.

Established Business in Australia visa
for owners or part owners of a business already established in Australia, seeking to change their residency status from temporary to permanent.

Family sponsorship
Australia's Migration Program has two main components, the Skilled Stream and the Family Stream.

The Australian Government has shifted the focus of the Program to skilled migration; to reflect Australia's current social and economic needs, while maintaining a strong commitment to family migration.
To achieve this shift, the Family Stream component of the Migration Program has been set at just under 50 per cent of the total Migration Program.

In 2002-03, 105,000 migrants will be selected in the Program, of which 44,300 (or about 42 per cent) will be in the Family Stream.

Family stream migrants must be sponsored by a close family member or fiancé (e) living in Australia. The sponsor must be either an Australian citizen, permanent resident or eligible New Zealand citizen, and would usually be 18 years of age or older.

Family Stream migrants are selected on the basis of their family relationship with their sponsor in Australia; there is no test for skills or language ability as for Skilled Stream migrants.

Like all migrants, Family Stream applicants are assessed on an individual basis and they MUST be assessed against Australia's health and character requirements.

The Family Stream
Family Stream applicants can be sponsored for migration or permanent residence* in one of the following visa categories:

Partner
Spouse
Prospective Marriage (Fiancé (e))
Interdependency

Child
Child
Adoption
Orphan Relative
Dependent Child (temporary)

Parent (introduction)
Parent
Designated Parent
Perth Offshore Parents Center

Other Family
Aged Dependent Relative
Remaining Relative
Carer

Important note
If you apply from outside Australia, you will be applying to migrate. If you are applying in Australia, you will be applying for permanent residence.

The information contained in the Family Stream web pages applies to applications made in AND outside of Australia. Throughout the Family Stream web pages, the term 'migrate' will cover both migration and permanent residence applications.
Issues affecting Family Stream applications

A) Assurance of Support
Some Family Stream applicants are subject to a required Assurance of Support (AOS), which includes payment of a bond. Other Family Stream applicants may be subject to a discretionary AOS if assessed as being at risk of becoming a charge on Australia's social welfare budget.
An AOS is a legal commitment by an assure to repay the Commonwealth of Australia any social security payments made to Family Stream entrants covered by the assurance in the first two years after their migration from overseas or grant of permanent residence in Australia.

B) Capping visa classes
A number of visa classes in the Family Stream have been "capped" in the Migration Program. "Capping" means that once the limit set by the Government for the number of visas to be granted in a visa class has been reached, no further visas can be granted in that year. More I

C) Priority processing
On 9 May 2001, the Immigration Minister issued a General Direction giving guidance on the order of priority for processing Family Stream applications. In general, a high priority is given to child and partner applications. Parent applications are given a low priority.

Employer nomination
Employers may nominate (or "sponsor") personnel from overseas to fill an identified or emerging labor market (or skill) shortage. The Employer Nomination Scheme (ENS), Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme (RSMS), Labor Agreements (LA), and Regional Headquarters Agreements (RHQ) are the four classes of this category.

In 2000-01, 7420 permanent residence visas were given for Employer Nomination, RSMS and Labour Agreements, compared with 5387 in 1999-00.

There are four categories for employer-sponsored migration to Australia:

1. Employer Nomination Scheme (ENS)
2. Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme (RSMS)
3. Labor Agreements (LAs)
4. Regional Headquarters Agreements (RHQs)

The first three enable Australian employers to recruit highly-skilled workers, either from overseas or from people temporarily in Australia, where an employer has been unable to fill their recruitment needs from the Australian labor market or through their own training efforts.
The fourth program, RHQ, enables employers (who have an approved RHQ status), to transfer 'key' employees of their company group who are essential in establishing their regional headquarters in Australia.

Requirements for Australian employers
For all categories except RHQ, the employer must show they have been unable to find an Australian citizen or resident who is suitable for the appointment.

Employer nomination
All prospective applicants must first be nominated by the employer in Australia. The nomination must be received by one of the department's Business Centers in Australia. If the nomination is approved, the employer advises the nominee.

Application by the nominee
The nominee can then apply in Australia (subject to conditions) or from outside Australia. In most cases, the nominee must have a vocational or functional level of English.

The nominee's work qualifications must be assessed if:

• Registration, licensing or membership of a professional body is mandatory in the proposed field of employment, or

• The trade occupation is covered by the Tradesmen's Rights Regulations Act or is a designated non-TRAA trade.

Australian employer categories
The Employer Nomination Scheme (ENS) has been developed for Australian employers to recruit permanent, highly skilled staff from overseas or from people temporarily in Australia, when the employers have been unable to fill a vacancy from within the Australian labor market or through their own training programs.

The Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme (RSMS) is designed to help employers in regional or low population growth areas of Australia, who are unable to fill skilled vacancies from the Australian labor market.
Labor Agreements (LA) enable Australian employers to recruit (either permanently or temporarily) a specified number of workers from overseas in response to identified or emerging labor market (or skill) shortages in the Australian labor market.

International organizations
Regional Headquarters Agreements (RHQ) provide streamlined immigration arrangements to enable the transfer, either permanently or temporarily, key executive and specialist personnel of an organization that Australia has identified as managing functions that support an international operation.

Humanitarian Program

Background: Permanent entry to Australia can be through the Migration Program (for skilled and family migrants) or the Humanitarian Program (for refugees and others in humanitarian need).

The Humanitarian Program is one part of the Australian approach to help people affected by international humanitarian crises - the approach also involves providing aid, diplomatic initiatives and peacekeeping.
In the past 50 years, almost 600,000 refugees and displaced people have been resettled in Australia. Many had close family ties to Australia.
Within the Humanitarian Program is an offshore component (which helps people in humanitarian need overseas, for whom resettlement in another country is the only option) and an onshore component (for people in Australia seeking protection (refugee status).

Offshore program
There are two main categories within the offshore program:

• The refugee category is for people outside their country of nationality or usual residence who have suffered, or hold a well-founded fear of persecution, and who are in humanitarian need of resettlement.
   

• The Special Humanitarian Program provides help to those outside their country of nationality or usual residence, who have experienced substantial discrimination amounting to a gross violation of human rights, and for whom resettlement is an appropriate solution. People resident must support applications, or organizations based, in Australia.

Onshore program
People who are already in Australia may be eligible for a Protection Visa (refugee status) if they engage Australia's protection obligations under the 1951 UN Convention and 1967 Protocol relating to refugees.
Each application for a Protection Visa is assessed on its individual merits, and all information supplied by applicants is taken into account.
Applicants may be granted either a Permanent Protection Visa (PPV - for those who entered Australia lawfully) or a Temporary Protection Visa (TPV - for those who entered Australia in an unauthorized way).
Please note that legislation, which came into effect in 2001, means that some Temporary Protection visa.