Hello everyone!

Welcome to the first Newsletter of the Program Year 2022-23. While we wait for the states to announce their new state nomination programs for this year, let’s see the news from the Department of Home Affairs, which is finally waking up to the migration needs of the country.

Work & Holiday Visa for Brazilians

This is the news that many were waiting for. Australia has finally included the Brazilian passport as one of the eligible passports for the Work & Holiday visa. That means that those lucky Brazilians that manage to jump ahead in the queue and secure one of the 500 spots available every year will be able to come to Australia just for some holidays combined with some work to pay for it, without having to spend large amounts of money in course fees.

There are some important things to consider though. To apply for the visa 462 visa, Brazilian passport holders need to:

• Be outside of Australia at the time of application
• Be aged between 18 and 30 years old
• Have functional English (score 4.5 overall on IELTS or 30 on PTE Academic)
• Have the equivalent of 5,000 Australian dollars on top of the flight ticket 
• Have completed at least 2 years of post-secondary education
• Never have held another 462 or 417 visas.

If you meet all the above, you still need to be fast, as applications opened on 01/07/2022 and 500 spots available should be over soon!

PR Pathway for 482 short-term visa holders

As previously announced in our newsletter Ed. 20 , from 1st July 2022 482 visa holders in the short-term stream who complete the 3-year work requirement with their sponsor on a 482 or 457 visa will also be eligible to be nominated for the permanent 186 visa in the Temporary Residence Transition (TRT) stream, as long as they have been in Australia during at least 12 months between 1 February 2020 and 14 December 2021.

Applicants who are 482 visa holders in the short-term and are completing 3 years of work with the same employer can already lodge their 186 applications since last week, however, those who will only complete 3 years working for the same sponsor only after July 2024 are discouraged to consider the 186 transition, as the skilled newsletter from the Department of Home Affairs stated that this pathway will be available for just 2 years from 01 July 2022. Although this has come into legislation, it does not mean that it won’t change in the future, so I would start considering alternative plans in case it does stop being available after 2 years.

Concessions to the Graduate (Subclass 485) Visa

One of the big news this July 1st was the temporary concession to remove the requirement to nominate an occupation in the medium-term list to apply for the Graduate Work stream of the visa 485. From 1st of July 2022 to 30th of June 2023, any student visa holder who completes two academic years of a degree, diploma, or trade qualification will be able to apply for a 2-year Graduate Work visa, even if the courses of study did not have any relevance to an occupation in the list.

This is a great thing if you already have an occupation and are eligible for a skills assessment to apply for a skilled visa, or if you plan to just spend some years in Australia working post your qualification to save some money and later go back to your home country. If you plan to stay in Australia, be extremely careful as you can only hold one 485 visa during your lifetime, and any Graduate visa you apply for just to ‘save’ money on tuition may hinder possible pathways to PR, in which we usually like to count on a Graduate visa to allow the client to meet the requirements of a permanent visa.

Replacement Graduate (Subclass 485) Visa

Those who were revolted with Australia for wasting their graduate visa stuck outside of Australia during the pandemic can finally celebrate. The Department of Home Affairs has created a ‘Replacement’ stream of the 485, for those who lost time on their original visa due to Covid-19 travel restrictions. To be eligible, applicants must have been outside of Australia while holding a graduate visa at some point between 1 February 2020 and 14 December 2021. You will receive the same grant period as your previous visa.

Increase in Application Fees

Ok, it’s not all good news, the visa application fees have also suffered an increase of 3%. At least it was still below inflation, so good news there as well, right?

See you next time