Annually, more than one hundred thousand people applied for an Australian work visa. And it is no wonder that there are so many more queuing for their own opportunity to work in the country. However, due to the large number of applicants coming in each year, the process can be quite complicated.
And it’s not the end yet. Changes made by the Department of Citizenship and Immigration to the Qualified Migration Program have also made it a little harder to get an Australian work visa. This has left many applicants very confused. So as a useful guide here is a review of the requirements needed to get your work visa.
One of the most important, especially for those who get a long-term job, is the work order. For those who do not yet know, a job order is basically a document issued by the Ministry of Labor on behalf of the applicant employer or region, indicating that there is in fact a demand for the position in question being applied for.
In the past, the application process has been a bit relaxed by requiring a work order. Most applicants during that time can continue processing while waiting for the work order to be issued. On the other hand, some positions, especially at the lower level, do not actually require a work order to grant a visa.
But with the new changes in place, getting a work order has now become a priority for work visa applicants. In fact, the immigration department now strictly requires that applicants first get a work order as a prerequisite for getting their visa. And here is some bad news for those applying for low-level positions. As many of these posts were removed from the Qualifications Employment List to make room for more higher-level posts (as part of the reorganization of the program), they were also effectively removed from the Visa Issue Priority List. This means that even if you receive your work order even before the visa application, you will still not be included in the priority list.
And there is even more about changes in the qualified migration program. The points system that has been used to assess an applicant’s qualifications has also been extensively revised. More points are now awarded in areas such as qualification level and experience than in terms of sponsorships or job availability. Communication skills in English have also been heavily emphasized in the new assessment system.
But apart from these major changes, much of the workflow application process remains the same. Therefore, if you are already familiar with the procedure, you can easily go through it and get your visa.
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