Skills in Demand visa

The Skills in Demand (SID) visa (SC 482) is a new visa that is adopted by the Australian government and will replace the Temporary Skills Shortage Visa (SC 482). This visa will be an employer-sponsored visa that may be granted for a maximum of 4 years. 

You can live, work, study and travel to and from Australia for the duration of your visa. You also have a PR pathway through this visa, where you can apply to the temporary Residence Transition Stream of the Employer Nomination Scheme visa (SC 186)

You can apply for this visa while you are onshore or offshore and you can also include eligible family members to your visa application.

The Skills in Demand visa has three streams through which migrants can apply. The three main streams are;

1. Specialist Skills stream
2. Core Skills stream
3. Labour agreement stream

1.Specialist Skills stream

This stream will be for highly skilled migrants. This pathway will be streamlined for specialists to ensure that the top talent are quickly and easily recruited into sectors that are in need. For the applications under this pathway, the government has promised to commit to a service standard of 7 days median visa processing time. Occupations like engineering managers who develop electrolysers, cyber specialists, and software engineers.

The eligibility criteria will be as follows:

• Be nominated by an approved sponsor.
• Have 1 year of work experience
• Have a skill assessment if applicable to your occupation
• Meet health and character requirements
• Have an occupation that is in the general Skills Occupation List that is not in the trades: machinery operators, drivers, and laborers.
• Have IELTS score (or equivalent) of level 5 overall, with a minimum of 5 in each component score.
• Earn at least AUD 141,210 (Specialist Skills Income Threshold, SSIT)

2.Core Skills stream

The main features that differentiates this stream from the rest of the streams are its occupation list and the salary requirement. To be eligible under this stream you need to have an occupation in the Core Skills Occupation List and also have a salary that is at least the Core Skills Income Threshold (CSIT), which currently stands at AUD 76,515. This stream is predicted to bring in most of the temporary skilled migrants among the rest of the pathways.

The following are some of the important features of the Core Skills Pathway.

• Have an occupation on the Core Skills Occupation List.
• Be nominated by an approved sponsor
• Have 1 year of work experience
• Have a skill assessment if applicable to your occupation
• Be paid a salary at or above the Core Skills Income Threshold  (CSIT) or the market salary rate if it is above CSIT.
• Have IELTS score (or equivalent) of level 5 overall, with a minimum of 5 in each component score.
• Meet health and character requirement

3.Labour agreement stream

This visa is for skilled workers nominated by employers who have a Labour Agreement. It lets you live and work in Australia temporarily. Labour agreements are developed between the Australian Government (represented by the Department) and employers.

The CSOL comprises 456 occupations. The occupations on this list will be eligible for the Core Skills stream of the New Skills in Demand visa and the existing Direct Entry stream of the Employer Nomination Scheme Visa (SC 186). The new Core Skills Occupation List has new occupations incorporated into it and also has omitted some of the occupations that were in the general Skills Occupation List. It will also have occupations that are being paid above the Core Skills Income Threshold (CSIT) , including roles that pay above the Specialist Skills Income Threshold (SSIT) as well.