How will the potential changes to Australia’s Skilled Occupation List affect you?
The Department of Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business recently published its bulletin of proposed changes for the skilled occupation list. These recommendations will likely be taken into consideration when the final occupation list is released in March 2020.
The proposed changes see 38 occupations on the Skilled Occupations List set to be changed:
- 11 occupations are set to be removed
- 17 will be moved to different lists
- 4 will be added
- 6 will have salary changes made.
Please note the following are only recommendations, therefore there is no guarantee that any or all of these recommended changes will take place.
Red Occupation
The following occupations have been flagged as red and therefore recommended to be removed from the Skilled Occupation List:
- Careers Counsellor
- Vehicle Trimmer
- Business Machine Mechanic
- Animal Attendants and Trainers
- General Gardener
- Hairdresser
- Wood Machinist
- Massage Therapist
- Community Worker
- Open Water Diving Instructor
- Gymnastics Coach/Instructor
Orange Occupations
The following orange occupations are set to move between the three occupation lists (STSOL, MLTSSL & ROL):
- Automotive Electrician – To be moved to STSOL
- Motorcycle Mechanic – To be moved to STSOL
- Locksmith – To be moved to STSOL
- Painting Trades Worker – To be moved to STSOL
- Glazier – To be moved to STSOL
- Wall and Floor Tiler – To be moved to STSOL
- Cabinetmaker – To be moved to STSOL
- Post Office Manager – To be moved to STSOL
- Mechanical Engineering Draftsperson – To be moved to STSOL
- Real Estate Representative – To be moved to STSOL
- Geologist – To be moved to ROL
- Sales and Marketing Manager – to be moved to MLTSSL with a salary caveat of $120K
- ICT Project Manager – To be moved to MLTSSL with a salary caveat of $120K
- Information and Organisation Professionals – To be moved to MLTSSL with a salary caveat of $90K
- Insurance Loss Adjuster – To be moved to MLTSSL with a salary caveat of $80K
- Procurement Manager – To be moved to MLTSSL
- Ship’s Master – To be moved to MLTSSL
Green Occupations
These occupations are flagged to be added to the STSOL occupations lists:Corporate Treasurer – Added to STSOL
- Aged or Disabled Carer – Added to STSOL, with a mandatory skills assessment
- Nursing Support Worker – Added to STSOL, with a mandatory skills assessment
- Personal Care Assistant – Added to STSOL, with a mandatory skills assessment
Occupations with Proposed Salary
There are also six occupations likely to have salary changes. They will stay on their current list but will have salary caveats added:
- Poultry Farmer – New salary caveat of $65K
- Baker – New salary caveat of $65K
- Pastry Cook – New salary caveat of $65K
- Horse Trainer – New salary caveat of $65K
- Fitter and Turner – New salary caveat of $65K
- Sportspersons – New salary caveat of $120K
If you think any of these changes might affect you then please don’t panic. These are only proposed changes that might not even take effect when the new list is released in March 2020.
If you think your occupation might be negatively affected and therefore limiting your visa options, it might be worth seeing if you can lodge your application as soon as possible. In most cases any lodged application will not be affected by changes to the skilled occupation list.
These proposed changes might be positive or provide better visa opportunities for you. If that’s the case why not start gathering all of the required documents so that you are in a position to lodge a visa application as soon as the changes take place. You can learn and get guidance about what documents are required in our TSS Visa Help Centre.
