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Australia’s Budget for the year 2019-20 is unveiled

The Australian Government has come up with its annual budget for the year 2019-20 on April 2nd, 2019. There is a plethora of changes that have taken place and going to be implemented from 1st July 2019. Check out the changes here:

a) Increase in Visa application fee

There will be an increase in the visa application fee for all the visa categories except Australia visitor visa subclass 600. From 1 July 2019, visa application charges will increase for all visas except the Subclass 600 Visitor visa.

There is a increase of 5.4% in base application fees for a permanent skilled visa by $200 or above for a primary applicant, over$80 hike for a Graduate visa , and for Partner Visas, it is $386 increase. No change in second visa application charges for  Parent visas and non-functional English for dependents.

b) Cutback in intake of Immigration target

The immigration target for the 2019/20 year is decreased to 160,000 places with the major reduces in the allocations for the Skilled Independent and Employer-Sponsored visa types. This reduction has done in order to allocate 23,000 places in the new regional visa programs launched for November 2019.

c) Regional Areas – the main priority

Immigration Department is ready to launch three new visa programs with an aim to attract migrants to regional areas of Australia. The Provisional employer-sponsored and provisional work visas would be in running status from 1 November 2019, along with that, the permanent Skilled Regional visa will be initiated from November 2022.

The term “Regional” will be simplified to include anywhere outside of Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sydney, Melbourne, and Perth, so migrants can look at places like Queensland's North Coast and Toowoomba, New South Wales' Northern Rivers, Central Coast, and Hunter Valley, Geelong and the Grampians region in Victoria, and anywhere in South Australia, Tasmania, and the Northern Territory.

d) Extension in a stay of International Graduates

The International students completing their education in Regional Australia will be able to apply for a one-year post-study work visa if they want to continue to stay in regional Australia on their graduate visa, this rule will be applicable from 2021.

e) Regional Scholarships

Efforts are done to attract International and domestic students to study in Regional areas by introducing new scholarships, for higher studies and vocational education qualifications.

f) Skilled Migration Points Test Changes W.e.f from 1st November 2019, the skilled migration points system will be altered to reward supplementary points to applicants whose partners have competent English but incompetent to meet the other requisites for skilled partner points. This will not affect single applicants as there will be other additional points available, nevertheless, there has no information provided on how these points will be positioned.

g) Termination of existing Regional areas

In the wake of the introduction of new Regional visas, the current Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme Subclass 187 visa and the State Nominated Regional Visa Subclass 489 will be terminated. Aspirants who have taken into account regional options, the current regional visa subclasses will be swapped by the new regional visas. The major change is that the requisite of living in the region will be increased from 2 to 3 years.

Applicants who are looking to immigrate to Australia may apply before 1st July 2019 to avoid higher fees. For more details, contact our Immigration experts who are always there to assist you. Dial our official helpline +91-7042184185 or if you have any queries, write down it at info@makevisas.com.