Another 457 Change

Effective from 15 May 2009 the 457 visa is no longer available to applicants with occupations that fall within ASCO 5-7. In plain terms, this means that the skills threshold has been raised. It used to be possible for employers who wanted to sponsor workers in these categories to do so provided they had approval of a regional certifying body (ie there was a concession where the employee was to work in a regional area). Now the only way to achieve this outcome is to negotiate a labour agreement with the Commonwealth. Click here for more details.

This change comes hot on the heels of the increase in the English threshold and is designed to protect local employment. It also means that employers with large infrastructure projects outside of the metropolitan areas are going to have to have a labour agreement before they can get lesser skilled workers on their construction sites. I appreciate there is a difference between a labour shortage and a skills shortage, but this change doesn't recognise that there may be both in remote areas.