1.1.1 Economic entry (permanent)
Objectives
- Maximise the economic and budgetary benefits from granting provisional and permanent resident visas to skilled and business migrants.
- Address key and emerging skill shortages, particularly in regional Australia.
- Expand business establishment and investment.
Description
Under this component, the department manages the entry of skilled and business migrants. State-specific and regional migration programmes help employers and state and territory governments fill skill shortages that cannot be filled locally. These programmes are targeted to address existing skill shortages and help in the development of local communities.
Performance
Table 4 shows the broad categories of skill stream entrants and compares 2006-07 outcomes with those of the previous year. In 2006-07, the department issued 97 920 skill stream visas, compared to 97 340 in the previous year.
Regional migration and skills shortages
State-specific and regional migration initiatives now account for 26 per cent of the skill stream of the Migration Programme.
The Australian Government works with state and territory governments to encourage Australian employers and potential overseas applicants to use these programmes.
During 2006-07, the department issued 25 850 state specific and regional migration visas, a decrease of six per cent over the previous year. Since 1996, when these programmes were introduced, 109 690 visas have been issued.
Regional migration continues to be a priority under the skill stream. Through their sponsorship of skilled migrants, state and territory governments have a direct influence on the number and skills of migrants who settle in their jurisdictions.
There are two state and territory-sponsored visa subclasses within this group – Skilled Independent Regional visas (3470 issued in 2006-07), and State and Territory Nominated Independent visas (3470 issued). The total number issued, 6940, represented a decrease of 13.5 per cent on the 2005-06 figures.
The 2007-08 Migration Programme provides a total of 8000 places for these two state sponsored categories, which are an important component of state specific and regional migration initiatives overall.
General skilled migration (GSM)
Applications finalised in those GSM visa categories which met or exceeded the published service standards accounted for 56.9 per cent of the total GSM visa case load.
Processing of applications made in the skilled – independent regional category took longer than expected on average due to an increase in applications for GSM priority processing visa classes overall, together with identified integrity concerns in this particular category.
In the skilled – Australian sponsored category, processing times were affected by an increase in the percentage of applications designated for priority processing, which now accounts for 80 per cent of the GSM caseload. Processing time for non-priority gazetted categories such as this has been delayed as a result.
Applications process in the skilled independent regional and skilled – Australia sponsor visa categories accounted for 24.7 per cent of total GSM visa finalisations.
Employer–sponsored programmes
Employer-sponsored programmes include the Employer Nomination Scheme (ENS), the Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme (RSMS) and the Labour Agreement (LA) programme. In 2006-07 there were 16 590 visas granted (10 060 ENS, 3780 RSMS, 2740 LA), which was an 8.9 per cent increase over 2005-06 and represented 16.9 per cent of the total Skilled Migration programme. See table 4.
The main occupation sought through these programmes was registered nurses, and the major source countries were the United Kingdom, the Republic of South Africa and India.
More than 69.1 per cent of people lodging ENS applications were holders of a Temporary Business (Long Stay) subclass 457 visa, which provides a pathway for temporary skilled workers seeking permanent residence.
Business and investment migration
Overseas business people who have a successful business or investment background can benefit Australia through job creation, capital transfers, and exports. State and territory governments play an active role in selecting business migrants through their sponsorship of approximately 93.5 per cent of all applicants. This sponsorship supports economic development in specific areas of the sponsoring states or territories.
All business skills migrants have to demonstrate a commitment to business in Australia, and most applicants have up to four years on a provisional visa to establish a business. Some visa holders initially granted permanent residence (rather than a provisional visa), can be subject to visa cancellation. In 2006-07, the department granted visas under this category to 5836 migrants and 1076 visas were cancelled.
