Visa Lounge Australia

20/04/2025

𝟰𝟭𝟳 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝟰𝟲𝟮 𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗮 𝘂𝗽𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗲: 𝗠𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁 𝗮𝘀 ‘𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗲𝗱 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸’ 𝘇𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘀!

As of 5 April 2025, Working Holiday Makers can now complete specified work in additional bushfire, flood, cyclone, and storm-affected areas to qualify for a second or third 417 or 462 visa.

🔑 𝗞𝗲𝘆 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲𝘀:

✅ More suburbs added across VIC, WA, TAS, NSW & NT
✅ Paid or volunteer recovery work now counts toward visa extensions
✅ Applies to applications lodged on or after 5 April 2025 (or not yet decided)

🔨 𝗘𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗷𝗼𝗯𝘀 𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗹𝘂𝗱𝗲:

✔️ Construction, land clean-up & rebuilding
✔️ Wildlife and farm animal care
✔️ Support roles in disaster-affected areas (including admin & logistics)
✔️ Paid or volunteer work

📩 Reach out to our team at [email protected] if you need help with your visa or obligations as an employer.

30/12/2024

New Skills In Demand 482 Visa, our summary of the most important details of this visa in the article below.

[email protected]

https://visalounge.com.au/skills-in-demand-482-visa/

15/12/2024

Important Update: Changes to Graduate Visa Regulations Effective 14 December 2024.

The Australian Government has introduced the Migration Amendment (Graduate Visas No. 2) Regulations 2024, bringing important updates for recent graduates seeking to live and work in Australia. These changes include:

✅ Expanded Definitions: Degrees now include bachelor, master's, doctoral, and graduate diplomas under the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF).

✅ New Eligibility Criteria:
➡️ Courses must be registered and completed over at least 16 months of study (minimum of 2 academic years).
➡️ All instruction must be conducted in English.
➡️ Studies must be undertaken while on a visa allowing study in Australia.

✅ Flexible Completion Rules: Completion of qualifications does not require formal conferral.

These updates ensure greater clarity and fairness in the Graduate Visa program, enabling graduates to plan their pathways with confidence.

22/11/2024

ANZSCO changing to OSCA on 6 December

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) and Statistics New Zealand (Stats NZ) have announced that while maintaining comparability, each country will introduce their own tailored occupational statistical classifications.

For Australia, ANZSCO will be replaced by the new classification which will be called the Occupation Standard Classification for Australia (OSCA), 2024, version 1.0 and will be released on Friday 6 December 2024 at 11.30am (AEDT).

Even though ANZSCO will change to OSCA in December, ANZSCO will continue to be available on the ABS website.

12/11/2024

🚨 Big News for Skilled Migrants Aspiring to Become Early Childcare Teachers in Australia! 🚨

If you're looking to use Early Childhood Teaching as your pathway to Permanent Residency, here’s a major update you don’t want to miss:

Current Skill Assessing Body: AITSL
New Skill Assessing Body (from 7 December 2024): ACECQA

Key Changes:

1️⃣ No more 4-year study at Bachelors level or higher requirement – You’ll just need an ACECQA-approved Early Childhood Teaching (ECT) course or proof that your course meets equivalent standards.

2️⃣ IELTS Exemptions – If you’ve studied in Australia for at least 1 year, you’re exempt from the IELTS. If not, the requirement is 7.0 in Reading/Writing and 8.0 in Listening/Speaking.

3️⃣ Pathway Flexibility – Completing a Graduate Diploma in ECT in Australia (even with a non-related Master’s) can now qualify you for skills assessment without the need for IELTS.

Why These Changes Are a Game-Changer:
💡 Accelerated Qualification: Have a 3-year bachelor’s in early childhood teaching? You no longer need a 4th year to qualify!
💡 Simplified Pathways: With an IELTS waiver available most students who study in Australia will now get an automatic exemption

👉 If you’re interested in exploring your options, let’s chat about the best pathway for you!

03/11/2024

🛎️Department of Home Affairs Update on Skilled Visas🛎️

The Department of Home Affairs provided an update on the upcoming changes to the skilled visas at the 2024 MIA National Conference in Brisbane.

As part of this update the Department referred to the Skills in Demand (SID) visa and highlighted the following points:

Skills in Demand visa Sc 482

--Temporary skilled worker visa with up to 4 years validity

--Clear pathway to permanent residence

--Will have 3 streams - Specialist Skills, Core Skills and Labour Agreements

--Specialist Skills stream: Will be for highly skilled migrants earning at least $135,000 in any occupation except trades workers, machinery operators, drivers and labourers

--Core Skills stream: Will be for skilled employees and there will be a new Core Skills occupation List and a Core Skills Income Threshold

--Labour Agreement stream: The TSS Labour Agreement stream will be renamed the Skills in Demand Labour Agreement stream

--Work experience requirement reduced to one year

--As the TSS visa will be replaced by the SID visa existing short-term and medium-term streams of the TSS visa will close to new applications.

The Department are currently working on this, and it will commence in 2024.

email: [email protected]

16/10/2024

Fill out the below form to get in contact with our team of immigration specialists and star your work visa application.

VISA LOUNGE has helped thousands of people from all over the world get their Australian sponsored work visas.

11/10/2024

🛎️ Working Holiday Maker Arrangement with the Philippines 🛎️

Late last year it was announced that the Governments of Australia and the Philippines signed a Memorandum of Understanding for a Work and Holiday (subclass 462) visa arrangement that will let up to 200 young Filipino and Australian passport holders enjoy a 12-month holiday in each other’s country each year.

The program has not launched and both countries are still finalising their administrative arrangements. The Department will publish a start date and other details on its WHM program webpage as soon as all arrangements are finalised.

This will include advice to Filipino passport holders on how to get a Letter of Concurrence (LoC) from their Government, as well as any specific application requirements for Australian passport.

20/09/2024

Migration update QLD 2024-2025 🌏

Queensland is a popular destination for skilled migrants 👥. The state is so highly demanded that the government has decided to limit migration artificially by reducing the nominations allocation for skilled visas, providing 600 spots for each temporary visa 491 and permanent visa 190 for the 2024-2025 program year. 💔

This decision is a painful one, personally affecting many migrants and our clients. We genuinely empathize with everyone who had hoped to receive an invitation to Queensland this year, as the competition is expected to be significant. ☝🏻

Queensland is introducing four streams in this year: for graduates, small business owners, skilled candidates living in-state and overseas.

State migration programs were introduced in Australia to allow States and Territories to nominate skilled and business migration applicants under a broad range of industries. This is to help meet skills shortages in their labour markets and attract business and investment.

06/09/2024

Sc 482 visa work experience policy Update

The Sc 482 visa application policy regarding work experience was amended in August.

The policy regarding work experience now appears to be more flexible as there is no longer an expectation that the work experience be undertaken in the last five years as this sentence has been removed from the current policy.

Further, the sentence that stated that casual employment should not be counted towards meeting the work experience requirement has been removed and the policy confirms that there is no requirement that the work be full time in order for the applicant to satisfy the work experience requirements.

The policy now states the following:

Work experience obtained while working full-time is preferred and would weigh strongly in an applicant’s favour, however, there is no requirement that the work be full-time in order for an applicant to satisfy clause 482.221 of the Regulations.

The period of work experience does not need to be continuous.

Contact me with any questions regarding employer sponsored visas and TSS 482 visas.

[email protected]
+61 7 3040 8444

04/09/2024

Digital Commonwealth statutory declarations

The Statutory Declarations Act 1959 was amended to allow for digital Commonwealth statutory declarations to be made through myGov.

At present, myGov is the only approved online platform that can create a digital statutory declaration.

This means a Digital Identity can now be used as verification instead of a witness verifying identity.

Other options to complete a Commonwealth statutory declaration are still available and a Commonwealth statutory declaration can still be made using a witness.

04/09/2024

Over 150 dormant VET providers shut down

The National Vocational Education and Training Regulator Amendment came into effect earlier this year.

The Bill amended the National Vocational Education and Training Regulator Act to automatically lapse the registration of registered training organisations (RTOs) that have not delivered training and assessment for 12 months.

Using these amendments to legislation, the Government has shut down over 150 dormant vocational education and training (VET) providers.

The Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA) is keeping an eye on an additional 140 registered training organisations (RTOs) who have received a warning notice.

They must resume quality training by the end of 2024 or face deregistration. Those who don’t resume satisfactory training will be found out and action will be taken to shut them down.