The Department of Home Affairs has created a list of occupations, called the Priority Migration Skilled Occupation List (PMSOL). This was driven by the COVID-19 pandemic with the aim to fill critical skills to support Australia’s response and recovery.
Whilst all other skilled occupation lists will remain active, employer-sponsored nomination and visa applications with an occupation on this list will be given priority processing. Although Australia’s border restrictions remain in place, applicants in these occupations applying under the Temporary Skills Shortage (subclass 482) scheme will be able to obtain a travel exemption.
Further, the NSW State Government has indicated they will most likely be sponsoring these occupations for the Skilled Nominated (subclass 190) and Skilled Work Regional (subclass 491) this financial year. We anticipate an occupation list to be released by them imminently.
For Australian businesses operating in critical sectors, such as health care and ICT, the PMSOL ensures urgent skills needs are met by offering a leg-up to businesses struggling to find Australians to fill essential roles.
For migrants within these occupations, the PMSOL offers not just temporary visa status in Australia but also provides a route to securing permanent residency via the Independent Skilled (subclass 189) or Employer Nomination Scheme (subclass 186) visa schemes.
The 17 occupations on the PMSOL are:
- Chief Executive or Managing Director (111111)
- Construction Project Manager (133111)
- Mechanical Engineer (233512)
- General Practitioner (253111)
- Resident Medical Officer (253112)
- Psychiatrist (253411)
- Medical Practitioner nec (253999)
- Midwife (254111)
- Registered Nurse (Aged Care) (254412)
- Registered Nurse (Critical Care and Emergency) (254415)
- Registered Nurse (Medical) (254418)
- Registered Nurse (Mental Health) (254422)
- Registered Nurse (Perioperative) (254423)
- Registered Nurses nec (254499)
- Developer Programmer (261312)
- Software Engineer (261313)
- Maintenance Planner (312911)
Please do not hesitate to contact Unite Migration for further advice regarding expedited applications for the above occupations.