Your Guide to the New Australian Regional Work Visas

The Australian government is introducing new regional skilled worker visas before the end of this year, offering over 20,000 places per year for those who would like to migrate to Australia and willing to live and work in regional areas. The new regional visas also offer a pathway to apply for permanent residency for eligible applicants of the new temporary regional visas: Skilled Work Regional (subclass 491) and Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional visa (subclass 494), which will replace the current visa subclasses 489 and 187.

At Australia Migrate, our immigration consultants and specialists are already seeing a great interest for the new Australian regional visas and have received a lot of enquiries from those who are looking to find a job and migrate to Australia permanently.

Visa Subclass 491

One of the newly introduced regional visas, it’s a temporary visa allowing skilled workers to live, work and study in a regional area in Australia for 5 years and apply for permanent residency after 3 years of working in a regional area on this visa while earning a minimum of $53,900 per year. To apply for the visa subclass 491, applicants will need to meet certain requirements and have enough points, and also being nominated or sponsored by a state or an eligible family member (in a regional area). The applicant will have to be under 45 years at the time of the application and pay the application fee to become one of 14,000 who can secure this visa each year. The skilled migrant must be on a list of over 500 eligible occupations and will be allowed to move from one regional area to another. If you would like to talk to a migration agent to check how many points you have got and if you are eligible to apply for the new regional visas, contact one of our immigration specialists at Australia Migrate, as the new visas are becoming very popular and also very competitive to obtain.

Visa Subclass 491 VS 489

The new visa holders (491) will have to wait for 3 years before applying for permanent residency. The new 491 visa covers more regional visas, including Gold Coast, Newcastle, Wollongong and Perth. The new visa point system is also set to be different, with new opportunities for scoring additional points.

Visa Subclass 494

The other newly introduced regional visa, Subclass 494 Skilled Employer Sponsored will be replacing the current 187 (RSMS) visa, offering 9,000 places each year for those who are looking to migrate to Australia. It is different than the 491 visa as it requires employer sponsorship. The age limit of 45 years is the same, as well as other regulations and rights. However, this visa is less flexible as the applicant will have to be working for the sponsoring employer for the period of this visa, until permanent residency is obtained, or move to a new sponsored employer within 90 days of leaving the previous job.

After 3 years of being on one of the two new temporary regional visas, eligible applicants can apply for the Visa Subclass 191 Permanent Residence (Skilled Regional). If you would like to talk to a migration agent to discuss your situation or eligibility to migrate to Australia through one of the new regional visas, talk to the team at Australia Migrate today.