Why Australia's new visa policy will have minimal impact on Indians

The new visa will include a short term two-year stream with a broad list of occupations reduced from the current list of more than 200.

The impact of Australia's new visa policy would be minimal in India. Australia is set to abolish the 457 visa programme used by companies to bring in temporary foreign workers.

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India has been assuring that the impact would be negligible because the changes that are announced by Australia would be replaced with another scheme. Moreover, most Indians working in Australia fall under the high skill category. Australia has also said that the temporary visas for foreign workers would be replaced by a new class of visa to ensure that the foreign workers who would be brought in will genuine skill shortages.

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New visa would ensure that foreign workers were brought into Australia to fill critical skill gaps and not simply because it is easier to recruit a foreign worker than go for hiring an Australian.

Further assurance came from Australia's immigration minister, Peter Dutton. He said that anybody who at present is on a 457 visa will not be affected by the new arrangements as they will continue under the conditions of that visa. There were 95,757 workers in Australia on primary 457 visas and 76,430 secondary visa holders as at September 30 last year, he also said.

The new visa will include a short-term two-year stream with a broad list of occupations reduced from the current list of more than 200. Dutton said the abolition of the program was an attempt to clean up Labor party's mess.

OneIndia News