Health & Education Sector Visas Prioritsed – Ministerial Direction 100

The Australian Government is continuing their attempts to improve skilled visa processing times. With a particular emphasis on clearing the backlog and addressing Australia’s persisting labour shortage, new directions have been issued by the Minister for prioritising certain visa applications.

Health and Education Sectors Prioritised

Specifically, visa processing for the health and education sectors will be processed as the highest priority. The specific direction by the Minister effectively removes the Priority Migration Skilled Occupation List (PMSOL).

The PMSOL was known to identify occupations which fill critical skills needed to support Australia’s labour shortages through the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, the PMSOL has also been criticised as being outdated and involving time-consuming and complex assessments, which are detrimental when considering the Australian labour market and it’s growing need for international skilled employees.

A spokesperson for the Department of Home Affairs stated that this new ministerial direction will “simplify the visa process and will deliver more efficient visa processing for the benefit of skilled applicants and their sponsor across industries”. The change has been implemented to further support the Department of Home Affairs in their attempt to process more skilled applications efficiently and respond as needed to labour market force.

This Ministerial Direction is also restoring the priority processing arrangements for Accredited Sponsors in all sectors of the Australian economy.

Order of Priority

The new order of priority for processing skilled visa applications is as follows:

1. Visa applications in relation to a healthcare or teaching occupation
2. For employer sponsored visas, visa applications by an Approved, Accredited sponsor
3. Visa applications in relation to an occupation which is to be carried out in a designated regional area.
4. For permanent and provisional visa subclasses, visa applications that count towards the migration program. Please note, this exclude the Subclass 188 (Business Innovation and Investment (Provisional)) visa.
5. All other visa applications.

Occupations that fall under the following ANZSCO groups/occupations will receive the highest priority:

• ANZSCO Sub-major Group 25 – Health Professionals
• ANZSCO Minor Group 241 – School Teachers
• ANZSCO Minor Group 411 – Health and Welfare Support Workers
• ANZSCO Unit Group 1341 – Child Care Centre Managers
• ANZSCO Unit Group 2346 – Medical Scientists
• ANZSCO Unit Group 2721 – Counsellors
• ANZSCO Unit Group 2723 – Psychologists
• ANZSCO Unit Group 2725 – Social Workers
• ANZSCO Unit Group 3112 – Medical Technicians
• ANZSCO occupations:
  • 134311 – School Principal
  • 421111 – Child Care Worker
  • 423111 – Aged or Disabled Carer
  • 423312 – Nursing Support Worker
  • 423313 – Personal Care Assistant.

All other skilled visa applications will continue to be assessed in order of date of lodgement as they are received by the Department.