Concession Arrangements for Temporary Visa Holders Affected by Covid-19

The Australian government has introduced concession arrangements for temporary visa holders affected by Covid-19 to ensure that they are not disadvantaged by the fact that they were temporarily stood down, had their working hours reduced or were required to take unpaid leave.  The new law is in response to the severely disrupted Australia’s labour market due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

When does it commence?

The new law came into effect on Tuesday, 24 November 2020 but applies to all applications made on or after 1 February 2020.  This is to ensure that all impacted visa holders continue to be eligible to apply for permanent residence, even if they have made their application for nomination prior to the commencement of this new law.   

What do these concession arrangements entail?

These arrangements are in place to ensure that temporary visa holders,  subclasses 457/482, who experienced certain temporary changes to their employment arrangements due to Covid-19 are not disadvantaged in relation to the requirement under the old law “to have been employed in the position in relation to which they hold the subclass 457/482 visa for the relevant period of time (a total period of at least three years, or two years if March 2018 transitional arrangements apply), not including unpaid leave.”

The effect of this new law is that the period of time required to be employed in the occupation and the position when visa applicants apply for their permanent employer sponsored visas, subclasses 186/187 nominations and visas under the Temporary Residence Transition (TRT) stream, will not be affected by the visa holders working reduced hours or being on unpaid leave during the concession period, as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

This is a welcoming and much needed change for many temporary visa holders affected by the Covid-19.  The concession period is defined as commencing on 1 February 2020 and ends on a day specified by the Minister.

The New Legislative Instrument

To find out more information about the new law, see Migration (Transitional operation of regulation 5.19 for certain 457 visa holders) Amendment Instrument (LIN 20/190) 2020 here.