Australia not to tamper with cap of permanent immigration programme for 2017-18

Peter Dutton, Department of Immigration and Border Protection Minister, announced that its permanent migration programme’s ceiling for 2017-18 will be maintained at 190,000 places. After Australia scrapped the 457 visa scheme and tightened the restrictions to obtain the country’s citizenship, it was being watched if the government cuts down or maintains the skilled migrant uptake. SBS quoted a 2016 Productivity Commission report into the migration intake as revealing that immigration accounted for around 55 percent of Australia’s yearly population growth and added that high immigration rates were pushing up the prices of land and housing in the largest cities of Oz. The government had on 18 April scrapped the 457 visa scheme to hire foreign workers in Australia and placed two new skill shortage visas in its place. One is a two-year short-term visa without any pathway to permanent residency and the other is a four-year medium-term visa which includes a pathway to permanent residency. Henceforth, visa applicants intending to enter Australia from March 2018 on a work visa are needed to nominate an occupation, which is present on the occupations list. If you are looking to migrate to Australia, get in touch with Y-Axis, one of the top immigration consultancy companies, to apply for a visa from one of its several offices.