Introduced: Opens door for New Visa Subclass 191

Australia immigration announces Visa Subclass 491 and will be rolled out from November 17. The new temporary visa comes with a validity of 5 years and opens the door for Permanent Residency (PR) visa 191 which will be open from November 2022. Therefore, a person living and working on visa 491 is eligible to apply for New PR visa after completion of three years of stay in Australia.

The newly introduced visa will allow an applicant to reside, study and work in all cities of Australia except Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Gold Coast upon selection. Under new system application will still be accepted through the Expression of Interest (EOI) method. The upper age limit to apply under visa subclass 491 is fixed at 45 years. New Visa subclass remains invitation based provisional visa which allows you to work in a designated area.

An applicant gets selected for visa subclass on the basis of new points system wherein:

a. 15 points are allocated for nomination or sponsorship from state/territory or family or relative for living and working in regional Australia.

b. 10 points are set aside for people qualified in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics fields.

c. As for spouse points:

i. 10 points for a spouse with prerequisite skills after duly assessed

ii. 10 points if your spouse holds citizenship or PR visa of Australia or New Zealand

iii. 5 points for a spouse subject to English competency

iv. 10 points for applications of people with non-married as marital status

To turn 491 visa to 191 visa, an applicant needs to apply after 3 years of stay in Australia on visa 491 and meeting requirements about income statement of the last 3 years. A skilled immigrant living in Australia under some other provisional can still apply for New visa subclass 491 and post 3 years of a stay get option to apply for visa 191.

To get a first-mover advantage, it is important to apply under the first cycle of applicants under visa subclass 491 and to be eligible for permanent residency visa 191 at the earliest in November 2022. To get more information about new visa regime in Australia and to get your profile assessed you can get in touch with Resettlement Solution here:

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