Australia this week released the results of the 2021 Census.Migration and Australia go hand in hand, reinforcing each other —Australia has further cemented its status as a true nation of migrants.

– Over the past 50 years, Australia’s population has doubled;

– Nearly half (48.2%) of Australians have at least one parent born overseas

– 27.6% of Australians were born overseas themselves

– Since 2017, Australia has welcomed more than one million overseas-born residents (1,020,007)

– Among the sources of overseas-born residents, mainland China ranks third,while India and Nepal have both seen rapid growth compared to 2016.

– Currently, 5.5% of Australia’s population has a Chinese heritagebackground;

– After English,Mandarin is the most commonly spoken language at home, with nearly 700,000 people ( 685,274) speaking Mandarin as their home language— compared with 2016, the number of people speaking a second language at home has increased by nearly 792,062, with over 5.5 million people now speaking a language other than English at home.

Migration — past, present, and future — has been and will always be essential to Australia’s development.

The Australian Government is expected to hold an employment and workforce summit in September (the newly elected Labor Government is expected to release the 2022–23 financial year budget in October),with discussions on increasing migration (likely including both permanent residency and long-stay temporary visas) and migration reform expected to be key agenda items.

It is true that during the pandemic, it was a harsh winter for offshore skilled migration applicants. Offshore state-nominated skilled migration pathways were closed, and Subclass 189 Skilled Independent invitations were few and far between. However, from the middle of the 2021–22 financial year, a glimmer of light began to appear, with four states progressively opening their offshore skilled migration pathways —New South Wales, South Australia, the ACT, and Tasmania— giving everyone hope of seeingoffshore skilled migrationbear fruit this financial year, with a good number of successful invitations recorded on our end.

The table below shows the number of clients from Newstars Group who received state nominations (onshore and offshore) and visa grants this financial year. This page shows partial data from January 2022 only as a reference (click to enlarge). For data on nominated occupations in the 2021–22 financial year, please contact the author of this article.

The current financial year is also drawing to a close (July 2021 – June 2022). For applicants who have not yet received an invitation this year or are still waiting to see how things develop,we remain optimistic.-The first reason is the budget announced at the end of March, whichdoubled the quotas for skilled migration and employer-sponsored migration. The second is that Australia’s borders are now fully and completely open. People arriving from overseas are gradually increasing across all categories, and from 1 July — the start of the new financial year — offshore applicants will certainly have more opportunities.

We should therefore approach next financial year’s migration prospects with great confidence. With increased quotas, we expect the requirements for offshore skilled migration in the new financial year to ease somewhat, and more states are expected to open their offshore skilled migration pathways.

Among them— Western Australia has already announced that it will open its offshore pathway in the new financial year. With Western Australia joining the existing four states, at least five states are expected to open offshore lodgement pathways in the coming financial year. The ACT has also essentially confirmed its occupation list and policies for the new financial year.

Western Australiahas opened its offshore pathway for the new financial year and its occupation list has been released. Currently common occupations includeAccountant, Programmer, Restaurant Manager, Chemist, Civil Engineer, Civil Engineering Draftsperson, Architectural Draftsperson, Construction Project Manager, Construction Estimator, Database Administrator, Electrical Engineer, Mechanical Engineer, Petroleum Engineer, Production Engineer, Sales and Marketing Manager, Transport Engineer, Structural Engineer, Telecommunications Engineer, Engineering Managerand more.

ACTlast week also updated its occupation list for the new financial year,adding 95 new positions to the occupation list,while also removing 3 less common occupations (Call or Contact Centre Manager, Airconditioning and Refrigeration Mechanic, Insurance Loss Adjuster). Among the newly added occupations, a number of popular roles have returned to the list, including the well-knownTranslator, Financial Investment Manager, Mechanical Engineer, Industrial Engineer, Marketing Specialistand others. Most commonly nominated occupations are now on the occupation lists for both states — applicants should make the most of this opportunity to get their skills assessments completed as soon as possible.

Client: Ms C

Programme: NSW Subclass 190
Occupation: 272613 Welfare Worker
EOI: 70+5

Client background: Ms C is currently 30 years old. She previously completed a master’s degree in Australia and then returned to China after her visa expired, having completed her skills assessment. During her time studying in Australia, she consistently used our services for various visa matters, so she has a great deal of trust in us. In a casual chat one weekend, we learned that since returning to China, Ms C had been working in administrative roles and felt that the pace of work in China was too fast — she wanted to find a suitable pathway back to Australia.On our advice, Ms C got her English test results as soon as possible. Once her scores came through, she lodged an NSW Subclass 190 application on a trial basis — and to everyone’s pleasant surprise, the invitation came through very smoothly. Ms C is currently waiting for her visa to be granted.

Client: Mr K

Programme: SA Subclass 491
Occupation: 261212 Web Developer
EOI: 75+15

Client background: After graduating from an IT programme in Australia, Mr K returned to China and entered the IT industry. He married his girlfriend back home and they now have one child. He is currently facing the pressure of the “996” work culture in China’s IT sector, as well as the stress of his child’s schooling. Mr K is now in his 30s, so he is also concerned that his age-related points score will continue to fall in the coming years. His wife is currently a full-time homemaker and has not had relevant work experience in the past five years, so she is unable to contribute a spouse points bonus for Mr K.Since Mr K has a solid English foundation and was able to achieve an IELTS score of 7, and has relatively extensive work experience, he was just able to reach the minimum lodgement score of 90 points for this occupation under South Australia, and was successfully invited.The visa for Mr K and his family of three has now been lodged — they are looking forward to the good news of the Subclass 491 visa being granted.

Client: Ms H

Programme: ACT Subclass 491
Occupation: 149311 Conference and Event Organiser
Matrix: 65

Client background: Ms H is currently 42 years old, holds a master’s degree from a Chinese university, is single,and was able to achieve 7.5 in all four components of her English test, with many years of experience working in a foreign-funded company. Ms H contacted us in 2020, wanting to migrate to Australia through the skilled migration pathway.At that time, there was no suitable offshore pathway available, so we had Ms H proceed with her skills assessment first. On the day the ACT opened its offshore skilled migration pathway, we notified Ms H immediately and she signed with us and lodged her application straight away.The result was a very smooth low-score invitation at Matrix 65 points in the second offshore invitation round. Ms H was quite astonished when she received the invitation — she felt as though a miracle had happened to her.

Client: Mr L. Programme: ACT Subclass 491
Occupation: 233915 Environmental Engineer

Matrix: 80

Client background: Both Mr L and his wife graduated from the same environmental engineering programme at a 211-ranked university in China. Both have a very solid English foundation, and Mr L has worked at the same large company ever since graduating. Mrs L has also worked in a related field, though somewhat more intermittently, so Mr L applied as the primary applicant.The main challenge for both of them was that after years of working in China without an English-speaking environment, they needed to achieve a score of 7 in all four components of their English test. In the end, after three months of intensive study, both successfully scored a 7 across the board. After the ACT opened its offshore pathway, both applicants lodged their ACT state nomination on the same day they received their English results, and were successfully invited in the very next invitation round.

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