Blogs Category: Employer Sponsored

The Employer Nomination Scheme (ENS) is a Permanent Residency Visa, which enables Australian employers to nominate highly skilled overseas workers to fill positions that cannot be filled from within the Australian labor market or through the employer’s own training programs.

This visa allows you and any family members who have also been granted this visa to:
• Stay in Australia indefinitely • Work and study in Australia • Enrol in Medicare, Australia’s scheme for health-related care and expenses • Apply for Australian citizenship (if you are eligible) • Sponsor eligible relatives for permanent residence • Travel to and from Australia for five years from the date the visa is granted

ENS is two stage visa; Nomination and Visa application.

You might be wanting to come to Australia for a temporary stay such as a student visa or for short term work. Or you might be a parent seeking to be reunited with their children in Australia. Maybe a partner looking to join their loved one in Australia. Or a skilled worker seeking permanent residence.

Australia has many different visa options depending on your background, education, and intentions. Choosing the right visa and making a correct visa application can be the difference between a successful outcome and possibly having a visa refused which can be a costly experience spoiling your future and chances of coming to Australia.

Australia’s complex migration law is made up of our Migration Act, Migration Regulations, Department of Immigration and Border Protection Policy Advice Manual, and decisions of the Migration Review Tribunal and our Federal Courts that deal with migration applications. Our migration law is complex and failure to make a visa application in compliance and pursuant to the applicable visa law can be disastrous and lead to a visa refusal.

For example work visas have strict rules about skill requirement, work experience, language and particular aspects such as labour market testing, and particular rules relating to certain passport holders. Hunt Migration can ensure you comply and meet these requirements.

It may be that you might not initially qualify for a visa but still would be able to seek a waiver or make an application based on a certain exemption. Our team of lawyers at Hunt Migration can advise you of waivers and exemptions which could be the difference between successfully qualifying for a visa and having a visa refused.

It is important to place your visa application and migration needs in the hands of capable trust worthy professionals who know Australian migration law and can assure you dedicated service from initial consult and discussing your visa options to preparing, lodging and following up on your visa processing.

Hunt Migration has a team of experienced migration lawyers in Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney and Perth dealing with all types of visa applications and can assist in all areas of migration.

We are not just agents, we are properly trained and qualified lawyers who can advise you on all legal aspects of visa law. If you are in the greater Victoria region or thinking of settling in Victoria, contact Hunt Migration lawyers in Melbourne where our senior lawyers will be happy to advise assist and handle all your migration matters. We can deal with all areas of migration and visa, including partner visas, 457 work visas, permanent employer nomination, skills assessments, permanent residency under our skilled migration program and all areas of waivers and exemptions for visas.

Contact Hunt Migration today to begin your visa application.

With restaurant and takeaway food venue growth expected to increase by more than 8 percent over the next three years, Restaurant & Catering Australia has successfully lobbied to get chefs added to the country’s Skilled Occupation List (SOL) as of July 1. John Hart, CEO of Restaurant & Catering Australia, echoed the relief felt by many in the hospitality industry who are experiencing chronic shortages of well-trained and experienced chefs, restaurant and café managers, waiters and kitchen helpers.

The inclusion of chefs on the Skilled Occupation List, currently highlighting 188 occupations that the Australian economy has the greatest need for, means that foreign workers who have hospitality industry experience can now apply for a permanent Australian work visa without having to first obtain a sponsor. The good news about including chefs on the SOL coincided with an announcement by Australia’s federal government that it would be simultaneously evaluating the current 457 temporary work visa program and its effectiveness in helping to solve the nation’s ongoing labour shortages as they affect the hospitality industry. Many critics of the 457 temporary work visa program contend that the program as it is currently designed tends to punish workers and make employers feel handicapped rather than empowered when it comes to finding qualified staff for their restaurant and foodservice operations.

According to a Benchmarking Survey conducted in 2014 by Restaurant & Catering Australia, slightly more than three out of every five hospitality businesses experience staff vacancies of 22.3 percent on an ongoing basis. According to the survey, employers indicated that chefs, restaurant managers and cooks were the three job listings that they found were the most difficult to fill with experienced personnel.

Notes Michaelia Cash, Assistant Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, the recent addition of chefs to the Skilled Occupation List will offer business owners greater flexibility in recruiting and hiring professionally trained chefs from overseas markets when they are faced with not being able to find suitable trained chefs in their own local markets. Cash reports that this change in status will be especially welcomed by restaurants and cafes operating in regional areas where a dearth of skilled workers has been obvious for quite some time.

In addition to chefs, tilers and bricklayers have also become the most recent occupations added to the SOL. Recommendations for SOL additions are based on the current labour market, as well as economic, migration, training and demographic data and is an attempt by Australia’s government to address the country’s always changing skills needs in order to keep the economy balanced and healthy.

There are some, however, who are voicing their displeasure at the recent addition of chefs to the Skilled Occupation List. One such group is United Voice, the hospitality trade union, which insists that no shortage of skilled chefs actually exists in Australia. Union officials say that the problem of finding qualified chefs is related to sub-standard wages as well as high turnover rather than a shortage of qualified personnel to fill key positions. Says the union’s national secretary, David O’Byrne, the problem that needs to be addressed is the hospitality industry’s inability to retain well-qualified chefs in Australia once they have been hired.