Indian hopes sink as Aussie stops 457 visa

Recent decision of Australian Government to curtail 457 job visas will affect immigrants working in Australia and students pursuing to get employment visa there. Unfortunately this decision has been taken after the recent visit of Australian Prime Minister in India. More than 95000 numbers of 457 visas were issued annually of which more than 60 percent are Indians. Australia is emerging as one of the potential destinations for education and career.  Recently because of visa issues with US and UK, students used to prefer Australia for skilled jobs. Some of the potential sectors include engineering, mining, shipping, logistics, retail, computer science, advanced IT and agribusiness. Indian Universities have research collaboration with more than 20 Australian Universities.

Recent decision to stop 457 visas will affect the job prospects mostly in the semiskilled sector. 457 visa is the most common visa for Australian or overseas employers to sponsor skilled overseas workers to work temporarily in Australia. The 457 visa provides two main alternatives: business sponsorship and self-sponsorship. The full title of this subclass of visa was Temporary Business (Long Stay) and was introduced soon after John Howard became Prime Minister in 1996. The title of the visa was changed to Temporary Work (Skilled) (Subclass 457) visa on 24 November 2012. Applications are processed by the Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP). On 18 April 2017, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced that the 457 visas will be replaced with two new visa categories. The duration of the visa is for a period of 4 years. Current reform envisages for reducing the visa period of those who are working under 457 visas to a minimum period of two years. No new visa will be issued further. Moreover those who are opting for job visa in Australia need to get 7/9 band in IELTS- International English Language Testing System which is mandatory proficiency test of English.

The reform also stipulates that sponsored candidates and relatives need to complete IELTS for appropriate temporary or permanent job provisions. The reforms related to 457 visas clearly indicate that Australians prefer their natives for skilled job visas. Students from India aspiring for potential employment sector can try for high skilled sector rather than semi skilled sector. The same situation prevails in United States and UK. Recently American President Donald Trump suggested that we prefer Americans and our motto will be Americans first. Moreover he suggested that we require scientists and engineers from India rather than data entry operators and computer programmers. The recent ban will affects computer professionals from India and may affect the Indian IT industry. It is the need of the hour to concentrate of Indian IT sector and domestic market to succeed from this crisis.

(Author is education and career consultant)