In several of my recent posts I have drawn similarities between the current invitation reduction climate, and the non-existent immigration environment during the pandemic.
I had specifically said that it would not surprise me that if at some stage the Government realised the miscalculation in the decision, as they did severely during the pandemic, when local businesses suffered terribly due to the massive skills shortages brought about by the lack of new immigrants.
At the time, businesses became so desperate for skilled workers that they were offering job applicants, even wait-staff and cleaners, sign-on bonuses – often as much as thousands of dollars.
Well, it’s only been a couple months since they made these announcements, and it appears we are already coming full circle and the same issues that arose post-pandemic, regarding the lack of skilled workers, have started again.
As mentioned in this article, “the [South Australia] state government removed three streams from the program after the federal government reduced the number of state nominations from 8,800 to 2,300” which has resulted in a situation where a business owner has said that he thinks that “this is having more of an effect than COVID [in terms of] shortages of staff, with the new rules”.
And the belief is if this is not sorted out soon, that “in three or four months this is [going to] affect all industries and the economy”.
As I have said before, it’s only a matter of time before the current invitation reduction climate is reversed, and when it happens those that are eligible and able to apply for a skilled visa will benefit first.
But there are initial steps which can take several months that need to be completed before one can apply for a skilled visa - you cannot expect this just to happen when you are ready to make the move, you need to prepare in advance.
So, if you wish to find out if your eligible for a skilled visa and what initial steps are required, please send your CV to me.
