In last 10 years or so, there has been boom in migration to Australia. There are number of factors but the key one is political stability, strong economic, promotion of multiculturism and finally out of 10 most liveable cities in the world, 3 are from Australia.

Due to increased numbers of migrants, the government has decided to reduce the number of PR grants each financial year. The recent announcement of migration intake for 2019 – 2020 is only 160,000 migrants. It is the lowest migration intake for a long time.

It is a practical aspect of life that most migrants would prefer to live in a big metropolitan city due to better job opportunities and facilities. This has caused congestion in metropolitan cities. It has become harder for State and Territories government to manage public transportation, job demands and need to create more infrastructure to cater for growing numbers of migrants and Australian.

Other important fact of migration is that Australia always needs skilled migrants as the local job market is not sufficient to cater the growing demand for skilled workers in the competitive economic environment. However, now the sifts have been to Regional Areas and government is encouraging migrants to relocate in Regional Areas if they wish to seek for PR. The Regional Areas are facing shortage of skilled workers due to people moving to cities. It is equally important for Regional Areas to flourish as the metropolitan cities of Australia.

The recent migration policy of the government has been to fill the skill shortage in Regional Areas. It is important for would be migrants to go along with the government policy if you would like to have nay chances of getting a PR.

In November, the Immigration will introduce 2 new visas targeted to Regional Areas. They are Skilled Work Regional (Provisional) visa (subclass 491) and Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional (Provisional) visa (subclass 494). Holders of the new skilled regional provisional visas will need to live and work in regional Australia.

The benefit of Regional Visas are as follows:

• Visas will be granted with a validity period of up to five years.
• Regional employers will have access to additional regional occupations to sponsor migrants and priority processing of regional visa applications.
• There will also be additional points for certain points-tested migrants who are sponsored to settle in regional Australia.
• Employers in regional Australia, as well as State and Territory governments, who sponsor regional skilled migrants will have access to more occupations than equivalent non-regional visas.
• Based on current occupation lists, the Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional (Provisional) visa will have access to over 450 more occupations than closest non-regional equivalent visa, and the Skilled Work Regional (Provisional) visa will have access to over 70 more occupations than the closest non-regional equivalent visa.
• Priority processing arrangements will be expanded to include all visa applications sponsored by regional employers as well as other visa applicants who will live and work in regional Australia.
• Five additional points for regional nomination or sponsorship provide an extra incentive for potential migrants to consider settling in regional Australia.
• Holder of Regional Visas will have access to Medicare
• The Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional (Provisional) visa (subclass 494) will have almost 700 eligible occupations.
• The Skilled Work Regional (Provisional) visa (subclass 491) will have over 500 eligible occupations.
• From 2022, the pathway to PR for Regional Visas would be SC 191 visa.

The migration intake for 2019 – 2020 for Regional Areas are as follows:

• Regional                    23,000
• Skilled Employer Sponsored        9,000
• Skilled Work Regional            14,000
• State/Territory Nominated            24,968

Total                        70,968

In 2019 – 2020, the migration intake for skilled stream is 108,682. That means the Regional Areas PR is 65% of the whole skilled stream.

It is important that prospective migrants need to adopt the policies of the government and be ready to relocate in Regional Areas of Australia to have any chance of getting PR.