The Priority Migration Skilled Occupation List (PMSOL) identifies 17 occupations
The Priority Migration Skilled Occupation List (PMSOL) identifies 17 occupations which fill critical skills in the health care, construction, and IT sectors and aims to support Australia’s economic recovery by allowing small numbers of sponsored skilled workers to return to Australia to fill urgent skills needs in critical sectors based on expert advice from the National Skills Commission and consultation with Commonwealth departments.
The impact of COVID-19 has been a huge downturn in Australia’s economy. Australia is now officially in its first recession since many decades ago, with the June quarter GDP numbers showing the economy went backwards by 7 percent — the worst fall on record and slightly worse than most economists had predicted.
Currently, Australia has strict border measures in place to protect the health of the Australian community, only allowing temporary visa holders who fall within strict exempt categories to come to Australia, noting that temporary skilled workers do not automatically fall within the strict exempt categories.
As the global pandemic continues in Australia, we see that there are critical sectors still needing to be filled in order to help the recovery process of rebuilding the Australian economy.
To address this, the Department has announced a new list, namely, The Priority Migration Skilled Occupation List (‘PMSOL’), which identifies seventeen critical occupations in order to fill urgent skill needs in critical sectors, assisting smooth operations of Australian businesses and rebuilding the Australian economy.
The 17 occupations (ANZSCO code) are currently:
- Chief Executive or Managing Director (111111)
- Construction Project Manager (133111)
- Mechanical Engineer (233512)
- General Practitioner (253111)
- Resident Medical Officer (253112)
- Psychiatrist (253411)
- Medical Practitioner nec (253999)
- Midwife (254111)
- Registered Nurse (Aged Care) (254412)
- Registered Nurse (Critical Care and Emergency) (254415)
- Registered Nurse (Medical) (254418)
- Registered Nurse (Mental Health) (254422)
- Registered Nurse (Perioperative) (254423)
- Registered Nurses nec (254499)
- Developer Programmer (261312)
- Software Engineer (261313)
- Maintenance Planner (312911)
The Department has told us that it will review the list regularly.
This list applies to critical temporary skilled workers who are nominated by Australian employers and those who are identified in a nomination and visa will gain an opportunity for priority assessment and travel ban waiver to Australia. The applicable visas include subclasses 482, 494, 186, and 187.
In line with the recent changes to strengthen the labor market testing requirement, which now requires employers to advertise on the Government’s jobactive website, we can anticipate that only small numbers of sponsored skilled workers would be able to return to Australia at this time, who can really provide Australia with critical urgent skills needs, maintaining the great balance of filling economic needs and yet providing the majority of job opportunities to Australians.
Written by Jay Son
LLB, GDLP
Lawyer / Migration Agent (MARN – 1912572)
NO BORDERS: #1 TRUSTED MIGRATION AGENTS
Email: [email protected]
Tel: +61 (07) 3876 4000