Major Changes to 489 Visa Announced

In a major breakthrough, the Australian Department of Home Affairs released the massive changes to the 489 [Skilled Regional Sponsored Visa] to be launched on 16 November 2019 under the remodeled title and criteria.

The following changes to the 489 are all set to give a major flip to this visa for thousands of applicants to avail of this never before opportunity: The salient features of the new visa are as follows:

• The visa will be renamed from 489 [Skilled Regional Sponsored] to 491 [Skilled Work Regional Sponsored.
• The points allocated for being sponsored by a state/territory or eligible relatives will be increased from 10 points to 15 points.
• Those with spouses having had their skills assessed will get increased points from 5 points to 10 points.
• Those with spouses having obtained competent English [6 bands in each section] will be able to claim 5 points.
• Those applicants who are unmarried will get 10 points
• Those who have qualifications in fields such as Sciences, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics will get an additional 10 points.

For those who were not able to score 65 points or needed a higher English proficiency score to meet the 65-point mark can avail additional points from the above criteria from November 2019.

The new 491 visas will have validity for 5 years and the applicants will need to live and work in regional Australia for 3 years out of these 5 years. With the exceptions of Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Gold Coast, and Brisbane entire Australia will be classified as Regional.

For assessment of your eligibility and answers to your queries regarding how these changes would impact you, please book a consultation with our team of experts by emailing caanwings@gmail.com or calling 9876718889