The latest rounds of reform to Australia’s migration system present both challenges and opportunities for employers. Here’s what HR needs to know.

Recent reforms to Australia’s migration system have the potential to reshape how employers attract and retain global talent. 

In July 2024, the Albanese government introduced some major reforms to the Migration Act, including the new Workplace Justice Visa and greater flexibility for sponsored migrants who want to leave their employer. Further changes were announced in December, most notably an update to the skilled occupation list for sponsorship candidates.

The changes are part of the government’s 10-year roadmap for migration reform, designed to fix the country’s “broken” migration system and balance the needs of migrants and businesses.

For HR practitioners and business leaders, these updates represent both opportunities and challenges. Understanding the new rules will be essential to supporting skilled migrants while managing compliance.

Greater flexibility for sponsored migrants

Among the most significant changes is the revised visa conditions for Temporary Skill Shortage (subclass 482), Temporary Work (Skilled) (subclass 457) and Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional (subclass 494), which have given migrant workers holding these visas more flexibility if they leave their sponsoring employer. 

Previously, visa condition 8607 required workers on these visas to secure a new sponsor within 60 days of leaving their job, during which they were not allowed to work for a non-sponsor employer.

This created an unspoken dependency on the sponsoring employer, as employees felt compelled to stay even if they were unsatisfied or mistreated. 

The new conditions, introduced in July 2024, address this issue by giving migrants up to 180 days after leaving a job, with a maximum of 365 days across their visa period, to find a new sponsor, apply for another visa or make arrangements to leave Australia. During this period, they can also work in any occupation of their choice without immediately needing a new sponsor.

This change sparked concern among the business community when it was announced, due to the potential for employees to take advantage of the system by securing sponsorship and leaving shortly afterwards. Considering businesses can spend around $10,000 nominating an employee and paying their visa fees, it’s understandable that sponsoring employers would be highly aware of this risk.

However, while it’s still early days for this policy, I have not yet seen many instances of migrants taking advantage of the new entitlements. 

What’s more, the new conditions also benefit employers in a number of ways. For example, if employers are engaging in cuts or redundancies, they can do so knowing that the loss of employment will not ruin a migrant worker’s chances of permanent residency. The increased flexibility for visa holders also mitigates any tension or resentment that can brew when migrant workers wish to leave their role, but feel powerless to do so, avoiding costly cultural issues and low morale from impacting organisational productivity.

New migration pathways to permanent residency

One of the government’s key objectives in recent migration reforms is to reduce the number of ‘permanent temporary’ migrants, i.e. those who hop from visa to visa without a clear path to residency. 

For instance, as of July 2024, migrants are no longer allowed to enter Australia on a visitor visa and switch to a student visa while in the country. Student visa applications can now only be lodged if a university offers a placement before the applicant arrives. 

This is designed to attract high-quality, genuine students, minimise misuse of the visa system and reduce the administrative burden associated with appeals by preventing applicants from gaining review rights domestically. The ultimate goal is to have fewer people on graduate visas and more people with the right skills on employer-sponsored visas.

There will also be an ‘essential skills’ pathway to address critical workforce shortages, streamlining the process for hiring migrants into roles deemed essential to Australia’s economy. These include critical roles in industries such as aged care.

This will be hugely useful for employers, who are turning to migrant workers more and more to plug skills gaps; AHRI’s most recent AHRI Quarterly Australian Work Outlook reveals that 60 per cent of employers plan to recruit overseas workers in 2025.

New occupation list for migrant sponsorship

Following the first round of changes announced in July last year, in December the government released a new Core Skills Occupation List (CSOL) to replace complex, outdated and inflexible occupation lists for skilled migrants.

The new list, informed by labour market analysis and stakeholder consultations, includes modern roles such as content creator, data analyst and cybersecurity engineer, reflecting contemporary job markets and making it easier to match candidates to roles accurately. 

It will also make the categories more flexible for skilled migrants whose job descriptions don’t necessarily match the CSOL’s descriptions word-for-word. 

The CSOL is great news for HR, since it reduces the psychological and administrative burden of having to fit skilled professionals into poorly suited categories, a process that previously led to misaligned job descriptions and unnecessary stress. 

Several changes in this tranche of reform aim to improve conditions for migrants who are more vulnerable to exploitation from their employers. 

For example, a new Workplace Justice Visa (subclass 408) has been introduced, which allows migrant workers to remain in Australia for up to 12 months to fight an active workplace claim, if they don’t have any other legal avenue to stay in the country. While take-up of this visa has been low since its implementation last year, it is still an important step in helping migrant workers fight against exploitation. 

To ensure migrants are fairly compensated, the Temporary Skilled Migration Income Threshold has been increased from $70,000 to $73,150. 

Embracing changes to skilled migration

The unpredictability of migration policies is an ongoing challenge for HR practitioners, particularly with employer-sponsored visas. Constant changes make it difficult for businesses to plan and for applicants to meet requirements, impacting both sides of the process. 

It’s crucial for HR to take a proactive approach to understanding the evolving migration landscape, as well as reviewing policies to ensure compliance.

Despite the uncertainty involved, employers should view sponsorship through the lens of opportunity rather than risk. Migration is essential to Australia’s social and economic development, and by embracing these changes and supporting skilled migrants, employers can build a more capable and competitive workforce.

A version of this article was originally published in the February 2025 edition of HRM Magazine.

All information, content and materials available on this site are for general informational purposes only. The contents of this article do not constitute legal advice and should not be relied upon as such.

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