The Australian government has extended the applications of tech visa scheme to allow businesses and start-ups to compete internationally. It is designed to lure highly skilled foreigners to Australia will be made permanent after a 12-month pilot.
Under the scheme, two visa streams are applicable to fill specialized positions. Entrenched businesses with a turnover of $4 million can apply for up to 20 visas for foreign workers annually, while start-ups in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics field can apply for five.
Immigration Minister David Coleman champions the concern of the program depend on his experience before entering politics when he worked with a number of internet businesses. He announced that the global talent pilot scheme will become a permanent feature of Australia’s migration program.
Mr. Coleman also said that the pilot showed the GTES (Global Talent-Employer Sponsored) has strong support from the industry and highlighted the economic benefits of recruiting overseas talent directly to Australian businesses”. These highly experienced overseas workers bring with them unique skills and knowledge that is transferred to Australian businesses, creating more jobs for Australians.
The immigration minister’s office was not able to say how many visas had been accessed through the scheme, but it’s understood to be a low number.
Application to Reduce Fees
Despite the problems, Mr. Tew said he supports the continuation of the program but is calling for a reduction in application fees that could reach $ 10,000.
Alex McCaulay, chief executive of StartupAUS, who chairs an advisory panel that supports qualified start-up companies to use the visa scheme, said Australia was in a global war for talent.”Now the government has made the program permanent we will try to get the word out,” he said.
“We have high expectations for Australian startups and have seen the value generated by the plan for the first time – we want them to become global success stories very fast, but to do so, they need to reach the world’s best talent,” Mr. McCauley said.
“We know from the pilot phase that these visas are unlocking amazing business growth. This increase, in turn, allows those companies to hold and train a large number of additional local positions”.
Scheme Started Rocket Engineers into Australia
Gold Coast-based rocket building startup, Gilmour Space Technologies has hired four rocket engineers through the program and plans to hire more.
CEO Adam Gilmour told SBS News, “We don’t have the skills to build rockets in Australia, so we’ve got to bring these people and our philosophy is to bring them to Australia to train.”
Senior recruiters are helping train the startup’s 25 graduates on various aspects of rocket construction. While it took six months to complete the paperwork and be approved to participate in the plan, it enabled fast-tracking of visa applications.
“Why it is necessary that there is a highly talented foreign person who is not ready to wait two or three months for a visa to be approved to decide if they are going to work for you”, Mr. Gilmour said.
He suggested that minimizing the documentation required to join the scheme to encourage more entrepreneurs and businessman to sign up or register, citing Singapore’s quick online process.
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