Sharper English now must for Oz visa

Smita Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 23

Indians aspiring to work in Australia for shorter period will now require sharper knowledge of English and skills as the Temporary Skills Shortage visa has come into effect replacing the earlier 457 visa programme. The TSS-sponsored visa allows skilled workers in Australia to work for an approved business for a period of two to four years.

Indians accounted for about 25 per cent of the nearly 90,000 holders of 457 visas that was reformed by the Australian government citing its prevalent abuse by businesses hiring overseas workers. Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced in April 2017 that the popular 457 visas would be abolished, barely a week after his India visit that led to questions being raised about PM Narendra Modi’s selfie diplomacy with Turnbull while riding the Delhi metro. The issue was raised by PM Modi in subsequent telephonic conversation as well as other meetings.

In an earlier conversation with The Tribune, Australian High Commissioner to India Harinder Sindhu though insisted that the overhauled process would not dramatically impact Indian applicants and immigrants Down Under. “We were having people coming under these schemes where frankly some of them were being exploited. There were low-paid jobs and often significantly not meeting requirements. There has been some tightening up to ensure there is no abuse of that visa,” Sidhu said.

Under the new visa norms, proposal firms will likely have to spend more money on skilled foreign workers they wish to hire. The legal scrutiny also aims to be tighter to ensure locals have a first opportunity for job vacancies instead of cheap labour being brought in from abroad.

“It is entirely reasonable. If we are a country accepting people to come and work temporarily, we need to ensure they are properly qualified to do these jobs. Else we would be placing Australians in these jobs. The visa scheme, to be clear, is to bring people from overseas to fill skilled vacancies where we don’t have them in Australia,” the High Commissioner said.