Skilled Migration: Programs and Process 2022
April 14, 2022 11:28:01 PM
The evolution of the world economy or economic globalization has always invigorated skill capital to amass in economically advanced or advancing countries. For decades skilled migration has been instrumental in propelling the economic development of many nations.
This vogue has been a catalyst for the development of some very competitive and discerning immigration policies in many OECD countries. Every year many countries based on the critical skills in demand develop pathways for skilled immigrants.
Developed countries welcome thousands of immigrants with specific skills every year to live and work. They offer residency to immigrants to fill the demand for specific skills. While countries come up with their own programs and pathways, the three most popular pathways are Intra company transfer (ICT) The ICT Visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows companies operating both in the receiving country and abroad to transfer certain classes of employees from its foreign operations to the receiving country operations for up to 2 to 5 years. The office in the receiving country could be a parent company, child company, or sister company to a foreign company. The employee must have worked for a subsidiary, parent, affiliate, or branch office company outside of the receiving area for at least one year out of the last three years.
The second type of visa is the Sponsorship Visa, where a local company in the receiving country sponsors the applicant in the form of a job offer. This means an applicant will need to apply for an offered position with a local company in the receiving country. The company will offer a job and provide visa sponsorship to the applicant.
The third kind of Visa is a Permanent Resident (PR) Visa which does not require the applicant to have a job offer. On getting the PR Visa the applicant can live and work in the resident country, without any restrictions from a sponsoring company.
Some of the very popular Skilled Migration Programs are:
Canada Skilled Migration Program — Under this category, Canada runs federal and programs run by individual provinces. The federal program has a points system based on factors including age, education, work experience, and language skills.
The Canadian Government has been inviting applications for Skilled working professionals for many years now under the Express Entry Program to fill in their vacancies. It has officially rolled out The Express Entry System on the 31st of January 2015. This program was developed with the intention to ease immigration policies. The Federal Skilled Trades Program (FSTP) is one of the several ways to acquire a permanent residence VISA to immigrate to Canada. Any individual who is skilled enough in trades listed by the Canadian Government can apply under this program. Any individual who has a minimum of one year of Canadian work experience or has studied for more than a year in Canada qualifies to apply for the Canadian Experience Class Immigration Program (CEC) visa. It is one of the pathways to obtaining Permanent Residence in Canada. Applicants who are looking to migrate to a particular province or territory can use the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP). This program allows Canadian provinces and territories to nominate individuals.
Australia Skilled Migration Visa — Australia has one of the most comprehensive immigration programs for skilled migrants. Out of their total quota of 190,000 places 70% are allocated for skilled migration. The basic eligibility criteria for these programs are that an applicant must be a graduate with relevant experience in the same discipline of at least 2 years, the applicant must be under the age of 45 years, and must have the appropriate level of English proficiency. The various programs for skilled migration are Sub Class 189: This scheme is for point-tested skilled professionals who are not sponsored by any employer from Australia or by any family member. The applicant interested to apply under this stream for Visa needs to first submit the EXPRESS OF INTEREST through Skill Select portal. Sub Class190 — The Skilled Nominated Visa for Australia is for those who have a valid nomination from a state or territory Government Agency of Australia. It is again a permanent residency visa with which one can live and work in Australia. Sub Class 491 — The Skilled Regional (Provisional) Visa to Australia, is for people wishing to live and work in a lesser popular region or low population growth areas of Australia. The applicant should obtain a minimum of 60 points in the points test to be eligible for the visa. Sub Class 190 — The Skilled Nominated Visa for Australia is for those who have a valid nomination from a state or territory Government Agency of Australia. It is again a permanent residency visa with which one can live and work in Australia. Sub Class 491 — The Skilled Regional (Provisional) Visa to Australia, is for people wishing to live and work in a less popular region or low population growth areas of Australia. The applicant should obtain a minimum of 60 points in the points test to be eligible for the visa. Sub Class 186 — When you get nominated by an Australian employer, you become eligible to apply for a Permanent Residency Visa under this scheme. This is the Employer Nomination Scheme. Sub Class 482 — This is a temporary visa to live and work in Australia. Those skilled professionals looking to work for a short period of time outside the country can opt for this. This is an Australian employer-sponsored visa also known as a Temporary Skill Shortage Visa (TSS). Sub Class 187 — When you get nominated by an Australian employer, you become eligible to apply for a Permanent Residency Visa under this scheme. This is the Employer Nomination Scheme.
United Kingdom Skilled Migration Program — UK has two major programs for skilled migration — The Global Talent Visa which is an alternative to the Tier-1 Exceptional Talent Visa program — To qualify for this program an applicant must have critical skills assessed by endorsing bodies such as Royal society, UK research, and innovation, Royal academy of engineering, the British academy, Arts council of England, Tech Nation. And the endorsement should be as a recognized leader (exceptional talent), as an emerging leader (exceptional promise), under the UK research and innovation endorsed funder option.
The second program is the Skilled Worker Visa Points System which replaced the Tier 2 Visa in December 2020. An applicant must score 70 points to qualify under this program
New Zealand Critical Skilled Visas — New Zealand government publishes a skilled shortage list for applicants to check if their skills are listed for a critical visa. Based on the availability they can then apply for their Critical Skilled Visa. The applicant must be under the age of 55 years, be healthy and have a good character, and must be proficient in English. One needs to give very careful consideration to the eligibility requirement for a Critical Skilled Visa for New Zealand as it is very strict about the tertiary qualifications. This is a two-step process that involves the submission of an EOI (Expression of Interest). This is a point-based system where an applicant gets points for age, qualification, work experience, or a job offer in New Zealand. A prioritized application takes between 4 to 7 months while a non-prioritized application takes 10–18 months.
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