Episode Summary: The migration program planning model up until this year was set over a 12-month cycle. From 2025-26, it will move to a multi-year model extending the program planning levels to four years, i.e., until 2028-29. This will allow the migration program to align better with longer-term infrastructure. The size and the composition of the planning level is yet to be announced. Final thoughts: If you are thinking about moving to Australia, it is essential to monitor these developments. I...
Jun 12, 2025•11 min•Season 2Ep. 44
Episode Summary: Getting professional help with your visa application for immigration purposes is common knowledge and practice. What most people aren’t aware of is that only certain people can provide immigration assistance: a migration agent, legal practitioner or an exempt person. OMARA – The office of the Migration Agents Registration Authority – a government body within the DHA, ensures that people who receive immigration advice are protected by registering only those who meet their qualifi...
May 29, 2025•12 min•Season 2Ep. 43
Episode Summary: In this podcast we cover the nomination places used for each Australian state and territory under the 2024–25 Skilled Migration Program, reflecting the significant demand for skilled migration in those areas. If you're serious about migrating to Australia through the skilled nomination route, timing is everything. Act fast, stay informed, and don’t wait until July. Keywords: Skilled Migration Program, Subclass 491, Subclass 190, Subclass 189, Migration Planning Levels Main Topic...
May 20, 2025•15 min•Season 2Ep. 42
Episode Summary: Today we’re unpacking a topic that’s changed the way professionals think about work and travel — the Digital Nomad Visa. More and more countries like Portugal, Greece, Costa Rica, are inviting remote workers to live and work legally beyond their home borders. Australia doesn't have a visa specifically designed for digital nomads. So, the question is, can digital nomads call Australia home — even temporarily — and what pathways exist if you’re dreaming of living and working here?...
May 01, 2025•11 min•Season 2Ep. 41
Episode Summary: In today’s podcast, we shall be offering expert insights to help international students and future migrants make smart decisions about their journey in Australia. Today, we will be providing a nuanced analysis on a hot topic that has been debated a lot in the international student community – “switching courses midway to pursue Child Care or Disability Care programs in hopes of securing permanent residency.” To help break this all down, I’m joined by a popular and trusted voice ...
Apr 17, 2025•10 min•Season 2Ep. 40
Episode Summary: In today's episode, we explore visa options available to Australian citizens or permanent residents who might want to bring their parents over temporarily or permanently to join them in Australia. We break down everything you need to know about Parent Visas for Australia. From eligibility requirements to processing times and application tips, we’ll guide you through the available visa options for parents of Australian citizens or permanent residents. Keywords: Parent Visa, Contr...
Apr 03, 2025•20 min•Season 2Ep. 39
Episode Summary: A person can become an Australian citizen in different ways. Conferral and descent are the most common ways to become an Australian citizen provided you meet certain criteria before you apply. According to the Australian Citizenship Act 2007, a person born in Australia is an Australian citizen if and only if: a) a parent of the person is an Australian citizen or a permanent resident, at the time the person is born; or b) the person is ordinarily resident in Australia throughout ...
Mar 19, 2025•7 min•Season 2Ep. 38
Episode Summary: In today’s episode, we will learn about the Occupation Standard Classification for Australia (OSCA), a standardised framework for storing, organising and reporting occupation-related information, and how it relates to ANZSCO. Currently, the Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO) is used as the tool to define the occupations that feature on The Core Skills Occupation List (CSOL) for skilled migration. This will not be impacted after OSCA’s rele...
Feb 10, 2025•12 min•Season 2Ep. 37
Episode Summary: The new Core Skills Occupation List (CSOL) took effect on 7 Dec 2024 representing a significant policy shift and offering new immigration opportunities for both skilled workers and employers. The CSOL applies to Skills in Demand (SID) visa (subclass 482) core skills stream, which replaced the old TSS visa, and Employer Nomination Scheme visa (subclass 186) (Direct Entry stream). It brings about a significant change, especially for subclass 186 direct entry stream. The number of ...
Jan 21, 2025•15 min•Season 2Ep. 36
Episode Summary: Some of you may have read or heard from others that Australia is the perfect destination for international students. It has great universities, a welcoming multicultural environment, and cutting-edge research opportunities. But that’s not all—studying here opens doors to global career opportunities, post-study work visas, and pathways to permanent residency. In this episode Amitava & Arun explore why Australia is a top choice for many international students and what’s in sto...
Jan 09, 2025•24 min•Season 2Ep. 35
Episode Summary: On 3 Dec, the government announced a new Core Skills Occupation List (CSOL), a single consolidated list of 456 occupations, which applies to the core skills stream of the new Skills in Demand visa that will replace the TSS Subclass 482 visa on 7 Dec 2024. Jobs and Skills Australia, whose role is to provide high quality data, analysis and insights on the labour market at national, state and regional levels, was tasked as consultants to the provide the government with a draft CSOL...
Dec 08, 2024•12 min•Season 2Ep. 34
Episode Summary: In this episode, we shall explore a crucial pathway for skilled workers that comes into effect on 24 Nov 2024 – the Skills in Demand Visa. The Skills in Demand (SID) visa is replacing the Temporary Skill Shortage (TSS) (subclass 482) visa to provide more flexibility to skilled workers and employers. The new ‘Skills in Demand visa’ aims to address labour market needs and introduces several significant changes for temporary skilled migrant workers, including more time to find anot...
Nov 17, 2024•14 min•Season 2Ep. 33
Episode Summary: In today’s episode we discuss how one can apply for a carer visa to care for someone in Australia who has no reasonable access to care options. The two visa subclasses that fall under the carer visa category are subclass 116 and subclass 836, both of which are permanent resident visas. Join Amitava and me to understand how one can become eligible to apply for this visa, sponsorship obligations, and carer obligations.. Keywords: Subclass 116, Subclass 836, Carer Visa, Australian ...
Oct 31, 2024•15 min•Season 2Ep. 32
Episode Summary: In today’s episode we are talking to Jedidiah Macaraeg– who graduated with an Advanced Diploma in Telecom Network from Australian College of Information Technology (ACIT) in 2017. Jedd received his State Nominated Visa subclass 190 from Victoria on Aug 19, 2024 and is now a permanent resident. Jedd was visiting family in Brisbane when the idea of pursuing an advanced degree in Australia was brought up. He talks about his transition from the Philippines to Gold Coast as a young I...
Sep 09, 2024•17 min•Season 2Ep. 31
Episode Summary: There are quite a few people who enter or lodge an application to enter Australia on a temporary visa as they are in a relationship with an Australian citizen or a permanent resident who sponsors the applicant’s visa. These visas could be Temporary Partner Visa (subclass 820), Provisional Partner Visa (subclass 309), Dependent Child Visa (subclass 445), Distinguished Talent Visa (subclass 858), or Prospective Marriage Visa (subclass 300). Sometimes, the applicant must cease thei...
Sep 03, 2024•15 min•Season 2Ep. 30
Debika Migration Services is a MARA registered immigration assistance provider with over two decades of experience. We provide the highest quality migration services to our clients with a goal of providing total solution for a successful outcome. We employ innovative and pragmatic strategies to ensure our client’s migration needs are met. - Links - If you are seeking immigration advice, would like to have a discussion about your application, or any other matter related to your PR call us at +61 ...
Aug 26, 2024•2 min
Episode Summary: There are many people who immigrate to Australia at a young age, leaving their family behind. At a later stage in their lives, they are now keen to bring their parents over to Australia, permanently. There is no easy pathway to permanent residence for parents. The process is quite complex, costly, lengthy and currently takes over 40 years for their PR to be approved. If one is not careful, bringing parents over on certain visa subclass will make them ineligible to apply for a pe...
Aug 25, 2024•18 min•Season 2Ep. 29
Episode Summary: Back in October 2023, we did a podcast on picking the right occupation for your skills assessment. We touched upon how relevant skills assessing authorities check that your skills meet the standards they set to work in a relevant occupation. We spoke at length about VETASSESS and how they go about assessing occupations that are NEC – not elsewhere classified. In April 2024, ACS – the Australian Computer Society – launched a new Migration Skills Assessment platform with the inten...
Aug 13, 2024•21 min•Season 2Ep. 28
Episode Summary: Sumer Roy moved to Sydney, Australia in 2018 to pursue an MBA. About 2 months into University, he met with an accident and had to rush back home to Kolkata for his medical treatment. Upon returning he changed his program and enrolled in a master's program for a degree in professional accounting. In this podcast he talks about why he switched his program while at university, working as an intern at Telstra which eventually led to a full time role there, and securing his PR in Nov...
Aug 09, 2024•23 min•Season 2Ep. 27
Episode Summary: The 2024-25 General Skilled Migration Program and State Nominated Migration Program allocations have been announced for: TAS, WA, SA, NT, VIC, QLD, ACT, NSW In this podcast we will look at what those numbers look like for each state and touch upon some key things that applicants need to know about the General skilled migration program and state nominated migration program. The total allocations for Subclass 190 are 16,500 places and for Subclass 491 are 9,760 places. From there,...
Aug 01, 2024•25 min
Episode Summary: This week on Moving to Australia podcast, we sit down with Kelly Zhu, who secured her PR in Dec 2023 after her skills assessment was rejected by VETASSESS. Kelly moved to Australia from China in 2016 as a student. She graduated with a degree in Bachelor of Arts from Western Sydney University in 2020. Initially, the biggest adjustment she faced as a student was the transition from living with her family to living independently. At Uni, since English is not her first language, she...
Jul 29, 2024•17 min
Episode Summary: This week on Moving to Australia podcast, we are talking to one of our clients, Sagnik Datta, who graduated from University of Wollongong and secured his Permanent Residency in 2024. Sagnik has a bachelor's degree in Computer Science and received his master's in Business from Sydney Business School - Univ of Wollongong in 2019. Since then he has worked at Ikea, Rashays and now works full time as an Azure specialist for an insurance group, Tokio Marine Management Australasia. We ...
Jul 22, 2024•23 min
Episode Summary: Aadil graduated with an MBA from UNSW Business School in 2004. In this episode he harkens back to 20 years of his life in Oz, firstly as a student and then as a professional financial advisor. The conversation kicks off with him opening up about his desire to have an overseas qualification and independent living. There were challenges for a couple of years as a student at UNSW. With time, he had developed a strong connection to Australia while at Uni which led to his decision to...
Jul 10, 2024•37 min
Episode Summary: This week on our podcast, we have our first guest - Maksym Vasylkov - one of DMS's clients. Maksym moved to Australia on a Subclass 491 visa. He is a software engineer from Ukraine with 15 years of experience in the IT Industry. Maksym talks about his journey to Australia and why he fell in love with it. Since Feb 2024, he's been living in Darwin, which is the capital city of Northern Territory, with his family. Amitava and Arun have a chat with him about life in a regional area...
Jun 26, 2024•12 min•Season 1Ep. 22
Episode Summary: This week on the podcast, we shall be talking about the Subclass 407 Training visa, a temporary visa that allows individuals to take part in occupational training or professional development activities in Australia. The training program would allow someone to improve their skills for their job, area of tertiary study, or field or expertise. This can be an excellent alternative for individuals affected by the upcoming changes to student visa applications, particularly those who m...
Jun 21, 2024•20 min•Season 1Ep. 21
Episode Summary: This week on Moving to Australia podcast, we talk about how a business in Australia that has a genuine need to fill a skilled position can become eligible to sponsor skilled workers from overseas. We begin the conversation by touching upon the need for businesses in Australia to source skilled workers from overseas in various industries: construction, hospitality, health, IT, trade skills. There are times when businesses are unable to meet local demands due to skill shortages an...
Jun 14, 2024•24 min•Season 1Ep. 20
Episode Summary: This week on Moving to Australia podcast, Amitava shares his insights on the key immigration highlights from the federal budget delivered by Jim Chalmers on 14 May 2024. We start the discussion with what the planning levels look like for the 24-25 program and its basic composition. We draw a contrast between each of skills stream category for the 24-25 program and the 23-24 program. From 22-23, the family stream has moved over to a demand driven model. We explore the importance ...
Jun 03, 2024•16 min•Season 1Ep. 19
Episode Summary: In today’s episode, we discuss the recent changes to the student visa program. As part of the new measures being introduced to the Australian Migration System one of the changes recommended was to bring in reforms that would directly impact International Students and Temporary Graduate Visa holders. For all applications lodged on and after the 23 March 2024, the government is now raising the English language requirements for Student and Temporary Graduate visas. The conversation...
Apr 10, 2024•11 min•Season 1Ep. 18
Episode Summary: The Temporary Skill Shortage visa lets an employer sponsor a suitably skilled worker to fill a position they can’t find a suitably skilled Australian to fill. There are many pathways available to someone on a 482 visa for permanent residency. Amitava begins the conversation by discussing how an employer in Australia can nominate an overseas worker for a TSS visa when they are unable to fill the position locally. He touches upon the eligibility requirements of an applicant to be ...
Mar 19, 2024•15 min•Season 1Ep. 17
Episode Summary: In this episode, we have a conversation about the great Kiwi exodus. Amitava reveals why so many New Zealanders are flocking to Oz. Many young professionals in the critical sector and health care industry from Wellington, Christchurch, or Auckland are keen to make the move from NZ. They find that wages in Australia are higher, the cost of living is lower than in NZ and the real estate market is more suitable to many who are first home buyers. Amitava explains why his clients fro...
Mar 05, 2024•12 min•Season 1Ep. 16
