Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Mr Chris Bowen, announces changes to the Australian Employer Nomination Scheme (ENS) effective from 6 December 2010.

The Employer Nomination Scheme was developed to allow Australian employers to nominate highly skilled overseas workers and sponsor them to work in their businesses in Australia on a permanent visa.

The Employer Nomination Scheme includes the subclass 121 visa (for applicants outside Australia) and the subclass 856 visa (for applicants within Australia).

It is possible to satisfy the eligibility criteria for an Australian ENS visa in one of three ways;

• if the position for which the applicant is nominated attracts a salary of not less than the high income threshold,
• if the applicant possesses a positive skills assessment outcome for and has three years appropriate experience in the position for which they are nominated,
• if the applicant has resided in Australia for 2 years on an eligible visa, is working in an eligible occupation and has been employed for a minimum of 12 months by the employer who is nominating them.

The recent changes made to the ENS concern the high income threshold. The executive-level high income salary threshold for an ENS visa has been increased from a base of AUD $165,000 to AUD $250,000.

This is a substantial increase to the high income threshold and is the first change to the threshold for the ENS visa since 2005.  The increase of more than 50% was introduced by the Minister for Immigration without any prior notice to potential Applicants preparing their case for lodgment who from 6 December 2010 will have to meet the increased income threshold.

Applicants and employers wishing to apply for the ENS visa who intend to use the high income salary threshold to meet the relevant eligibility criteria, will now need to produce evidence that the nominated position has a base salary of not less than AUD $250,000.

Changes have also been made to the Employer Nomination Skilled Occupation List (ENSOL). A total of 17 new occupations have been added to the occupation list and one occupation has been removed.

These changes to the ENS visa scheme without notice suggest potential applicants for Australian Immigration will continue to see the same overnight changes to visa criteria with little regard for the effect on applicants and employers part way through preparing applications for Australian Immigration.