Australia has always been focused on attracting overseas talents as its main immigration policy. After the 2020-21 financial year budget was announced, Australia has provided more places for the Global Talent Independent Program, or GTI for short.
The number of GTI projects has increased from 5,000 last year to 15,000, reflecting Australia’s hope to attract global high-tech talents in the following seven areas. The 7 target sectors include:
- AgTech
- Space and Advanced Manufacturing
- FinTech
- Energy and Mining Technology
- MedTech
- Cyber Security
- Quantum Information, Advanced Digital, Data Science and ICT
Let's analyse the requirements for applying for GTI!
First, apply for a visa category of Subclass 124/Subclass 858, which is a one-step Immigrant visa. In other words, applicants who have obtained this visa have already obtained permanent residence in Australia from the day they get the visa. Compared with most of our skilled migrant visas, the GTI program does not require skills assessment, lower requirements for English, shorter approval time, and more freedom than visas such as state sponsorship.
Eligibility
To be granted this visa, a candidate will be highly skilled in one of the 7 target sectors. They will also be able to attract a salary that meets the high income threshold.
- prove they are internationally recognised with evidence of outstanding achievements (i.e published papers, participated in international conferences or awards, etc.)
- still be prominent in their field of expertise (it is recommended to have worked in this industry in recent years)
- provide evidence that they would be an asset to Australia, in their area of expertise (the applicant's field and job must be universally recognised)
- have no difficulty obtaining employment in Australia or becoming established in their field (have job offer or letter or qualification certificate as proof)
- have a recognised organisation or individual in Australia endorse them as global talent, in the same field as the applicant
- candidates should have the ability to attract a salary at or above the Fair Work high income threshold of AUD153,600.
To sum up, there are two ways to apply for the GTI program, either through your high-achievement application in the workplace (generally it is required that you have accepted your job in Australia and have sufficient income); or through an academic high-achievement application, PhD in a specific field, with relatively good academic achievements (generally calculated according to the number of papers published).
We know many of you have achieved great results, but as the chosen major is not of the Australian Immigration majors you cannot do skills assessment. In this case, you may wish to consider a PhD to achieve your immigration goal!
