Permanent Residency Pathway for Aged Care Workers

Date: 05 May 2023

Australian aged care providers can now apply to access the new Aged Care Industry Labour Agreement to recruit qualified direct care workers, such as Nursing Support Worker, Personal Care Assistant, Aged or Disabled Carer from overseas to work in the aged care sector, either for

Subclass 482 visa, or
Subclass 186 visa program.

WHAT IS THE AGED CARE INDUSTRY LABOUR AGREEMENT?

The Aged Care Industry Labour Agreement streamlines the recruitment of qualified direct care workers from overseas to work in the aged care sector. Employers can use this where appropriately qualified Australians are not available

PURPOSE OF AGED CARE LABOUR AGREEMENT

Aged Care Industry Labour Agreement can be used to:

Sponsor overseas workers for the Temporary Skill Shortage (subclass 482) visa in direct care occupations such as:
- Nursing Support Worker
- Personal Care Assistant
- Aged or Disabled Carer
Sponsor overseas workers for permanent residence under the Employer Nomination Scheme (subclass 186) visa program. Workers must have at least two years of full time work experience in Australia in a relevant direct care occupation. The two years of work experience is not tied to a particular employer or visa subclass.

In both circumstances, the sponsors would need to have made recent and genuine attempts to recruit workers from the domestic workforce pool.

HOW TO APPLY FOR THE AGED CARE INDUSTRY LABOUR AGREEMENT

To access the Aged Care Industry Labour Agreement, aged care providers must first enter into an MoU with the relevant unions(s):

Once the MoU is established, aged care providers can submit the labour agreement request to the Department of Home Affairs. Online labour agreement request forms are available in ImmiAccount.

IMPACTS ON THE ARRANGEMENTS

Visa applicants can access the following concessions, when applying for a visa under the Aged Care Industry Labour Agreement:

Access to Permanent Residency: two year pathway to permanent residence through the Employer Nomination Scheme
Streamlined visa nomination
Priority visa application processing
no post qualification work experience requirement
English language concessions for workers with relevant community language skills
Annual salary of at least $51,222 AUD or the Australian Market Salary Rate, whichever is higher.