Australia is going to discard subclass 408 or covid visa which will affect temporary workers and students, as per the official reports.
The official media report claims that Australia is on the way to abolish subclass 408 or COVID visa. An individual using this gateway to stay in the country will be no longer eligible to stay in the country, further they need to find an alternative gateway.
The temporary activity visa, or Subclass 405, permitted individuals to work in Australia. Government considered the continued suitability of subclass 408. This decision come into effect at the same time when international student’s workweeks were limited to 48 hours beginning from July 1.
Covid work visa permit students to work for unlimited number of hours. Now the income is likely to affect after the cap is reinstated. However, international students who are working in aged care, will be given relaxation till. December 31.
International students will be hardly affected by the closure of this visa. Prabhjot, operations head-Australia, at Infinite Group revealed that “Australia will consider a different visa and a new gateway option where payment is required. Perhaps the COVID visa was free to apply for students earlier.”
The Covid work visa was started to help out students who were unable to leave the country due to border closure. In case visa ran out, international students were permitted to stay in the country for an additional year.
If a person’s current visa (with work privileges) expires in 90 days or less, or in case it has already expired at the time of application. An individual will be eligible for Subclass 408.
The pandemic event visa comes with 2 year length of stay. Generally, temporary (Subclass 485) are eligible for visas eligible for 12 months.