Work Rights changes taking effect on July 1, 2023

As you should be aware, major changes to work rights take effect from next weekend. Our founder Mark has written a great blog article explaining the changes here.

We note: The Department of Home Affairs (DHA) website is yet to be updated with all the relevant information particularly related to Working Holiday Visa 8547 "6-month rule exemptions". There are also legislative changes still pending for student visa work rights. vSure has had to consult our panel of experts for their advice on the tweaks required in our software, which relies on ministerial announcements and communications from/with DHA and the Migration Institute of Australia.

We have to note, vSure is NOT a migration firm and so we recommend you seek your own advice from a MARA agent, on your organisation's exemption or otherwise from these new rules, but the work limitation changes (as we interpret them) and how the vSure web-app will be impacted are outlined below.

PLEASE NOTE: If your organisation is not exempt from both of these new work limitations, then Action is required by your vSure Administrator by next Saturday July 1.

Student Visa Work Limitation 

The 8104/05 work rights limitation on student visas has been relaxed over recent years due to COVID. From Saturday July 1 2023, a new cap of 48 hours per fortnight will apply to the 8104 (secondary) and 8105 (primary) student visa work conditions, with the following notes:

• this is an increase from the 40 hour restriction that has previously applied.
• student visa holders already working in the aged care sector on 9 May 2023 can continue to work unrestricted hours in the aged care sector until 31 December 2023.​
• the previous exemption where the primary visa holder is undertaking a Masters or PhD By Research still applies, as does the rule that prevents students commencing work prior to their course start date. The collection of the Confirmation of Enrolment (CoE) of the primary student visa holder will help with this rule and exemption and thus forms part of vSure's recommended onboarding workflow.

The relaxing of the 8104/05 conditions was managed in vSure through the addition of a "Student Visa 40hrs Limit Exempt" setting in the MyAccount area. This setting stops vSure from flagging the 8104/05 conditions as "Restricted" / Yellow. This setting has been renamed today to "Student Visa 48hrs Limit Exempt".

[Action Required By You]

To prepare for next Saturday, we recommend you change the "Student Visa 48hrs Limit Exempt" setting in MyAccount anytime from now on, to No.

Why not do it now?

Here's the Help article: https://vsure.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4402535895693-Toggling-exemptions-to-work-rights-limitations

 

NOTE: As explained in the help article, to update the Student Visas holders to display the 48 hours and re-colour/classify them to Yellow / Restricted, a visa check will be required AFTER the setting change. This will happen automatically with your next batch recheck OR you can force it by rechecking your student visas (you can use the filter function to search for 8105 and then Check All and then repeat for 8104).

Working Holiday Visas

The 8547 restriction on 417 and 462 visa holders had also been relaxed in recent years. This was managed in vSure by the MyAccount setting "12-month Working Holiday Makers" being set to Yes (effectively over-riding the 6-month calculation as 417/462 visas are typically 12 months long). 

Whilst the Home Affairs website is unclear on this, it is our understanding from our panel of experts that the rules relating to the 8547 "6-month rule" revert to the same status as they were prior to COVID related relaxation.

These exemptions to the 8547 6-month rule are no longer on the Home Affairs website, but can be found here. It is our understanding that Home Affairs are racing to update their website to reflect the retention of the relevant exemptions.

For MOST of you, it means from July 1 2023 there is a 6-month limit on working at a single employer LOCATION applied to working holiday makers. Noting the 2016 exemption to the 6-months per single employer rule:

• Work in different locations, where work in any one location does not exceed six months - this measure was announced by the Treasurer in September 2016, with the introduction of more flexible arrangements to support WHMs and industry.

Note also: the 6-month rule starts from July 1 2023, meaning ALL working holiday visas already employed, can continue working at the same employer location until the end of their visa OR December 31 2023, whichever comes first.

For staff employed AFTER July 1 2023, the 6 months per employer location rule reapplies as it did previously.

Note: vSure has 2 visa expiry dates to help with working holiday visas:

• VEVO Visa Expiry Date is simply when the visa expires;
• Visa Expiry Date = the calculated work rights expiry date based on the 6 month rule. That is, whatever occurs first between:
  • Visa Expiry Date; OR
  • (Visa Start Date or Employee Start Date or Recommencement Date) + 6 months.
    • This means the vSure Employee Start Date is critical for working holiday makes; AND
    • If you are multi-venue/location/store, as is the Recommencement Date which constitutes when they start at the most recent Location (if they have previously worked at other locations)

NOTE: vSure will consider the July 1 2023 baseline in its above calculation for employees with a start date and/or recommencement date prior to this date.

Per the old Home Affairs webpage, our understanding is exemptions will apply to:

• Plant and animal cultivation work anywhere in Australia​ - this was part of a package of measures announced in November 2018 to support regional and rural economies.
• Work in certain industries in northern Australia only - this measure was introduced under the Australian Government’s 2015 White Paper on Developing Northern Australia.

[Action Required By You]

We have incorporated the July 1 2023 reset of the 6-month rule, in our "Visa Expiry Date" calculation from today. 

Unless you remain exempt, we recommend that you change the MyAccount setting, formerly known as "12-month Working Holiday Makers" now known as "Working Holiday 6-month Limit Exempt" to No, any time from now. 

Why not do it now?

Here's the Help article: https://vsure.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4402535895693-Toggling-exemptions-to-work-rights-limitations

NOTE: As explained in the help article, to update the Working Holiday Visas holders' "Visa Expiry Date", a visa check will be required AFTER the setting change. This will happen automatically with your next batch recheck OR if you don't want to wait, you can force it by rechecking your staff with the 8547 condition (you can use the filter function to search for 8547 and then Check All).