In March 2018, the Federal Government announced a pilot visa scheme targeted at supporting talent and innovation in Australia. The Global Talent Scheme (GTS) commenced on 1 July 2018.

GTS is a niche pilot scheme

The GTS is a niche pilot scheme which will be part of the TSS visa program and will run for 12 months. It is designed to enable employers to fill highly-skilled positions that cannot be filled by Australian workers or through other visa programs (including the existing TSS streams).
The main features of the GTS are:

• Established businesses and start-ups form the two streams
• Ability to negotiate variance from standard TSS visa requirements
• Prioritised processing
• Access to highly-skilled roles - not restricted to occupation lists
• Visa validity of up to 4 years
• Access to permanent residency pathway
• Negotiable age requirements on the permanent residence pathway 

If eligible and granted access to the scheme, existing organisations will have access to 20 positions and start-up organisations will have access to five.

How does this impact me?

The Global Talent Scheme may be an attractive option for your organisation if you have positions which are unable to be filled from within the Australian market or through the existing TSS scheme.

This will apply to highly skilled positions which do not fall within the existing TSS categories (for instance the occupation is not on the eligible occupation list) and are paid at or above the Fair Work High Income Threshold ($145,400).