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Top Occupations Granted Permanent Residency Visas in 2019-20

29th October 2020

Over 140,000 permanent residency visas were granted in the Migration Programme of 2019-20, of which over 95,000 were granted to Skilled migrants through the Skilled Programme. The largest source of citizenship country of migrants for 2019-20 was India, closely followed by migrants originating from China and thirdly the UK. Like most years, many changes were brought into the migration programme, such as the introduction of the new Regional Visa, which accounted for the second highest number of PR visas at 24.4% of the Skill stream.

The hospitality industry provided a large proportion of Skilled Regional Visas and the healthcare industry also contributed to a strong number of places. But what were the occupations deemed in most demand and worthy of PR?

The below is split into the Top Occupation ‘Groups’, followed by the Top Occupations for ‘Skilled Independent Visas’ and lastly Top Occupations for ‘Skilled Regional Visas’.

Top Occupation Groups

Top 5 occupational groups which were granted PR

  1. Professionals (59.6% of granted visas, including professionals in the health, education, ICT, education, arts and media sectors)
  2. Technicians and Trade Workers (17% of granted visas, including trade workers, engineer technicians and IT technicians)
  3. Managers (9% of granted visas, including hospitality managers, retail managers and company executives)
  4. Community and Personal Service Workers (2% of granted visas went to community and personal service workers)
  5. Clerical and Administrative Workers (1% of granted visas went to clerical and administrative staff)

 

Top Occupations for Skilled Independent Visas

In 2019-20 almost 13,000 Skilled Independent Visas were granted to applicants, of which the top 12 occupations were as follows:

  1. Software Engineer
  2. Accountant
  3. Developer Programmer
  4. Computer Network and Systems Engineer
  5. Mechanical Engineer
  6. Registered Nurses Nec
  7. ICT Security Specialist
  8. ICT Business Analyst
  9. Medical Practitioners Nec
  10. Civil Engineer
  11. Electrical Engineer
  12. General Practitioner

 

Top Occupations for Skilled Regional Visas

Regional Visas (sc491 and sc494) were introduced as a new type of visa during 2019-20. In total over 23,000 Regional Visa were granted including over 8,000 Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional Visa and 15,000 Skilled Work Regional Visas. The top 10 occupations for this visa grant were as follows:

  1. Accountants
  2. Registered Nurses
  3. Cooks
  4. Café and Restaurant Managers
  5. Chefs
  6. Software and Applications Programmers
  7. Retail Managers
  8. Civil Engineering Professionals
  9. Motor Mechanics
  10. Industrial, Mechanical and Production Engineers

 

Written by Sophie Cunningham; 29th October 2020