The surprise announcement by the Prime Minister regarding the axing of the 457 Visa program has created a great deal of uncertainty for employers and foreign workers. While there has been limited regulations or official policy guidance notes released from the Coalition, our team at FCB Smart Visa has curated all available information to cut through some of the ambiguity and misinformation circulating at present.

At the outset, the abolition of the 457 visa program announced by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Tuesday 18 April 2017 is not a wholesale abolition of the employer sponsored visa regime. The politically charged 457 visa program will instead be replaced from March 2018 with a new category of visa, namely the Temporary Skill Shortage (‘TSS’) visa (subject to passage through both houses of parliament).

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