UK-Australia Free Trade Agreement: mobility explainer (web version)
Published 16 December 2021
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Travel between the UK and Australia is crucial to the trade in goods, services and investment between our two countries. We have agreed a groundbreaking deal that will give British professionals and British firms greater certainty about working in Australia to deliver services on a temporary basis.
Greater opportunities for UK professionals
Companies providing a service in Australia operating in a significant number of important sectors, including travel agents, researchers and consultants, will be able to easily send British staff to Australia for work, without being subject to Australia’s changing skilled occupation list. This is the most Australia has ever agreed to in a free trade agreement (FTA). Removing this significant barrier to being able to hire more UK staff to deliver contracts in Australia was a top priority for British businesses to make further inroads into selling even more services (among other things) into Australia.
Businesses in Australia will also no longer have to prove they can’t find an Australian local to deliver a contract before they sponsor a visa for a UK professional. This process currently exists for businesses in Australia hiring anyone from overseas, with the UK now joining an elite club exempt from this.
British businesses will have certainty that they can transfer senior British employees to their company locations in Australia. This also applies to prospective UK investors.
Transferees and investors will continue to be able to bring with them their spouses and dependant children, who will have the right to work in Australia during the transfer – and will now be able to stay for up to 4 years, doubling the previous 2 year limit.
Benefitting all UK residents and UK nationals
This mobility deal will apply to a greater number of people than in any previous bilateral UK free trade agreement. All permanent residents of the UK will benefit, as well as British citizens.
Accessing Australian expertise
The deal will make it easier for UK businesses to hire Australian experts. This will allow contracted Australian professionals from a range of sectors, including engineering and architecture, to travel to the UK for work. All mobility commitments in this deal will be compatible with, and deliverable through, the UK’s immigration system.
Travel opportunities for young people
As part of the overall mobility package, Brits aged 18 to 35 will be able to travel and work in Australia with a Working Holiday Maker Visa for up to 3 years, deepening the people-to-people and cultural links between our 2 countries.
Young people will no longer have to work on a farm to use this visa to live and work in Australia. Australia will also pilot a new visa scheme for UK citizens, allowing early career workplace exchanges of up to one year for graduates between 21 and 45.