The Australian Government is cancelling the 457 Visa program for overseas workers and replacing it with two new working visa programs for employees.

Current 457 Visa holders will not have their visa or their employment affected by the visa changes, which, will introduce a temporary skills visa which will be a two year working visa and a four year working visa for more specialised higher level skills.

The Australian Prime Minister has said that the new working visa program to replace the 457 Visa will be “rigorously conducted in the national interest”.

The current occupations for the 457 visa program lists more than 650 skills that can apply. Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has said that this number will be slashed for the new two year working visa.

The new visa program comes after an Australian government overview on 457 visa’s last month when it was also announced that the fast track arrangements for the 457 visa would also be removed for fast food restaurants. As at September 2016 there were 95,758 457 visa holders employed in Australia.  India had the largest number of 457 visa holders at nearly 25% of the total, followed by the UK and China visa holders at 19.5% and 5.8 respectively.