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Australian visa holders who own or who are looking to buy property in Australia are now subject to updated policies.

As of the 31st March 2009, Australian visa holders must adhere to new regulations implemented by the Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB).

These include the re-definition of ‘temporary residents’ for investment purposes. An Australian temporary resident includes all holders of a temporary Australian visa that has a validity period greater than 12 months, or all non-Australian citizens who have submitted an Australian visa application for permanent residency (PR) and are holders of a bridging visa that allows them to stay in Australia until DIAC approves their PR application. Continue Reading

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Yet more restrictions  on the number of options for wannabe Aussies with the Australian business visa program (under the Skills Stream) being capped until the start of the next financial year, 01 July 2009.

The Australian business visa program allows investors and senior executives to settle in Australia so that they may develop opportunities in Australian business.

The Australian Government provides two options for emigrating to Australia through the business skills stream.

These include the Provisional Business visa, which can result in a permanent Australian visa, and the Permanent Residence Business visa, for those sponsored by a State/Territory.

Four types of people can apply for an Australian business visa in the Skills Stream, including owners/part-owners of a business, senior executives of major businesses, investors, and senior managers who have sponsorship from a State/Territory government.

In response to the current economic conditions, the Government assessed the number of people emigrating to Australia through the Australian business visa program and how that matched with the planning levels for Australian General Skilled Migration, and has decided to cap this financial year’s business skills visas.

This means that until 01 July 2009, no more than 6,650 offshore Australian business skills visas (class EA and UR) can be approved by the Government and an overall limit of 7,500 places for both onshore and offshore business skills visas.

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Hi Guys. Following my last post I thought I’d better write a very brief update to let you know that I’ve still got a job.

We offer a subscription service here at getting down under (see the link at the bottom of this post) which enables visitors to our site to receive the latest news and updates via email. I had quite a few of our subscribers email me in response to our last email wishing me all the best. To those people I thank you for all of your good wishes and crossed fingers; it obviously worked!

In slightly sadder news, Out of a department of about 30 people, all but two of us were either made redundant (including a third of my own team) or had their roles relocated to Sydney (a transition that will take between 3 and 12 months). To say I feel very much like one of the lucky ones is somewhat of an understatement although it was never going to be good news. Continue Reading

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So I’m sat on the train on my way to work this morning and it’s not going to be a typical day.

Sure, the suns still shining, the sky is still blue but today I’ll find out whether or not my job has been made redundant.

Like many large organisations, the company I work for is finding times a little tough. Despite posting some healthy profits our cost income ratios (the number of dollars we have to spend to make more dollars) are deemed a little on the unhealthy side.

This means that over the last two weeks the sinking ship I work for has been busily bailing hundreds of members of staff equating to approx 10% of it’s total work force.

I feel a little numb about the whole situation if I’m being honest. Continue Reading

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Emigrating to Australia has always been a pretty hard thing to do. Unfortunately for many, the recent economic climate has made these challenges even greater.

All is not lost though as there are still other options available. One such option being the Australian Student visa. The folks at the visabureau.com have written a good article about the merits of emigrating to Australia utilising one of the Student pathways

To obtain a permanent Australian visa under the General Skilled Migration (GSM) program, it requires skills in a particular occupation and applicants must also meet basic criteria relating to age, English language ability and work experience (at least 12 months of skilled work experience in the previous two-year period).

However, overseas student graduates who have completed at least two academic years of study in Australia are an exception to this work experience requirement for permanent Australian visa applications. So, for many people who do not qualify for a permanent Australian visa under the GSM program, due to lack of recognised skills and/or lack of recent skilled work experience, studying in Australia becomes the quickest avenue to obtain a permanent Australian visa.

For example, the Trades Recognition Australia (TRA) assesses the skills of cooks for migration purposes and to recognise an overseas-trained cook, a minimum four to five year period is required by the TRA. A further 12 months of skilled experience is then also required, taking the permanent Australian visa plan for cooks up to five to six years. Continue Reading

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So the ACT and NT have already announced their changes to their sponsered visa programs so it was only a matter of time before South Australia followed Suite.

Important changes have been made to the South Australian sponsored visa programs, with occupations removed from both the Permanent Sponsorship list and the Provisional Sponsorship list.

The previously announced changes have had an immediate effect on the eligibility of many applicants for a South Australian sponsored visa, with the amendments resulting in the removal of occupations from Sponsorship Occupation Lists and the suspension of the Concessional English Program.

As a result of planning levels being achieved, one occupation has been removed from the South Australian Permanent Sponsorship list:

Hairdresser (ASCO: 4931-11)
Applicants who list this as their nominated occupation in the points test will no longer be eligible for sponsorship by South Australia. Additionally, there have also been a number of occupations removed from the South Australian Provisional Sponsorship list:

Construction Project Manager (ASCO: 1191-11)
Biochemist (ASCO: 2113-17)
Life Scientists (nec) (ASCO: 2113-79)
Agricultural Scientist (ASCO: 2114-19)
Agricultural Advisor (ASCO: 2114-21)
Statistician (ASCO: 2293-13)
Health Information Manager (ASCO: 2299-11)
Social Professionals (nec) (ASCO: 2529-79)
Hairdresser (ASCO: 4931-11)

Also affected is the Concessional English Program, which has now been temporarily suspended while it is held under review. Previously, this allowed people with less advanced English language skills to meet the eligibility requirements of a South Australian sponsored visa application. The provision only applied to Australian skilled visa applicants applying for the Skilled Regional Sponsored visa (subclasses 475 and 487), but has now been withdrawn until further notice.

However, applicants that have already submitted their application online and are planning on providing documents that support their claim for points according to the Concessional English Program will be able to send these documents to Immigration SA, provided they do so before 31 May 2009.

Additionally, Immigration SA have also provided concrete processing times for existing and new State Sponsored visa applications. Permanent sponsorship applications (i.e. for the Skilled Sponsored visa (subclass 176)) will be processed within 4 weeks and provisional sponsorship applications (i.e. for the Skilled Regional Sponsored visa (subclass 475)) will be processed within 6-8 weeks.

These changes come after the Federal Government’s recent changes to the General Skilled Migration Program, which included a reduction in the number of occupations listed on the Critical Skills List (CSL).

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