Can you hear that……? Yup that’s the silence associated with the Australian Immigration Authority doing…..stuff!

It seems very quiet at the moment. My checks of all the usual sources of immigration news seems to be bringing with it very little in the way of updates.

Personally, there’s nothing fascinating to update you guys with either other than the fact that we are now into late Autumn and we had to put the heating on for the first time this morning.

Actually.. that is kind of interesting in a sad kind of way

Living in Australia there is no need for good old ‘central heating’. In the UK our central heating system had a handy ‘boost’ feature you could use when you needed to take the chill off!

You’d get home from work to a cold house, press the boost button and then wait 30 minutes for the water to heat up and circulate around the radiators scattered around your house, most of which only heated at 50% capacity because of the air which needed to be bled from the system in order for them to work properly. Continue Reading

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Following last week’s changes to the Australian skilled migration program, occupations have been removed from the temporary business Australian visa (subclass 457) program in line with the current needs of the Australian economy.

The temporary business Australian visa (subclass 457) program allows employers to sponsor overseas workers to work in Australia on a temporary Australian working visa. While employers must first prove that there are no local workers available to take that position before they sponsor an overseas worker, the Australian immigration department has taken further measures to cut back the program so that Australians have a better chance of employment during the global recession. Continue Reading

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As we mentioned yesterday, the Federal Government released their budget last night so instead of going through the reams of data coming out of the budget line by line and boring you to death, I thought I’d provide a very (sky) high summary of some of the key points which may be of interest to folks looking to one day call Australia their new home

The Federal Government has estimated Australia’s deficit will increase to $58 billion in 2009-10 and reach a total of $219 billion in the five years to 2012-13, due to a combination of reduced economic growth, decreased tax revenues, and initiatives to stimulate the economy.

The Government has predicted the Australian economy will contract by 0.5% in the 2009-10 financial year, but will be growing again by 2010-11. Continue Reading

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The Australian Immigration Authority has recently published the latest edition of their booklet titled “Beginning a life in Australia”.

The booklets welcome newly-arrived migrants to Australia and provide useful national, state/territory and local settlement information.

This information is available to download in PDF format and is provided in English and 37 community languages for each state and territory.

The document is broken down into 14 sections and covers approx 60 Pages Continue Reading

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The Rudd Government is going to announce its latest budget tonight with an expected deficit of about $60 billion most likely making the biggest headline.

For those looking at making the move down under however, the slashing of a further 7000 places from the general skilled migration intake will be the news that hurts the most!

The cut will take the general skilled migration intake for the next financial year to 108,000.

Added to the decision in March to axe 18,500 places, the total reduction of 25,500 will constitute a 20 per cent cut to the program. Continue Reading

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Changes to the Skilled Occupations List (SOL) have been made by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) in consultation with the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR).

The Skilled Occupations List (SOL) lists all occupations that the Government considers to be a skilled profession for purposes of migration to Australia. Applicants for a General Skilled Migration visa must nominate a skilled occupation listed on the SOL in order to gain points towards their Australian visa application.

They must also have their nominated skills assessed by an approved assessing body before their application will be accepted by DIAC. Continue Reading

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Here at Getting Down Under HQ we frequently get emailed by various folks and organisations that are looking for our help in promoting their products and services to the many visitors and subscribers who visit our site.

As many of these services aren’t particularly appropriate (or simply smell like a bit of a scam) then in most cases we don’t bother.

Recently however we were contacted by an agency asking us to help promote a competition being run by ‘Tourism Australia’. As the competition tied nicely into the concept of ‘Getting Down Under’ and was being run by the Aussie tourist industry then we thought it seemed worthy of a mention. Continue Reading

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