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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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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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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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Following the news we posted on Friday about Important changes to Australian skilled-sponsored visas for ACT and NT. It looks like the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) and the Northern Territory (NT) governments are at it again with a number of amendments to their skilled occupations lists being announced.

After removing five occupations as part of the announcements last week, the ACT has removed a further two occupations and added another.

Prospective migrants immigrating to Australia through the ACT skilled-sponsorship program as a fitter, metal machinist, metal fabricator, welder first class, sheet metalworker, surgeon or speech pathologist will at this point of time no longer be able to lodge an application through this programme. Pressure welders can now participate. Continue Reading

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After cutbacks to the Australian skilled migration program this week, former New Zealand Immigration Minister Aussie Malcolm reassured New Zealanders that they would still be able to continue emigrating to Australia.

The Australian Government last week announced the Australian skilled migration program would be reduced by nearly 18,000 to 115,000 places, in order to ease competition for Australian jobs during the economic slowdown. The Government also tightened the skilled migration program, so that it is more targeted to the urgent needs of the Australian workforce.

This means that employer-sponsored Australian visa applications, State-nominated Australian visa applications and applications from people with skills found on the Critical Skills List (CSL) have priority for processing. The CSL has also been readjusted so that it can better reflect the needs of the Australian economy. Continue Reading

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The Canberra (ACT) and Northern Territory (NT) governments have made important changes to their State/Territory skilled-sponsored migration programs, including removing occupations from their skills-in-demand lists.

The announcement comes at a time when the Federal Government announced a reduction, and more targeted approach, to the Australian skilled migration program, affecting thousands of Australian skilled migration visa applications.

The Australian skilled-sponsored visa program entitles State/Territory governments to nominate Australian temporary residents or prospective migrants who have skills recognised as being high in demand in that State/Territory. Continue Reading

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Last week, the Australian Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) announced that they would downsize the Critical Skills List (CSL) so that the Australian skilled migration program would more effectively bring in the skills needed most in the Australian economy.

Andy Harwood, a registered migration agent from the Australian Visa Bureau, has recommended to all potential migrants to Australia to use alternate migration pathways if they no longer have a skill on the CSL, including the employer/state sponsorship programs and the Australian working holiday visa.

The Critical Skills List (CSL) is a list of skilled occupations that represents those skills that the Australian economy needs most. As part of their more targeted approach to Australian skilled migration, DIAC has given Australian visa applicants with occupations on the CSL and applicants with employer/government sponsorship priority processing so that migrants can fill jobs faster in Australia. Continue Reading

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Not the best news for wannabe migrants I’m afraid. In a bid to protect Australian jobs, the Federal Government is cutting the intake of skilled migrant workers – removing virtually all the trades from the program.

In a sign of the times, the permanent skilled migration program is being slashed by 18,000 over the next three months, with no foreign bricklayers, plumbers, carpenters or electricians allowed in for the foreseeable future.

And the migrant worker program is likely to be cut back further in the May budget.

From the press release issued by The Aussie Ministry for Immigration and Citizenship:

The changes to the program are:

* A 14 per cent cut in the 2008-09 permanent skilled migration program intake from 133 500 to 115 000.
* Removing building and manufacturing trades from the Critical Skills List, such as bricklayers, plumbers, welders, carpenters and metal fitters. The list will now comprise mainly health and medical, engineering and IT professions.

These changes follow measures announced in December that resulted in only those migrants sponsored by an employer or in an occupation on the Critical Skills List being granted visas under the permanent skilled migration program.

Almost half of the permanent visas granted are to applicants already living and working in Australia.

The Critical Skills List will remain under constant review and the Government will remove occupations from the list if demand for those skills can be satisfied by local labour.

The overwhelming message from business and industry is that Australia still needs to maintain a skilled migration program but one that is more targeted so that migrant workers are meeting skills shortages and not competing with locals for jobs.

There are still skills shortages in some sectors, such as healthcare, and these measures will enable industry to continue to source the skilled professionals they need while protecting local jobs and the wages and conditions of Australian workers.

What this means for those migrants who have already applied I’m not to sure but the short term outlook isn’t that great!

As always, when we have more news we’ll report it here at gettingdownunder.com

Related links:  

Discussions in our forums on the news  :   Click Here
Press release:  http://www.minister.immi.gov.au/media/media-releases/2009/ce09030.htm

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The 2007-08 Migration Report released by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) shows that Australia’s migration programme is well on track to reach its targets and fill critical skills gaps in the job market, and that the UK continues to be the major source of Australia’s migrants.

The report shows that at the end of last year’s financial year, migration was 0.1 per cent below its planned levels, meaning Australian immigration officials gave 158,630 people permission to move to Australia.

The United Kingdom, India and China provided the largest sources of people emigrating to Australia (New Zealand citizens are excluded from statistics in the migration programme). UK residents accounted for 17.7 per cent of the migration programme (which is down on the year before from 31,401). From India and China came 22,148 and 20,729 nationals respectively, with India taking over China as the second largest source country. Continue Reading

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Just under a week ago I wrote about some planned changes to the Australian Immigration legislation.

There were some concerns that these changes could cause problems for folks currently undertaking the migration process but thankfully it’s nothing to get to excited about.

The legislation  changes announced today are titled:

Amendments in relation to special purpose visas, reporting deadlines for ships, and round trip cruises

and

Amendments to the Migration Regulations 1994 in relation to time frames for reporting on passengers and crew members on ships due to arrive in Australia

By the looks of things, these recent changes in legislation appear to have been brought into effect to stop people boarding ships and not going through the necessary Immigration clearence when porting with Australia. A loop hole thats been filled by the looks of things.

Still, panic over… for now!

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The Minister for Immigration and Citizenship Chris Evans has announced a new body to regulate migration agents, which will run as a separate entity to the Migration Institute of Australia (MIA).

From July 1, a new Office of Migration Agents Registration Authority (MARA) will manage the regulation of migration advisors, and take the responsibility from the MIA, after a review suggested a separate regulatory body would create a more efficient scheme.

“The current arrangement has the industry association managing the regulatory function of its own members – which includes the handling of complaints – and this has caused serious concerns among consumers and stakeholders,” Senator Evans said.

“Unprofessional, incompetent or unethical behaviour by migration agents affects the lives of consumers, challenges the integrity of Australia’s visa program and brings the entire profession of more than 3700 migration agents into disrepute,” he added. Continue Reading

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So this post made by “CHB” who is one of our community members, brought my attention to some Legislation Changes planned for the 15th of February.

Unfortunately, the page on the Aussie Governments Website says nothing more than:

The Notice of Legislative changes are expected to be published on this website from 5.00 pm AEDT (GMT + 11) Friday 13 February 2009.

I’m not sure what the changes will be at this stage. A number of our community members are speculating a potential change to the MODL (Migration Occupations in Demand List) or some other changes associated with State Sponsorship.

All I can say is the downturn in the economy is causing problems for countries around the world including Australia.

Many ’skilled’ Australians are finding themselves out of work so this could have an impact on Australia’s requirements for skilled workers from overseas. Still, that’s just me speculating and I really hope it’s not bad news!

All I can suggest is don’t panic! As soon as we get the news we’ll report it here at Getting Down Under.

Cheers

Mark

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The South Australian Government has finally reinstated the capital investment pathway to Australian skilled migration for those who lodged their visa application before September 1, 2007.

After 13 months of patient waiting, those skilled migrants wishing move to Australia using capital investment scheme can now finally proceed with their Australian visa application.

On the 1st September 2007, as part of changes to the Australian General Skilled Migration programme, the Australian government removed the right to gain five extra bonus points towards an Australian skilled migration application if the applicant invested a minimum $100,000 for at least one year in a nominated Australian bond.

The removal of the capital investment scheme meant that applications for skilled migration lodged after September 1, 2007 could no longer use the capital investment scheme to gain bonus points towards their application.

After reports of a scam involving unauthorised loans, the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) then ruled that the capital investment scheme would no longer be open to any applications, even if they submitted their visa applications before September 1. This affected thousands of migrant hopefuls, who until now have been left without a pathway to Australian migration.

The South Australian Government Financing Authority (SAFA) is now officially reinstating the capital investment scheme for the General Skilled Migration program (bonus points for capital investment). However, this applies only to those applicants who applied under this category before 1st September 2007, and were instructed by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) to invest a minimum $100,000 for at least one year in a nominated Australian bond.

As it has been over a year since applications for migration under this category have been allowed, eligible applicants are encouraged to consult their migration agents before proceeding with their application to ensure they are eligible.

Applicants are also warned that the processing times of applications may be considerably delayed due to the expected influx of applications under this re-opened pathway to Australian skilled migration.

To discuss this change please feel free to post a response to the thread started in our forums here.

Article Source : visabureau.com

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In response to the current demand for IELTS test results for candidates with Student Visas expiring by 15 March 2009, a number of IELTS test centres throughout Australia have opened emergency places on February 7 and February 21 2009.

There are additional tests available in Sydney, Wollongong, Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Cairns, Rockhampton and Darwin.

These tests are for students based in Australia if your visa ceases on 15 March 2009 and you want to apply for General Skilled Migration.

You will only be able to secure one of these emergency test places by presenting proof that your student visa ceases on 15 March 2009 along with your passport. Continue Reading

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