News and Views
MAJOR CHANGES TO THE GENERAL SKILLED MIGRATION PROGRAM
As you know from a previous newsletter Garry has been back in Australia since early November last year gaining an insight into what it is like living in Australia since the GFC and visiting all the State capitals speaking with relevant State Gov Departments responsible for sponsored migration applications including skilled and business. In addition he visited the head office of the Deptartment of immigration late last week. He has certainly been keeping his finger on the pulse of migration and has done a lot of ground work to help our clients in their future endeavours to migrate to Australia.
As of the 8th Feb there will be significant changes to Australia’s skilled migration program with later changes to take place midyear.
These changes are summarised below with links to the relevant sections of the Department of Immigration’s web site giving more details on each of the changes.
As you will see the major change with immediate effect is the abolition of the Migration Occupation in Demand List ( MODL ) and the points given to those applicants with occupations on this list. You will further note that this has no impact on those applications submitted to the Deptartment on or before the 8th Feb but clearly has a major impact on those applications not yet submitted and which rely on the MODL points to meet the current pass mark.
Since this change is immediate then Tracey and I will , for the moment, focus our attention on those of our clients affected by this change contacting each client in turn, after which, when things become clearer with respect to the other projected changes, we will be speaking with all of you.
Whilst some of the changes announced by the Department of Immigration are clearly ‘unfair ‘ to those offshore skilled migration applicants who made applications based on regulations in place at the time the Dept has always had the power to alter regulations at any time to suit economic/political needs even though it has a major impact on the life’s of those personally affected by the changes. All we can do as migration consultants is to look at other options for those so affected |
Old News
As our existing clients will know, migration requirements and processing times are changing on an almost weekly basis at the moment. This is a result of the global economic crisis and the Department of Immigration and Citizenship's reaction thereto.
We endeavour to keep everyone updated on current changes, and also other news that may be of interest to migrants.
22 July 2009
Good news on the economic front with some positive news comming out:
Inflation sinks to a 10-year low
Skilled vacancies offer hint of recovery
Economic policies working : RBA official
13 July 2009
According to an article by Ross Gittins reported in the Sydney Morning Herald "This recession isn't looking as bad as we feared". Click here to read the full article.
23 June 2009
Today we received the Department of Immigration and Citizenship's outline of how general skilled migration applications will be processed during the course of the 2009/2010 financial year beginning on 1 July 2009.
The current processing procedures in place look to be continued for at least the next year i.e. priority processing will first be given to Employer Sponsored visa applications, followed by applications with a State / Territory sponsored visa application, and then applications where the applicant's occupation is on the Critical Skills List (CSL). All other applications will be allocated case officers as and when the resources become available.
Click here for full details and of course please don't hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or need any further info.
Fees
As of 1 July 2009 the government processing fees charged by the Department will be increased. In most cases the fee increase is only in the region of A$50, but the fee for general skilled migration applications will increase significantly from A$2,105 to A$2,525 - a rand equivalent of approximately R2,700.
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