Last week I read the news about the skilled migration change in early 2009 from Herald Sun newspaper. I believe lots of my friends will be affected by this change and I think it would be helpful if I can do some research and find out what exactly happened.
To read the news, click here.
There are a few key factors for the changes to the skilled migration scheme:
1. The new Critical Skills List ( CSL ) focuses on building trades, IT professionals, engineers and medical professionals.
2. Accounting, cooking and hairdressing are out of the CSL list.
3. The new change will be effective from 1 January 2009.
4. The change can be either temporary or permanent depends on economic and social needs of Australia.
5. The change will affect both onshore and offshore applications.
6. Occupations that are not included in the CSL will not be given priority processing unless applicants have a job offer or are sponsored or nominated by a state or territory government.
7. The new priority processing direction gives priority processing to permanent applications in the following order:
a. employer sponsorship
b. state or territory sponsorship
c. an occupation on the CSL
d. an occupation on the Migration Occupations in Demand List (MODL)
e. and then all other applications
Lots of people who are doing accounting courses are worried that they can’t migrate anymore. From what I can see, it is not true. The change did not mention anything about the points change to the occupation list, but only mentioned about the processing priorities. What it means is that the accounting point ( 60 ) might not change and you can still get whatever points you entitled to, and I believe most people can get 120 and the passmark is 120. The new change will mostly affect the processing priorities, which means your application will take longer. As long as your points pass the passmark, I believe you should be fine, it is just the matter of time.
I think the immigration is giving around 133,000 seats for skilled migration next year. And your application will be affected depends on the number of applications from the first three processing orders mentioned above.
The above are just my understanding from the research I have done from the immigration website. In order to be 100% sure about the change, you should consult immigration office or agents for more information.
Resources:
Critial Skills List ( CSL )
General Skilled Migration FAQ
Changes to the Skilled Migration
If you believe that my comments are wrong, please do let me know.
