In last month’s issue I wrote about the major changes to the skilled migration system coming into effect on 1 July.  This month I wish to discuss options which may be available to those who are affected by these changes.  One thing to note, of course, is that the List of Skilled Occupations will be changing annually, and it is not possible to predict with certainty what occupations will be on the list in the future, although in some cases one may make an educated guess, e.g. that nurses, medical professionals and engineers will most likely still be there for several years to come.

News of the Skilled Occupations List (SOL) which will come into effect on 1 July has spread like wildfire and already rumours and devious schemes are flying around and people are demanding to know which course they should now study in order to get permanent residence (PR).

The new Skilled Occupation List (SOL) announced by the Minister of Immigration and Citizenship, Senator Chris Evans on 17th May 2010 will greatly limit the occupations international students can study in, to maintain the education to skilled migration pathway that has been existing for over a decade now. This article is dedicated to the hundreds of thousands of Onshore Students who are now in limbo, and desperately seeking accurate advice and proper guidance.

I am often amazed to see clients who make the most naïve assumptions about the evidence that should be used to support an application for a visa.  It seems that people often suppose that an immigration case officer will simply accept their word about whatever claims they make.  Honest people are particularly prone to this mistake.  Since their claims are true, and they meet the prescribed criteria for the visa, they often cannot see why their application would be refused.

Recent changes to rules regarding the immigration of partners have in some respects made it easier, in other respects more difficult.
 
Until now, section 48 of the Migration Act has provided that a person in Australia who has had an application refused, or a visa cancelled, and does not hold a substantive visa (a substantive visa being any visa other than a bridging visa) cannot make another visa application except in very limited circumstances.  These circumstances, however, have now been considerably expanded by allowing such a person to apply for a partner visa provided that it was not a partner visa that was refused, and that any cancellation was not on character grounds.  This avoids the cumbersome situation where people in these circumstances would apply to the Minister for compassionate consideration, or would have to go offshore to be sponsored back again.

CANBERRA, FEB 17.  The Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Senator Chris Evans, has released a discussion paper to seek public comment on a review of the points test used to assess General Skilled Migration applicants.
               Under the current points test, potential skilled migration applicants who are not sponsored by an employer need to accumulate up to 120 points based on their qualifications, skills and proficiency in English in order to be eligible for a visa.
               However, the application of the current points test has not always led to outcomes that are consistent with the objectives of selecting skilled migrants with high value skills to meet Australia’s economic needs.

Just about everybody was taken by surprise on 8 February when the Immigration Department, through its website, announced major changes to the law relating to general skilled migration.  The most disturbing thing is that the changes have significant adverse effects on thousands of applicants, yet they were made with no prior consultation.

There is considerable unfairness around the changes.  The prime example is what will happen to offshore applicants whose applications were lodged before 1 September 2007.  These applications will now be “capped”, i.e. once a certain number have been granted, no more will be granted irrespective of whether applicants meet the criteria.

 Overseas students who are currently studying in Australia will still have options to seek permanent residence in Australia if they have the skills and qualifications needed by employers.

The Migration Institute of Australia (MIA) congratulates the Minister on a long-overdue overhaul of the migration system, but says yet-to-be-announced policy will have major implications for current and prospective visa applicants.

The Rudd Government is reforming the permanent skilled migration program to ensure it is more responsive to the needs of industry and employers and better addresses the nation’s future skill needs.

The reforms will deliver a demand rather than a supply driven skilled migration program that meets the needs of the economy in sectors and regions where there are shortages of highly skilled workers, such as healthcare, engineering and mining. The major reforms to the skilled migration program are:

The elements of the new Job Ready Test which will be used by Trades Recognition Australia (TRA) to assess the skills of onshore tradespeople have finally been announced.  However, there are many issues which have evidently not yet been resolved.  TRA has bunkered down and is refusing to answer questions when phoned.  It simply refers callers to its website.  The plain fact is, however, that the information on the website is by no means sufficient to answer all the perfectly obvious and legitimate questions that people may have about the confusing processes that they must now go through.

A number of important changes came into effect on 1 January.  Details can be found at www.immi.gov.au.  As a generalization it may be said that the changes are aimed at closing the loopholes that the government itself created - through stupid policy decisions and a failure to monitor what was happening with the international education market – which enabled overseas students to gain migration on the basis of enrolling in dodgy trades courses.  These days are now at an end and students in such courses will find that the door to skilled migration has been closed.

There has been a great deal of publicity in the Australian media lately concerning immigration scams which are evidently widespread both in Australia and overseas and which principally involve Indian and Chinese students.

With effect from 23 September, the Immigration Minister announced a new set of processing priorities for dealing with skilled migration applications which has thrown many people into a state of panic.  Details can be found at the Immigration Department’s website, but essentially the position for permanent visa applications is that top priority will be given to applicants nominated by employers pursuant to the Employer Nomination Scheme or Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme.  Second priority goes to those whose skills are on the Critical Skills List (which is a quite short list).  Then come those who are nominated by a State or Territory government, those whose occupations are on the Migration Occupations in Demand List (MODL) and those who are sponsored by a family member.  Other applications will be processed in the order in which they are received.

I am writing my article this month to address concerns which I understand have been expressed at the difficulties said to be faced by Australian restaurant owners in recruiting Indian cooks.  At the outset I must say that I am rather surprised to hear of such difficulties.  After all, there are now a huge number of Indian restaurants in Australia, with new ones opening all the time, and if there is so much difficulty in recruiting cooks then I wonder how this can be.

I have been pleased to see in the media recently that after so many years people are at last starting to wake up to the widespread fraud that is being practised against overseas students, particularly from India, by education providers and their agents.  This has actually been going on for several years, but only recently has it come to public attention.

I have been pleased to see in the media recently that after so many years people are at last starting to wake up to the widespread fraud that is being practised against overseas students, particularly from India, by education providers and their agents.  This has actually been going on for several years, but only recently has it come to public attention.

Until now, people wanting to bring both parents to Australia on contributory parent visas have been able to do so by paying only the fee for one parent.  As the fee payable for contributory parent visas is considerable (currently $36035 per parent offshore or $36855 per parent onshore, plus an assurance of support bond of $10,000 for one parent or $14,000 for two), there are obviously considerable savings to be made.  The way in which it has been done to date is that one parent obtains a permanent contributory parent visa, and then sponsors the other as a partner. 

In the Federal budget handed down in May, immigration played a rather more significant part than it usually does in budgets.  To those who are familiar with the issues, however, the changes to immigration were not surprising.