Australian Immigration Daily News

State Government of Victoria is seeking submissions in relation to its composition of the State Skilled Occupation List.  The initial deadline to provide submissions by 18 March has now been extended to 7 April 2019.

By way of background the Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions (DJPR), through the Skilled and Business Migration Program, is responsible for providing visa nomination to highly skilled and employable migrants to live and work in Victoria permanently (for the Skilled Nominated subclass 190 visa) or on a provisional basis (for the Skilled Regional subclass 489 (Provisional) visa).

In response to the ever-growing demand for migration to regional areas as well as to address skills shortages across Victoria, the State government has opened consultation process with relevant stakeholders.

Australian Federal government delivered the budget on Tuesday night.  The budget highlights several important elements relevant to immigration which are summarised for ease of reference.

Investment into VET Sector

Ongoing skills shortage across regional Australia has prompted the government to readjust immigration intake.

Current migration ceiling for permanent visas is set at 190,000 places with greater focus on skilled visas including subclass 186 Employer Nomination Scheme as well as subclass 187 Regional Sponsored Migration.

On 11 March 2019, the skilled occupation lists were updated. The changes include standardising the Medium and Long-term Strategic Skills List (MLTSSL) by making thirty occupations available to all visa subclasses. These occupations were previously accessible to Temporary Skill Shortage (TSS), Employer Nomination Scheme (ENS) and Training visas. Regional employers saw a benefit of from the changes as 18 occupations were added to the Regional Occupation List. Examples of occupations range from farming-related occupations such as Beef Cattle Farmer and Sheep Farmer, to Anaesthetist and Dentist.

Home Affairs was kept busy with several skilled visa updates over the weekend.  Migration Alliance brings you the latest updates:

Skill Select Invitations:

Home Affairs released invitation rounds on Sunday 10 March, a day earlier than anticipated.  Applicants and agents should check their emails or Skill Select portal for any messages relating to their EOI status.  The statistics in relation to which occupations have been selected as part of March 2019 intake are expected to be published later this month.

The report published on Monday 11 February by ANAO indicates alarming inefficiency levels when it comes to processing citizenship applications.  The report originated as a result of the Office of the Commonwealth, the Refugee Council as well as several Members of Parliament expressing their interest in time it is taking to process citizenship applications.

The time to process citizenship application has prior to announcement of the proposed changes in April 2017 was 4 to 6 weeks.  As many may recall, the Department of Home Affairs placed processing of Citizenship applications on hold following this announcement and resumed processing the applications upon defeat of the draconian legislation which included proposal to increase English language efficiency for migrants, increase residency requirement as a permanent resident to four years as well as other character and security provisions.

Several complaints were also received from the general public expressing their concerns in relation to current processing times which is in excess of 12 months.