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Immigration Daily News Why are Skilled Independent Visas Taking So Long to Process?Australian Immigration Daily News
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Why are Skilled Independent Visas Taking So Long to Process?
Alarming new statistics relating to processing times for Subclass 189 – Skilled Independent Visas which were recently published by Home Affairs state that 90% of cases take 22 months to finalise (no, this is not a typo).
Migration Alliance received a number of emails expressing concerns over these processing times. For those who may not be aware, Skill Select process was introduced on 1 July 2012 and was largely a product of prior failed GSM system where due to the large volume of applications lodged with the Department, it became impossible to process these applications.
Anyone remembers the infamous email sent to GSM applicants asking if they would like to withdraw their GSM application?
SkillSelect is an online service that enables skilled persons who are interested in obtaining an Australian visa to submit an Expression of Interest (EOI) that includes information about their skills and other attributes. SkillSelect then issues invitations to apply to migrate based upon a ranking of the attributes of nominees and subject to ceilings on occupation numbers. The rationale behind the new system was to reduce processing times and to control the number of applications lodged with the Department of Home Affairs to ensure that applicants who receive an invitation, are also afforded faster processing time.
The three-stage process involves the following:
- intending migrants submit details of their qualifications, experience, English language ability and other information in their EOI
- intending migrants who possess the skills and qualifications needed in the Australian labour market and are sufficiently highly ranked will be invited by the Minister to make a visa application or may be nominated or sponsored by an Australian employer
- intending migrants make a visa application which is assessed and granted in circumstances where all criteria are satisfied.
Once an invitation is issued, the role of Home Affairs is to verify the claims made on EOI. The idea behind issuing the invitations at a n appropriate rate is to ensure that the processing times remain reasonable.
Let’s rewind to September 2018. Back then, there were 2500 invitations issued and the average processing time for subclass 189 visa was 5 to 6 months. Fast forward to September 2019, a mere 100 (again not a typo) invitations were issued and the processing time has increased by almost 400%.
There appears to be little explanation in relation to this discourse. Perhaps further information will be published in December when Home Affairs releases their annual report.
It is nonetheless concerning that we appear to be heading back to the GSM system where average process time was in excess of 2 years. There is no doubt that Australia needs skilled migrants. One can simply view the number job advertisements in regional areas which stay unfilled for months. Business (regional or otherwise) struggle to retain the best and the brightest as chances of receiving permanent residence appear to diminish.
Whilst permanent migration intake has been reduced to 165 000 for this migration year, it is difficult to comprehend how this quote is going to be filled given the current situation.
What are your concerns and comments on the current GSM System?
What recommendations can we put in place to make the system work again?
Comments
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Friday, 17 January 2020I submitted my EOI report at 2019.10.22 but not yet any results. Can I know more details about it?
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Tuesday, 03 March 2020
What results are u expecting?
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Tuesday, 03 November 2020
Now after one year from this article average processing time is 9-19 months with still low volume of visa applications, this is outrageous. I don't for what this guys are taking 4000$ fees. First you need to wait years to get invite than years for grant...
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Friday, 12 February 2021
I submitted my EOI on March 26, 2020 for Visa 189 with 85 points of score. Till now I don't see any invitation to apply for visa. Is this because of the covid situation happening for all candidates or only for me?
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Saturday, 27 February 2021
Well, I applied for the 189 in 22/10/2018 and still no result. I believe home affairs is a corrupted system providing visa to individual or companies paying them extra cash or whatever. How is it possible to take so long? How can they be so inefficient and slow? I did everything perfect! I had 80 points, worked hard for it, paid a lot of money and so far waiting and stuck in a bridging visa for 26 months.
Immigration blog
With schemes like the GTS and DAMA taking precedent, it appears the Australian government is looking at 491 and 482/186/187 visas as the time priority streams. However competition for these are also fierce worldwide. I suspect the 491 and 482 pathways will take up the majority of the department's time (but not GTS).