A new 4-year temporary skilled visa – the Skills in Demand visa – will give sponsored migrants about 3 months to find an alternate sponsor if they leave their job and offer a guaranteed pathway to permanent residency.

The government plans to develop a register for businesses which sponsor skilled visas to make it easier for migrants to find alternate work arrangements.

Sponsoring businesses will also be allowed to pay for these workers’ visas on a monthly or weekly basis, instead of all in one lump sum and a standard median waiting time of 21 days for the Core Skills pathway will be applied.

This will reduce to just 7 days for the Specialist Skills pathway.

The Core Skills pathway is available to occupations on a new Core Skilled Occupations List and to be eligible, migrants must earn above $70,000. The Specialist Skills pathway is available to employees of an approved sponsor who earns above $135,000.

Other changes in the government’s 100-page strategy include more stringent English language requirements for students, including an increase in the minimum IELTs score to 6.0 for student visas and to 6.5 for temporary graduate visas.

Many graduates choose to transfer to a temporary graduate visa upon completion of their studies and the new strategy outlines plans to reduce the length of this visa to 2 years for a bachelor’s and master’s by coursework, 3 years for a masters by research and PhD and 1-2 years for a second visa for study in a regional area.

Sponsors in regional areas of the country will receive priority processing of visa applications and the requirement to advertise positions within Australia will be removed.

The skilled migrant points test will also be reformed with graduate international students working in skilled jobs eligible for permanent residency faster than graduates working in lower skilled jobs.

Migration to Australia has exceeded 500,000 in the last year and many in the country were calling for fewer migrants to be granted visas, the country is still feeling the effects of the pandemic border closures and it is hoped the changes will allow the economy to adapt to record arrivals.

There are still many skilled job vacancies and the unemployment rate remains at a very low 3.7% as of October despite increased immigration over the past year.

The post Australia migration changes: New Skills in Demand visa appeared first on Easy Migrate.

This visa requires applicants to be nominated for a skilled position by an approved sponsor, as well as possess a minimum of two years’ work experience in the nominated occupation or a related field.

Temporary Skills Shortage visa subclass 482 (Short Term stream) holders will also be able to renew their visas indefinitely and can reapply for another visa and carry on living in the country for as long as they want, until they decide to apply for permanent residency.

Applicants must complete a relevant skills assessment if necessary and work exclusively for their sponsor, unless exemptions apply. In most cases they also must satisfy English language requirements.

This change will allow all subclass 482 visa holders to apply for the Employer Nomination Scheme (subclass 186) Temporary Residence Transition stream, which is a common pathway to permanent residency.

Previously, only subclass 482 visa holders in the medium term stream and labour agreement stream were allowed to apply for the subclass 186 Temporary residence Transition stream.

The subclass 482 visa allows for a stay of 2 years, with nationals of countries under the International Trade Obligation such as China, Japan, Thailand, Chile, Korea, or New Zealand allowed to stay for up to 4 years. Hong Kong passport holders are allowed to stay for up to 5 years.

A Short Term stream subclass 482 visa costs AUD$1,455 and 90% of visas are processed within 90 days.

Medium Term stream and Labour Agreement streams allow a stay of up to four years for all nationalities and cost AUD$3,035. Family members of subclass 482 visa holders are eligible for a subsequent entrant visa, valid for as long as the original visa is active, at a cost of $AUD1,455.

Applicants for the Short Term stream must also be qualified in an occupation on the short term skilled occupation list.

To find out how to take advantage of these changes, contact Easy Migrate today and talk to an experienced, knowledgeable team member who can help you to make your Australian dream come true.

The post Permanent Residency for Subclass 482 Short Term visas in 2 years appeared first on Easy Migrate.

WA’s skilled migration allocation for the 2022-23 year was just over 8,000 places; this number is now just 2,350 places in 2023-24.

In order to receive a state nominated visa, such as the subclass 491 Skilled Work Regional (Provisional) visa or the subclass 190 Skilled Nominated visa, applicants must be invited by the state or territory they wish to live and work in.

Both visas cost A$4,640 to apply. Applicants must have an occupation on the relevant state or territory’s skilled occupation list and satisfy the requirements of a skills assessment.

The subclass 491 visa allows successful applicants to stay in the country for 5 years and work in a designated regional area with no restrictions on the number of hours worked. The subclass 190 visa allows migrants to apply for Australian citizenship and as such, stay in the country permanently.

WA Premier, Roger Cook met with the Federal Government on August 22 and lobbied for more skilled visa places to help support the state’s burgeoning economy. 

Australia is suffering from a housing crisis and Cook also made the case that an increase in skilled migrants would help the state’s housing industry to increase the supply of new homes built.

“The state-nominated migration program has to have a bigger quota for WA because we need those workers to make sure that we can supercharge our home construction industry,” Cook said.

“I put it to the prime minister that if we are to meet our targets in relation to the national targets around home construction, we need the workers to do that construction.”

It is unclear whether the allocation of 2,350 places is a preliminary allocation, or if more places should be expected later in the year.

The post WA Skilled Visa Allocation: What’s going on? appeared first on Easy Migrate.

They have been able to finalise a total of almost 3 million visas since then.

Now, a new ministerial direction has made it easier for migrants who work in the health and education sectors to secure visas. This move builds on the government’s promise to clear a visa backlog inherited from the previous Liberal Government.

The new visa priorities in Australia put healthcare and teaching occupations at the top of the list with some offshore permanent and provisional applications also receiving special treatment.

Small businesses in Australia struggling for staff are set to benefit, processing of the Temporary Skill Shortage visa, designed for labour market shortages, is a top priority according to Ministerial Direction 100.

It will restore priority in all sectors for those who are trusted employers and key businesses that drive economic productivity, the Department of Home Affairs said that the more efficient nature of processing these visas will have a direct effect on the number of visas they are able to finalise.

The Priority Migration Skilled Occupation List (PMSOL) is no longer being used by the department when deciding who will receive priority processing of their visas. The time has never been better to get a skilled visa for Australia.

Come and discover why working in Australia is such a good idea for your future. With world-class educational facilities, infrastructure and an economy that is the envy of the world, Australia is an attractive place to move to and those living here don’t want the secret getting out about just how peaceful, safe and pleasant it is in the land down under.

As with any travel, migrating to Australia has the potential to open your mind to the possibility of staying for an extended period of time, and as with any other country, your visa to stay is a legal requirement of being in Australia.

In order to live the life you want to in Australia, planning is essential and as part of that planning, you must take into account your visa situation.

Easy Migrate is uniquely placed as one of the most successful agencies in Australia they specialise in any kind of visa, skilled, student, family and graduate, helping each and every client on their visa journey for over 20 years.

They have the knowledge and experience to make sure your visa is up to date or to help you with an initial application. They will offer you the best advice and help you with migrating to Australia, every step of the way.

The post Massive Backlog Tackled by Department, New Occupation Priorities for Skilled Visas appeared first on Easy Migrate.

There will be more places for skilled visas, places for partner visas have been reduced, the budget says, “partner visa granting arrangements will move to a more demand-driven basis going forward.”

Some 10,000 places were moved to the skilled stream from the partner visa allocation, plus another 20,000 places on top of that, totalling 109,900 places.

As unemployment in Australia dips below 4%, more room for skilled visas is evident in this budget, Australian businesses are sorely missing the working holidaymaker and student visa workforce of 3-4 years ago.

The skilled stream will count for a whopping 70% of all visas issued, the Skilled Independent visa (subclass 189), Employer-Sponsored visa (subclass 186) and the State and Territory Nominated visa (Subclass 491 and 190) are all skilled visas.

There was a small increase of Parent visa places of 1,500 places up to 6,000.

The government announced the fiscal plans for its humanitarian program as well, outlining further spending to assist visa holders from Afghanistan and Ukraine, $9.2 million will be allocated to youth transition services and $1 million will be available over 5 years from 2022-23 to offer grants to organisations who advance Australia’s human rights priorities.

Places will increase for working holiday-makers who will be allocated another 11,000 of them and visa holders who arrive in Australia between the 9th of January 2022 and the 19th of April 2022 will be eligible for a refunded Visa Application Charge.

The future is looking bright in Australia, with unemployment at record lows, jobs are everywhere and this budget shows the government’s plans to increase the number of skilled visa places in stark reality.

The time to make the call is now, get your application in early and don’t miss out on a wonderful future in a beautiful country!

The Australian economy badly needs more skilled workers to grow, now is the time to make the secure, safe decision and start planning your Australian migration.

The post More Places for Skilled Visas and Less “Demand” for Partner Visas in Budget appeared first on Easy Migrate.

About 50% of Department of Immigration funding will be devoted to skilled visa places with the subclass 188, subclass 124 and subclass 858 visas being the main focus of budget spending.

The migration program will maintain 2020-21 levels of 160,000 visa places in total for the next financial year with a continued focus on onshore family visa applications being approved as well as the shift in focus for skilled visas.

Net overseas migration is expected to fall from 154,000 in 2019-20 to around -72,000 persons by the end of 2020-21 before gradually increasing to 201,000 persons in 2023-24.

The Global Talent visa Program will receive over $550 million in funding with the ATO providing fast-track tax advice to foreign investors and individual tax residency rules will be simplified.

The number of Family visas will be capped at 77,300 places for 2021-22.

As was previously announced the Adult Migrant English Program which helps new migrants to acquire english language skills will be given a shake-up. 

The 510 hour cap on education under the program will be scrapped in favour of allowing migrants to study until they have reached a ‘vocational’ level of english.

For information on visas, citizenship and migration to Australia, call +61 (08) 9221 4888 or book an appointment using the following link – https://easymigrate.as.me/schedule.php.

The post Budget Indicates a Shift in Focus for Skilled Visas in 2021-22 appeared first on Easy Migrate.

The visas are the Skilled Work (Provisional) visa subclass 491 and Skilled Nominated visa subclass 190. 

If you are critical to supporting South Australia’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including individuals providing critical or specialist medical services, critical skills required to maintain the supply of essential goods and services or delivering services in sectors critical to Australia’s economic recovery you may be given priority.

Or if you apply via the Business Innovation and Investment Program and your application is of a high standard, you will have a better chance of being granted a visa.  

What is your plan for your future in Australia? To apply for a visa or request advice contact Easymigrate – Australian Migration & Citizenship Services on (08) 9221 4888 or book an appointment using the following link: https://easymigrate.as.me/schedule.php

#southaustralia #adelaide #australia #seesouthaustralia #ichoosesa #sagreat #studyvisa #visa #immigration #subclass491 #subclass190

The post South Australia Skilled Visa Recommencing Soon appeared first on Easy Migrate.

The Sydney Morning Herald has reported that the Morrison government will “reset” the permanent migration program in its October budget, which could involve an unusual change to the mix between skilled and family reunion migrants as it tries to restart the economy.

It comes as the country’s foremost former public servants weigh into the post-pandemic migration debate, with former Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet boss Martin Parkinson urging the government to “go for broke” on skilled migration.

“We simply haven’t set what our cap will be for permanent migrants and what the distribution of that will be yet. That will be something for cabinet closer to the budget. The default setting is to maintain the two-thirds, one-third split [between the skill stream and the family stream].”

In particular, Mr Tudge wants to use the fledgling Global Talent Independent program, launched in November, which aims to lure 5000 of the world’s best and brightest to Australia each year with a fast-tracked permanent visa.

Mr Tudge said Australia was potentially “an even more attractive destination now, because of how well we’ve done with the virus” compared with other nations that might otherwise attract the world’s super talent – such as the United States and Britain, where COVID-19 has proliferated.

The program targets industries such as agricultural, financial, mining and medical technology, cyber security and advanced manufacturing. Candidates must have the ability to attract a salary above $149,000 a year.

The post Morrison Government will ‘reset’ permanent migration program with super-skilled talent appeared first on Easy Migrate.

Skill Select January 2020 Results

SkillSelect EOI Invitation Round Results are for:

1.  Skill Select EOI Invitation Round is for people who lodged an Expression of Interest (EOI)
2. Submitted EOI’s must be for the General Skilled Migration or “GSM” stream of visa subclasses
3. The two GSM visa subclasses are 189 (Skilled Independent) (Australian Permanent visa) and subclass 491 (Skilled Family Sponsored) (Australian Provisional visa).

EasyMigrate is a leading Australian migration agency, based in Perth, Australia. Mr Cyrus Mistry (founder of EasyMigrate) has reviewed SkillSelect EOI Invitation Round Results – see his comments below.

Skill Select & Migration News

1. WA introduced a new Regional WA only category – A new condition has been applied to some health care related occupations in the WA state nomination.
2. Horticulture labour agreement – Applications are now open – Since 1st January 2020, Australian businesses in the horticulture industry can apply for the new Horticulture Industry Labour Agreement.

Previous Updates

• Australian Capital Territory (ACT) has released new State List for 2019 / 2020  – Have you ever wanted to Migrate to Australia and live in Canberra, but haven’t been able to because your occupation wasn’t on the required statelist? Now is your chance.
•  New South Wales (NWS) has released new State List for 2019/2020  – Have you ever wanted to Migrate to Australia and live in NSW, but haven’t been able to because your occupation wasn’t on the required statelist? Now is your chance.
• Northern Territory (NT) has released new State List for 2019/2020 –Australia’s Northern Territory (NT) Migration Occupation List includes occupations that are in demand in the NT eligible for NT nomination under the General Skilled Migration Program. If your occupation is not on the NT Migration Occupations List but is on the Department of Home Affairs, Combined current list of eligible skilled occupations and identified as being eligible for subclass 491 (S/T) or subclass 190 visa you can still apply for NT Government nomination.
   

Hints & Tips

Apply for state-nominations also, in parallel. We have many clients who were waiting for more than a year for an invitation through SkillSelect EOI Invitation Round Results. For these clients we complete a file-review and recommend a suitable state-nomination option. Many of them get invited for permanent residency WITHIN 2 to 3 MONTHS!

You can contact us for an “initial consultancy”, and we can review your case (link for online booking etc.) 

Summary:

Next round is 11 February 2020. Commentary regarding that Skill Select invitation round will be published by EasyMigrate as soon as those statistics are made available to the public by the Department of Immigration (usually one month later).

The SkillSelect EOI Invitation Round Results for September 2019  was terrible  – 100 invitations instead of 1,000 invitations in July 2019. The 11 October 2019 was much better – with 1,500 invitations! Then, the SkillSelect EOI Invitation Round Results for 11 November 2019 and 11 December 2019 rounds were very low and disappointing – only 250 invitations! The latest SkillSelect EOI Invitation Round Results (10 January 2020) is slightly similar to the October 2019 invitations – 1000 invitations for subclass 189 applicants and another 300 invitations for the new SC491 family-sponsored applicants.

The exact number of invitations on  10th  January 2020: 

1,000 invitations in the Skilled Independent subclass 189 and 300 invitations in the new subclass 491 family-sponsored stream. You may already be aware that Family-Sponsored Subclass 489 has been discontinued from 16 Nov 2019 and replaced by the “SC491 Family Sponsored” stream.

For this round, no invitations went to applicants who have 85 points or less (but in my opinion this is the same as the previous pre-November 2019 rule changes score level “invitation at 75 points”). This is because applicants now get 5 or 10 more points for spouse if spouse is skilled or speaks good English, applicants also get more points if they are “SC491 Family Sponsored”, etc).

• For SC189, 646 invitations went to applicants who had 90 points. For SC491-Family-sponsored invitations, 168 invitations went to applicants with 90 points.
•  
• 285 invitations went to SC189 applicants at 95 points, 82 invitations went to SC491-Family-Sponsored applicants at 95 points.
•  
• Approx 45 invitations went to applicants with 100 points for both SC189 and SC491-Family-Sponsored applicants.
•  
• 17 SC189 invitations and 8 SC491-Family-sponsored invitations went to applicants with 105 points.
•  
• Approximately 11 invitations went to applicants with 110 or more points. 

There were no invitations to persons with 85 points or less (but historically, even at 70 points, 884 were invited in March 2019, 848 invited in Jan 2019 and 32 invited in February 2019).

Occupations Analysis

The cut-off for Skilled Independent (SC189) was 90 points, cut-off date 02-10-2019.

The previous cut-off for Skilled Family Sponsored (SC489) was 95 points, cut-off date 04-12-2019 in previous invitation rounds. But this time 300 SC491 Family Sponsored applicants were invited, with cut-off date 16-12-2019.

The “boom” months were between September 2018 and November 2018 at 4,350 invitations per month.

In the October 2018 invitation round, 70-point holders were also invited for SC189, but not anymore. This is due to a combination of increased numbers of applications received by the Department of Immigration and reduced quota for invitations.

For the twenty-second round of invitations, DoHA has been inviting Accountants, Auditors, Company Secretaries and Corporate Treasurers! For Accountants, the invitation threshold had GONE UP TO 100 points but has dropped to 95 points as compared to the previous round of 11 December 2019 (It had come down to 80 points in January 2019). The cut-off date is published as 23-04-2019, which means that all “Accountant” applicants with 95 points who lodged before 23-04-2019 got invited. SC491 Family Sponsored applicants (Accountants, Auditors, Company Secretaries and Corporate Treasurers) were not invited at all.

For the Auditors, Company Secretaries and Corporate Treasurers occupations listed above, the cut-off points-score has stayed at 95, and the cut-off date is now 18-10-2019. SC491 Family Sponsored applicants were not invited at all.

Electronics Engineers did not get invited for SC189 in the September 2019 or October 2019.  In December 2019 they had been invited at 95 points or more, cut-off date was 04-06-2019. For this latest round, Electronics Engineers have been invited a 90 points, cut-off date is 25-09-2019. SC491 Family Sponsored applicants were invited for Electrical Engineer occupation at 95 points, cut-off date 03-01-2020.

For Industrial, Mechanical and Production Engineers – last month the new invitations stopped at 95 points, with cut-off date 29-09-2019. The score requirement has dropped –invitations have been issued at 90 points, with cut-off date 01-06-2019! SC491 Family Sponsored applicants were not invited at all.

(Industrial, Mechanical and Production Engineers were previously invited in November 2018 at 70 points)

In previous month, Other Engineering Professionals got the invitation-score increased from 85 points to 95 points! In Jan 2020 this has dropped to 90 points. The date of effect is 28-08-2019. SC491 Family Sponsored applicants were not invited at all.

For ICT Business and Systems Analysts – the SC189 invitation threshold had increased from 85 points to 95 points in December 2019. This has dropped to 90 points, with the visa date of effect 01-09-2019. In this occupation, SC491-Family-Sponsored applicants were not invited at all in Jan 2020 round.

Software and Application Programmers – for SC189 the pass mark had increased from 85 to 95 points in December 2019 round; this has reduced to 90 points and the cut-off date is now 02-10-2019. In this occupation, SC491-Family-Sponsored applicants were invited at 90 points, cut-off date 11-12-2019.

Computer Network Professionals – SC189 applicants got invited at 95 points in December 2019 round. This has dropped to 90 points with cut-off date 30-09-2019. In this occupation, SC491-Family-Sponsored applicants were invited at 90 points, cut-off date 20-11-2019.

If the number of invitations goes up in future general skilled migration program invitations, then more occupations with 85 points or less are likely to be invited. From this invitation round onwards (January 2020) we will start to see the new Subclass 491 invitations increase as a full-month of application-time has kicked in. This is likely to dilute the SC189 applicant’s chances. My recommendation is: PLEASE CONTACT US TO SEE IF YOU ARE ELIGIBLE AND THEN LODGE SC491 EOIs ALSO, LODGE SC190 EOIs ALSO IF ELIGIBLE.

With the quota having re-set on 1^st July 2019 (financial year-end), I expect to see a SUBSTANTIAL increase in the number of invitations in the next few invitation rounds. But from December 2019 round onwards the new Subclass 491 visa (Regional Family Sponsored) has also come under the Expression of Interest scheme so there will be fluctuations and variations. The new SC 491 visa replaced the “old” SC489 visa on 16^th November 2019.

Please note that the EOI date resets each time an applicant does an “upgrade” or change — for example, additional points for age, extra points for work-experience, successful NAATI test, extra points for “single-status”, etc.

Overall, the Australia Government has announced that the quota for general skilled migration is to be reduced from 190,000 to 160,000. This will also affect applicants in future.

Historical Analysis

The number of monthly invitations used to hover around the “two thousand-plus” around 2017-2018 good months.  They went lower between November 2017 to June 2018 at about 305 “SkillSelect” invitations per fortnight for the EOI applicants! 

From July 2018 the invitations were on par with the good months in previous years.

The two rounds of October 2018 and November 2018 EXCEEDED our expectations at 4,340 invitations.  

But the December 2018 round and January 2019  halved to 2,500 invitations. February 2019,  March 2019  were FURTHER REDUCED to 1,500 invitations, and April 2019 plus May 2019 plus June 2019 invitations were a disappointing 100 invitations only. 

July 2019 invitations had bounced back to 1,000 invitations. But August 2019 and September 2019 had fallen back to just 100 invitations! October 2019 invitations looked much better at 1,500 invitations. But November 2019 round was very poor at 250 invitations. The December 2019 was not much better – 250 invitations for SC189 and 200 invitations for SC491-Family-Sponsored. The latest round (January 2020) is much better with 1,000 SC190 invitations and 300 SC491-Family-Sponsored invitation.

The total number of invitations for the financial year (July 2018 to June 2019) was 22,920.

Based on July 2018,  August 2018, September 2018,  October 2018, November 2018,  December 2018  January 2019  February 2019 March 2019, April 2019 and May 2019 figures, I had forecast in my previous articles that the total number of EOI applicants invited for the financial year July 2018 to June 2019 would be  22,820 – my estimate was very close because the FINAL COUNT SkillSelect Invitation Round Results was 22,920!

Cyrus Mistry Comments

Recent announcements by the Department of Home Affairs (DoHA) point to a further slow-down in the number of “general skilled migration” (GSM) invitations.

The effect of “re-invitation” continues to plague the SkillSelect invitations program. In my previous articles, I had mentioned about the impact of “re-invitation”. Many applicants have changed to other countries or changed their plans but have not removed their Expressions of Interest (EOI). So they get invited, but they do not apply within the next 60 days. These applicants usually get “re-invited” as per the Dept of Immigration rules one more time! I estimate this figure to be as high as 30-40% in many occupations. This severely affects the program. For example, out of the 1,000-odd invitations in January 2020 only about 600-800 may take it up, 200-400 “invites” are wasted! This is something that the Department of Home Affairs has not been able to tackle yet.

This time, few invitations were issued to new SC491 Family-Sponsored applicants. The points allotted for Family-Sponsorship under the new legislation have increased from 10 to 15 points. Please keep in mind that for the SC491 FAMILY-SPONSORED visa, the applicant needs to have scored 75 points “independently” plus the 15 points from their family-sponsor (if invitations are being issued at 90 points). From 16 November 2019 onwards the new Subclass 491 Regional Family-Sponsored visa has come into effect, replacing the SC489.

On our EasyMigrate website, has statistics for previous SkillSelect Invitation Round Results. My ongoing analysis for the  October 2017 invitations; the November 2017 invitation round and the December 2017 round are available. January 2018 round, February 2018 round, March 2018 round, April 2018 round, May 2018 Round, the two x June 2018 rounds, the 11th July 2018, 11^th August 2018   the 11 September 2018,  October 2018, November 2018,  December 2018 rounds are available.  January 2019,  February 2019,  March 2019,  April 2019  May 2019,  June 2019,  July 2019, August 2019, September 2019, October 2019, November 2019 and December 2019 invitation rounds are also available on our website. 

Department of Home Affairs Invitations Round Results

The results in the next section have been taken from the Department of Home Affairs website: 

Current round

The post SkillSelect Invitation Round January 2020 Results appeared first on Easy Migrate.

The Department of  Home Affairs (DoHA) has released the analysis of the 11^th September 2018 “Skill Select” invitation results (Expressions of Interest – EOI) for the visa subclass 189 (Skilled Independent) and subclass 489 (Skilled Family Sponsored).

EasyMigrate’s Principal Migration Consultant Mr Cyrus Misty has reviewed these results – commentary below

Broad Overview:

Recent news: Department of Immigration (now DoHA) has announced that from Financial Year 2018-2019 there will be only ONE ROUND OF INVITATIONS PER MONTH, next round will be around 11 October 2018.

Recent news: Department of Immigration (now DoHA) has announced that from 1 July 2018 the “pass mark” has been increased from 60 to 65 points. New applicants can lodge their EOI with 65 points or more. Other applicants who submitted their EOI before 30 June 2018 with 60 points will continue to stay in the queue.

Summary:

It is good to note that The 11^th September 2018 invitation round from Depart of Immigration’s “SkillSelect” division has maintained the same levels as the last invitation round (11 August 2018) – about 2,500 invitations. For the second time since October 2017 (about ten months ago), the number of monthly invitations has touched the “two thousand-plus” mark! 2490 invitations to be exact in the Skilled Independent SC189 subclass and 10 in the Family-Sponsored Subclass 489!

For November 2017 to June 2018, the Department of Immigration (now Department of Home Affairs – DoHA) had released only 305 invitations every fortnight. This level had been static, at about 610 invitations per month.

For July 2018, 1,010 invitations had been issued. This is better than the 610 invitations being issued from Nov 2017 onwards. But still a lot less than the 2,000-odd invitations that were being issued per month before October 2017, but now the number of invitations seem to be regularly above the two-thousand mark in the 11 August 2018 AND the 11 September 2018 SkillSelect results – 2,490 invitations each in the Subclass 189 visa category.

For many months the “Accountants group” of occupations were not invited at all. This is now the sixth round of invitations where DoHA has finally invited Accountants, Auditors, Company Secretaries and Corporate Treasurers! For Accountants, the invitation threshold has been steady at 80 points (this round and the last round). The cut-off date is published as 25-05-2018 which means that all “Accountant” applicants with 80 points or more who applied for their Expression of Interest (EOI)  before 25-05-2018 got invited. Please note that the EOI date resets each time there is an “upgrade” or change registered, e.g. additional points for age, extra points for work-experience, successful NAATI test, etc. For the other occupations listed above, the cut-off points-score is also 80, and the cut-off date is 01-05-2018 (in the last round of invitations this was 14-03-2018, so this has moved forward by one and half months).

The total number of invitations for the last financial year (July 2017 to June 2018) was 16,296.

Based on July 2018,  August 2018 and September 2018 figures, the total number of invitations for this financial year (July 2018 to June 2019) could be 6,000 x 3 three-monthly periods = 24,000 which would mean an increase in Subclass 189 and Subclass 489 (Family) invitations compared to the previous financial year 2017-2018. There may be even more invitations planned for the next nine months (October 2018 – June 2019) – let us wait and see.

The slow-down from November 2017 to June 2018 will undoubtedly affect the Department of Immigration’s statistics in the 2018-2019 financial year. I was forecasting a deliberate attempt by DoHA to slow down the “pipeline” in preparation for some dramatic changes to be announced after July/August 2018, but this latest round of invitations may prove I was wrong!

For this latest round of invitations under the subclass 189 (Skilled Independent) visa, 2,490 invitations were issued, at 70 points or above. Only ten invitations were issued to SC489 Family-Sponsored applicants – 5 at 80 points and five at 85 points… so as you can see, the SC489 FAMILY-SPONSORED applicant needs to have scored 70-75 points “independently” plus the 10 points from their family-sponsor. 

On our EasyMigrate website, we have the statistics, and my ongoing analysis for the  October 2017 invitations; the November 2017 invitation round and the December 2017 round are available. January 2018 round, February 2018 round, March 2018 round, April 2018 round, May 2018 Round, the two x June 2018 rounds, the 11th July 2018, 11^th August 2018  invitation rounds are also available on our website. I estimate that the Nov 2017 to June 2018 rounds were only about 30-40% of the usual monthly track-record before October 2017, but from August 2018 the invitations are on par with the good months up to September 2017 in previous years.

Please note that these figures do not include invitations under the state-nominated subclass 190 and state-nominated “Regional” subclass 489.

For this round, most invitations (1,202) were to applicants who have 75 points. Another 545 invitations went to persons with 80 points. 15 invitations were given to applicants having 85 points or more. But the BEST NEWS is that 605 applicants were invited at 70 points!

There were NO INVITES to applicants with 60 or 65 points.

For the occupations subject to pro-rata arrangements, Accountants with 80 points or more got invitations up to an EOI-date of 25-05-2018. “Auditors,” “Company Secretaries” and “Corporate Treasurers” got invited at 80 points, with a cut-off date of 01-05-2018. This is a good development because Accountants had been excluded (or dramatically reduced) since Oct-Nov 2017 invitation-rounds!

Electronics Engineers got invited at 70 points with the date of effect 15-11-2017, this is a significant improvement because, in the last invitation round, only 75-point holders were invited. The cut-off date is published as 15-11-2017!

Industrial, Mechanical and Production Engineers also got invited at 70 points with a date of effect 18-01-2018. The previous period was December 2017, so this is a good development for Industrial, Mechanical and Production Engineers.

Other Engineering Professionals got invited at 75 points with the date of effect 03-07-2018. So in this invitation round, 70-point holders have not been invited! I am hoping that the number of “invitations” rises over the next few rounds. Then it will be a good sign for other engineers who are waiting at 70 points and 65 points.

ICT Professionals (Business and Systems Analysts) got invited at 75 points with the visa date of effect 03-07-2018.

ICT Professionals (Software and Application Programmers) got invited at 75 points with the visa date of effect 20-08-2018.  

ICT Professionals (Computer Network Professionals) got invited at 70 points with the visa date of effect 17-01-2018.

So for ICT professionals, there is about 1.5 to 7 month’s waiting in the queue. The good news is only for 75-point holders, EXCEPT for Computer Network Professionals who are getting invited even at 70 points. Again, if the number of invitations at each round goes up for the next financial year (July 2018 – June 2019), then more ICT professionals with 70 and 65 points are likely to be invited.

11 September 2018 Invitation Round

The table below (published by the Department of Immigration – now renamed Depart of Home Affairs – DoHA) shows the number of invitations issued in the SkillSelect invitation round on 11th August 2018:

1 11 September 2018 Invitation Round 

 To find out if you are eligible, please contact our migration agent specialists in Perth, WA on +61 8 9221 4888 or email reception@easymigrate.com

#AustralianMigrationMadeEasy

The post Skill Select EOI Invitation Results for September 11th, 2018 appeared first on Easy Migrate.