By Emma Gallagher

Thousands of UK families dream of relocating to Australia, and for good reasons. Australia offers excellent job opportunities, an efficient healthcare system, fantastic weather, first-class education, unspoilt nature and a laid-back lifestyle to name only a few of its drawcards. 

Unfortunately for many, the dream of living “Down Under” turns into a long, complicated waiting game with the Majority of UK migrants coming to Australia through the independent skilled migrant pathway. At first, it seems a straight forward process – Check your eligibility, submit an expression of interest (EOI), wait for an invitation and lastly, apply for your visa. For some, it is that easy, but as many people are discovering, waiting for an invitation that may never come is crushing. 

Skilled Migration 

Independent skilled visas are by far the most common skilled pathway to Australia. These visas allow foreign nationals who with suitable qualifications and/or experience in occupations deemed to be in demand, to live in Australia as permanent residents. To be eligible for a skilled visa, you must have a profession that is listed on one of the relevant Australian skilled occupations lists. You must score a minimum number of points in a “points test”. The Australian Government award points based on age, level of qualifications attained, years of work experience, English language competency as well as other factors depending on the applicant’s circumstances. 

From July 2018 the minimum points required for skilled visas increased from 60 to 65 points. However the number of places that can be invited in a year is set by the Australian government, and the competition is fierce. The sheer number of applicants vying for these invitation means that currently, you are unlikely to receive an invitation to apply with less than 80 points (some occupations are now requiring as much as 90 points to receive an invite). 

Cyrus Mistry (a Perth-based Registered Migration Agent) explains that “scoring enough points is particularly difficult for older applicants with trade skills, which are in particular demand in some areas of Australia”. Mr Mistry says that he regularly sees UK applicants on waitlists for up two years. Anthony Kelly from Northern Ireland was one of these people. Having achieved the minimum 60 points required in August 2017, Mr Kelly lodged his expression of interest with the hope he would be living in Australia by mid-2018. Unfortunately, having waited two years without receiving an invite to apply, Mr Kelly instead received an email on August 2019 that his EOI had expired. This is a disappointing reality for thousands of well-intentioned prospective applicants every year. 

Mr Kelly said he had considered giving up on moving to Australia and was considering other destinations when he was advised by Mr Mistry to consider different visa pathways offered in regional Australia. Fortunately for Mr Kelly, he heeded his Agent’s advice and is now happily living in Australia, having obtained a Skilled Regional visa to live and work in Australia’s Northern Territory. This visa allows Mr Kelly to live and work in regional Australia and, subject to living and working in regional Australia for a specified period, offers a pathway to permanent residence. Mr Kelly said he could not be more happy with the outcome and that he would still be waiting in the UK if it had not been for the advice to consider the opportunities in regional Australia. 

Regional Australia Pathways 

The Australian Government has recently made it a focus of its Migration program to tackle the impacts of an increasing population in major cities like Sydney and Melbourne by promoting visa pathways in Regional Australia where there is an appetite for population growth and, in particular, considerable demand for skilled migrants. 

One such visa pathway has been the expansion of the Designated Area Migration Agreement (DAMA) scheme. These are labour agreements allowing eligible employers in designated regional areas to access skilled and semi-skilled workers from overseas to fill local labour market shortages. Mr Mistry advises that DAMAs are an increasing focus of the Australian Government’s migration program and that several DAMAs has been announced in the last six months, with more DAMA applications in the pipeline. Currently, there are DAMAs in place in the Northern Territory, the Goldfields in Western Australia, Great South Coast in Victoria, Adelaide City, Regional South Australia, Orana region in New South Wales and Far North Queensland – with more expected to be announced soon. 

The Goldfields region in Western Australia currently has DAMA covering 73 occupations. The City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder, located less than 600km from Perth, has been particularly vocal in their desire to have skilled migrants come to live in and grow their regional communities. Kalgoorlie-Boulder boasts small-town “old-school Australian” lifestyle where everyone comes together as a family. According to the CEO of the City, Kalgoorlie-Boulder has an estimated 1,500 job vacancies in a range of industries including mining, engineering, construction, healthcare, childcare and hospitality (amongst others). 

Earlier this year the Australian government announced two new regional visas to commence in November 2019 – the subclass 491 Skilled Regional (Provisional) visa which will have 14,000 places allocated in the first year and the subclass 494 Skilled Employer-Sponsored visas which will have 9000 places allocated to it this financial year. 

Mr Kelly, who migrated to regional Australia earlier this year, said that people should not be discouraged by regional Australia but should instead see it as an opportunity to fulfil their dream of living in Australia. Fiona Ward, who migrated to Kalgoorlie-Boulder eight years ago, said she thought she would prefer Sydney or Melbourne, but they were too big and fast-paced. She has made Kalgoorlie home and runs a successful construction company with her husband, who is also from the UK. 

If you would like to find out more about regional pathways in Australia, Mr Mistry will be attending the Down Under Live exhibitions in Birmingham (5th – 6th October) and London (12th – 13th October). Cyrus Mistry is the Founding Partner of EasyMigrate and has been specialising in Australian Immigration since 2001. Cyrus will be joined at the exhibition by Sword Recruitment Specialists who work with several businesses looking to recruit skilled workers in industries and occupations suffering local labour market shortages. 

If you would like to find out more about Australian visas our migration agents will be happy to check your eligibility. If you would like advice from our team of Registered Migration Agents, book in for a consultation now.

The post Why Choose Regional Australia? appeared first on Easy Migrate.

The Department of Immigration has released the analysis of the 3rd January 2018 round results (Expressions of Interest) for the visa subclass 189 (Skilled Independent) and 489 (Skilled Family Sponsored). EasyMigrate’s Principal Migration Consultant Mr Cyrus Mistry has reviewed these results:

“Broad Overview: I am disappointed with the number of “invitations” provided by the Dept of Immigration this time – only 305 which is the same as the last round of invitations! Worst still, not a single “Accountant” was invited! The total number of invitations for the last six months has been 12,941 so I expect that in the remaining financial year (Jan-June 2018) there is likely to be some increase in the number of invitations provided by the Department of Immigration.

Under the subclass 189 (Skilled Independent) visa, ONLY 300 invitations were issued in total with only 5 invitations under the subclass 489 (Skilled Family Sponsored) visa. This is a decrease of 2250 invitations compared to the October 2017 invitations and 1105 invitations less than the November 2017 round. Please note that these figures do not include invitations under the state-nominated subclasses SC190 and SC489.

For this round, most invitations (208) were to applicants who have 75 points. Another 62 invitations went to persons with 70 points.  There were NO INVITES to applicants with 60 or 65 points. 29 invites were to applicants on 80 points with 6 invitations going to applicants having 85 points or more.

I wish to highlight again that about 15% of the “invitations” usually do not get taken up (because of the applicant’s changed circumstances). These “invitations” expire after 60 days and lead to a “re-invite” in the next round of invitations (maximum two invites). When the number of invitations is reduced by DIBP to a paltry 300 (instead of the usual 2000-3000 per month) then these “re-invitation” tend to skew the results and give inaccurate statistics. I wonder when DIBP will wake up to this reality and make necessary adjustments in their reporting.

For the occupations subject to pro-rata arrangements, Accountants did not get any invitations. I am hoping that DIBP recommences invitations for “Accountants” soon. Accountants have been excluded from some Oct-Nov 2017 rounds also!

Electronics Engineers got invited at 70 points with the date of effect 20-09-2017, so they seem to have about four months waiting in the queue.

Industrial, Mechanical and Production Engineers got invited at 75 points with date of effect 02-01-2018. This date is quite significant.

Other Engineering Professionals got invited at 70 points with date of effect 31-10-2016 which seems to be an aberration or a typing mistake on the DIBP website.

ICT Professionals (Business and Systems Analysts, Software Programmers and Network Professionals) got invited at 70 points with visa date of effect ranging between 30-08-2017 and 21-09-2017 – about 4-5 months waiting in the queue.

3 January 2018 Invitation round

#AustralianMigrationMadeEasy

The post Skill Select Results January 3rd 2018 appeared first on Easy Migrate.

The one year de-facto relationship requirement is a criterion that must be met by applicants claiming de-facto dependents for the following visas:

• a permanent visa
• a business skills visa
• a student visa
• a partner visa
• a general skilled migration visa

To satisfy this requirement, the couple must demonstrate that they have been in a de-facto relationship for at least 12 months before the visa application is made. This means living together and being committed to each other on a long term basis, not just being casual partners.

For the purposes of the Migration Act, a person is the de-facto partner of another person (whether of the same sex or a different sex) if the person is in a de-facto relationship with the other person.

A person is in a de facto relationship with another person if they are not in a married relationship with each other but:

• they have a mutual commitment to a shared life to the exclusion of all others; and
• the relationship between them is genuine and continuing; and
• they live together or do not live separately and apart on a permanent basis and they are not related by family.

Couples who don’t meet the 12-month requirement can register their relationship with the concerned authority in their state and have the requirement reduced to six months once the certificate is issued. Each state and territory births, deaths and marriages registry offices provide information on the legal requirements of registering relationships. Requirements may vary in different states. Currently only the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmania and Victoria have laws in place allowing a relationship to be registered in accordance with the Acts Interpretation Act (Registered Relationship) Regulations.

The post Living together and the 12-month De-facto evidence appeared first on Easy Migrate.