Positive news has been announced by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) relating to the skilled visa processing changes announced in September. While previously all skilled visa applications not on the Critical Skills List (CSL) faced processing delays of up to 3 years, now non-CSL state sponsored applications are again being processed.
Immigration2oz.com attended a recent meeting with DIAC’s Regional Director for Europe at the Australian High Commission in London. This senior DIAC official stated that with 3500 non-CSL state sponsored applications currently lodged, processing on these applications will continue over the remainder of the Australian financial year (to June 30, 2010). The exact number that will be finalised in this time is unknown, as when higher prioritised applications are received, these must be processed first. Any non-CSL state sponsored applications not processed this financial are likely however to be processed in the next. This means that for many, the years of delay previously feared will not occur.
Registered Migration Agent John Adams advises that given this encouraging development, migrants who are applying for a skilled visa or have already applied should seriously consider obtaining a state sponsorship. By doing so they are ensuring that their application is not unnecessarily delayed.
John Adams is the principle Registered Migration Agent of Immigration2oz.com. He can be contacted at john@immigration2oz.com or on +44 (0)1483 230 483.
Come and meet John at Down Under Live – 30th and 31st January 2010, Business Design Centre, London
Tags: CSL, DIAC, Immigration2oz.com
Hello
I organised the recent meeting with DIAC in London, on behalf of the members of the Poms in Oz forum, and I attended it myself, too.
I agree with what John Adams has said, that State nominations will help to minimise delays.
However DIAC’s message of 1st December to the MIA is very cautiously worded, which should not be forgotten. The MIA were told as follows:
“The Department is processing applications according to Ministerial Direction No. 42 – Order of consideration – certain Skilled Migration visas. The Department anticipates that a small number of State sponsored non-CSL applications will be finalised this program year. Finalisations will focus on applications where health and character checks have been requested by the case officer.”
As yet, although we are beginning to see sc 176 visas being granted, I haven’t seen an instance of a sc 475 grant as yet and nobody seems to have reported grants of sc 886 or 487 visas either.
I don’t think the pattern is clear yet and so far there has been no public announcement on the DIAC website.
DIAC have said that they will find out how many of the 108,100 skilled visas have been granted as at 30th November 2009. They promised to give us this figure. Once we have that, better guesses will become possible, I hope.
Best wishes
Gill
Thanks for that Gill.
Better news as you say.