Australian Capital Territory Open For Migration

Words by Emma Gallagher and Paul Mc Hugh

Have you ever wondered what’s it’s like to live in Canberra?

Canberra is the capital of Australia and over 100 years old. It can sometimes be named the bush capital because of its nature reserves and ranges of mountains, which adds to the scenery.

Canberra is famous for being the only place in Australia where you can experience a hot air balloon ride and view the breathtaking views, also a great place to enjoy the views of the balloon festival. The area has attracted so much love for balloons that thousands visit for the yearly event to enjoy a skyline full of colour.

For any adventure goers, this is the only city you can skydive over the houses of Parliament.

Canberra was ranked one of the loveliest places to visit and live due to vibrant culture, food and wine and its beautiful views and landscapes.

Canberra is perfect of wine lovers with over 30 wineries close to the CBD, what better way to enjoy the summer sunshine and taste plenty of choices. Making use of the local fruit and creating its own wine.

It even has its own NASA Airbase, and there are only another 3 locations in the whole of the world, America, Spain and Milian.

Only 2 hours away you will find snowy mountains so perfect if you love to ski in your spare time.

How can you live in ACT

The ACT Occupation List identifies the skills that are currently in demand in Canberra (for migration purposes). The ACT Occupation List is used to determine the eligibility for ACT support of the following programs:

• Skilled Regional (provisional) subclass 491 visa.
• Skilled Nominated (permanent) subclass 190 visa.

ACT OCCUPATION LIST: 1 January 2020

The ACT Occupation List effective 1 January 2020, will apply to all Canberra Matrix submitted on or after 1 January 2020. 

If you submitted a Canberra Matrix on or before 31 December 2019, your Matrix score for a nominated occupation is valid for six months.

You can view the list here

The ACT is not the only part of Australia that allows valid applicants to apply, Perth, Western Australia, Northern Territory, Regional Victoria, Regional New South Wales, South Australia and Tasmania all are open to immigration applications.

If you would like more information on getting started on your journey to migrate to Australia, please fill in our Initial Online Assessment form to see if you qualify.

The post Australian Capital Territory Now Open for Migration appeared first on Easy Migrate.

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

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

“Broad Overview:

Breaking 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 August 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 lodged their EOI before 30 June 2018 with 60 points will continue to stay in the queue.

For the last eight months, the Dept of Immigration (now Department of Home Affairs) had released only 305 invitations every fortnight. This level had been static since November 2017, at about 610 invitations per month.

Starting July 2018, the Dept of Home Affairs has announced that there will be ONE INVITATION ROUND per month – the “statistics” for the first one dated 11^th July 2018 have just been published on the DoHA website. For the month of July 2018, 1,010 invitations have 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 prior to October 2017.

For many months the “Accountants group” of occupations were not invited at all. This is now the fourth round of invitations where DOHA has finally invited Accountants, Auditors, Company Secretaries and Corporate Treasurers! Accountants who score 85 points or more have been invited, and the cut-off date is published as 06-07-2018 which means that all “Accountant” applicants with 85 points or more who applied for their Expression of Interest (EOI)  before 06-07-2018 got invited. For the other occupations listed above, the cut-off points-score is 80 and the cut-off date is 16-02-2018 (in the last round of invitations this was 13-02-2018, so this has stayed “static”).

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

Based on July 2018 figures, the total number of invitations for this financial year (July 2018 to June 2019) could be 12,120 which would mean a further substantial drop in Subclass 189 and Subclass 489 (Family) invitations. There may be more invitations planned for the next 11 months (July 2018 – June 2019) – let us wait and see.

This slow-down will certainly affect their statistics in the 2018-2019 financial year. So is this a deliberate attempt to slow down the “pipeline” in preparation for some dramatic changes to be announced after July/August 2018? I hope I am wrong, but I expect dramatic changes will be published August 2018 onwards!

For this latest round of invitations under the subclass 189 (Skilled Independent) visa, only 1,000 invitations were issued, at 70 points or above. Only 10 invitations were issued to SC489 Family-Sponsored applicants – 7 at 80 points and 3 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. 

As I have mentioned in my previous newsletters, This is a decrease of about 1850 invitations per month compared to the October 2017 invitations; it is about 700 invitations less than the November 2017 round. The statistics and commentary regarding the December 2017 round, January 2018 round, February 2018 round, March 2018 round, April 2018 round, May 2018 Round and the two x June 2018 rounds are available on our website. I estimate that the current rounds are only about 30-40% of the usual monthly track-record before October 2017.

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 (572) were to applicants who have 70 points. Another 273 invitations went to persons with 75 points. 107 invitations were given to applicants having 80 points. 46 invitations were given to applicants with  85 points and 2 invitations were given to applicants with 90 points.

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

As I have mentioned before – when the number of invitations is so low, then anomalies creep in – let me explain. I estimate 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 1,000 (instead of the usual 2000-3000 per month), then these “re-invitations” tend to skew the results and give inaccurate statistics.

For the occupations subject to pro-rata arrangements, Accountants with 85 points or more got invitations up to an EOI-date of 06-07-2018. “Auditors,” “Company Secretaries” and “Corporate Treasurers” got invited at 80 points, with a cut-off date of 16-02-2018. This is a good development because Accountants had been excluded (or dramatically reduced) since Oct-Nov 2017 invitation-rounds!

Electronics Engineers got invited at 75 points with the date of effect 16-06-2018, so they seem to have waited ONLY TWENTY-FIVE DAYS IN THE QUEUE! Unfortunately, this is only for 75 point applicants; all others lost out.

Industrial, Mechanical and Production Engineers also got invited at 75 points with a date of effect 19-06-2018. The previous date was April 2018 so this is a good development Industrial, Mechanical and Production Engineers.

Other Engineering Professionals got invited at 80 points with the date of effect 27-06-2018. So for these occupations, the waiting in the queue has now increased because there are no invitations for 75-point holders! I am hoping that the number of “invitations” increases 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 80 points with the visa date of effect 05-07-2018.

ICT Professionals (Software and Application Programmers) got invited at 75 points with the visa date of effect 11-04-2018.  

ICT Professionals (Computer Network Professionals) got invited at 75 points with the visa date of effect 11-05-2018.

So for ICT professionals, there is about 1.5 to 4 month’s waiting in the queue. The good news is only for 75-point holders. 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 July 2018 Invitation Round

The table below (published by Department of Immigration – now renamed Depart of Home Affairs – DoHA) shows the number of invitations issued in the SkillSelect invitation round on 20th June 2018:

During 2018-19 program year the following numbers of invitations have been issued:

Invitations issued during the 2018-19 program year

The above figures do not include invitations issued for State and Territory Government nominated visa subclasses. State and Territory Governments nominate throughout the month for specific points tested skilled migration and business innovation and investment visas.

11 July 2018 results

The following graph shows the points for clients who were invited to apply in the 11 July 2018 round.

Invitation process and cut off

The highest ranked clients by points score are invited to apply for the relevant visa. For clients who have equal points scores, the time at which they reached their points score for that subclass (referred to as the date of effect) determines their order of invitation. Expressions of Interest with earlier dates of effect are invited before later dates.

SkillSelect first allocates available places to Skilled – Independent visas (subclass 189) and then the remaining to Skilled – Regional (Provisional) visas (subclass 489). If all places are taken up by subclass 189 visas then there will be no invitations issued for subclass 489 visas in these occupations.

Due to high levels of demand, and in keeping with previous years, the below occupation groups will be subject to pro-rata arrangements to ensure availability of invitations across the program year.

Point scores and the dates of effect cut off for the pro rata occupations in the 11 July 2018 invitation round.

Australian Migration Made Easy

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

From March 2018, the 457 visa for Australia will be abolished. For many Australian employers and existing temporary migrants, this change will have consequences. We have spoken to many employers over the years who have complained that they have struggled to find qualified, experience good staff (hence their reasoning to sourcing overseas skilled workers). Employers who are considering recruiting overseas employees will need to be aware of the changes in the different types of visas and the tax implications that will apply.

Who is eligible for TSS?

For an employer to recruit an overseas skilled worker, the vacant position must appear on the Combined List of Eligible Skilled Occupations. Position description and the TSS visa applicant’s employment and education history must reflect the description provided by ANZSCO. If applicants do not come from one of the exempt countries (UK, USA, Canada, NZ or Ireland), they will also need to meet English language requirements.

Out of the current 651 occupations eligible for 457 visas, only 435 jobs categories will be suitable for Temporary Skilled Shortage (TSS) visa.

TSS will come in two categories: Short-Term Skilled Occupations List (STSOL)  a two-year visa that can be extended only once and offers no pathway to permanent residency; and Medium and Long-Term Strategic Skills List (MLTSSL) a four-year visa which can lead to Australian permanent residency after three years.

How do I apply for TSS?

TSS ( like 457) will be a three-step application process.

• Standard Business Sponsorship (SBS)  – To be able to employ overseas skilled workers on a TSS visa business must be approved as Standard Business Sponsor.   For a Business to be eligible for SBS it must have an active ABN to apply under, registering the business name, supplying Business Activity Statements (BAS) and financial statements, as well as showing a commitment to training Australian citizens and permanent residents and compliance with workplace and other Australian laws.

• Nomination –  is the next step. This is when the employer must nominate a position within their business as one which must be filled by an overseas citizen. As part of this step, there are various requirements to be met: for example labour market testing, salary level and training levy.

• Visa application –  Finally it’s the visa application, at which time the applicant must demonstrate that they meet the requisite skill level for their occupation, as well as health and character requirements.

If you currently hold a 457 visa or are thinking about lodging a 457 before the changes come into effect please speak to our team by calling +61 8 9221 4888 or email reception@easymigrate.com

#AustralianMigrationMadeEasy

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