In a welcome change the Department of Immigration has announced that skilled visa invitation rounds will revert to being held twice a month from October 2015.

There were two invitation rounds each month until June of this year, when the Department decided to move to just one round per month.

The October 2015 invitations will be issued on the 9th and the 23rd.

The maximum numbers of invitations to be issued in each of these invitation rounds are as follows:

• Subclass 189, Skilled Independent – 1,000
• Subclass 489, Skilled Family Sponsored – 20


Note: For the above visa subclasses invitations are issued to those who have lodged Expressions of Interest under the Department of Immigration’s SkillSelect model, on the basis of the occupation nominated, the points claimed, and the date the EoI was submitted to the Department.

The Assistant Minister for Immigration and Border Protection has presented a Determination that caps the number of visas that can be granted in the current program year to the 30th of June, 2016 under three of the old visa subclasses.

Also – and importantly for those who have been waiting on a visa decision for a number of years – the Explanatory Memorandum to the Instrument advises that: ” … it has the effect that when grants of that relevant subclass have reached the ministerially determined maximum, any outstanding applications for visas of that subclass are taken not to have been made.”

This is often referred to as a “cap and cease provision.”

The old visa subclasses and the number of visas available for 2015/16 are:

• Subclass 175, Skilled – Independent: 219
• Subclass 176, Skilled – Sponsored: 36
• Subclass 475, Skilled – Regional Sponsored: 29

Applications for these visa subclasses ended on the 30th of June, 2012, and were replaced by visa subclasses 189, 190, and 489 respectively.

Applications under the old subclasses remain in the system as what are called “priority category 5” cases – as readers may know skilled visa applications are subject to prioritisation of processing. There are a residual number of visa applications under these old subclasses where the occupation nominated is not on the current Skilled Occupations List.

It appears the Department of Immigration has decided that priority category 5 case applications will not be processed to a decision at any time in the next few years, and have therefore decided to treat the outstanding applications as not having been made.

The Department of Immigration has announced that the following occupation (ANZSCO) group has reached its quota for subclass 189 (Skilled Independent) and 489 Skilled – Family Sponsored) visas for program year 2015/16:

2212 – Auditors, Company Secretaries and Corporate Treasurers

No more invitations will be issued to applicants with these occupations under subclasses 189 and 489 until the start of the new program year in July 2016.

Places remain available under ANZSCO group 2211 – Accountants.

Those with finance occupations where there is more than one occupation available should therefore carefully consider their visa strategy, particularly if one of the 2212 ANZSCO group occupations is available for State Sponsorship – subclass 190 visas are not subject to the same quota.

The Victorian Government’s State Nomination Occupation Lists have been updated to reflect changing labour market demand within Victoria.

An applicant’s occupation must be on the Vic Government’s State Nomination Occupation List (or SNOL) if there is to be a prospect of securing sponsorship of a skilled visa application under subclasses 190 or 489 from the Government of Victoria.

The following occupations have been removed:

• 133211 Engineering Manager
• 231212 Ship’s Engineer

All of the Automotive Trades have also been removed:

• 321111 Automotive Electrician
• 321211 Motor Mechanic (General)
• 324111 Panelbeater
• 324311 Vehicle Painter

The requirement for statisticians to have science experience has been removed.

Visa nomination applications will be assessed against these changes from the 26th of October, 2015.

The current lists of skilled occupations that the Vic Government will sponsor are available on the Live in Victoria website.

The Government of South Australia will sponsor skilled migrants with any occupation on the Consolidated Sponsored Occupations List (CSOL) that are not on South Australia’s State Nominated Occupations List where they can attain SA’s high points threshold.

This is presently 80 points.

Due to a high level of demand Immigration SA is raising the requirement for the high point category from 80 points to 85 points from the 22nd of September, 2015.

All high point applications submitted from this date will need to meet the 85 points requirement.