Australia News

Season’s greetings from Immigration South Australia As 2018 comes to a close, we look back at some of the milestones we have achieved in this very busy program year. General skilled migration (GSM) Immigration SA has processed 2,569 nominations under the GSM program for 2017/18, and we are currently tracking at 1,909 year to date for the first

New legislation has recently been introduced that will significantly change whether an Australian Partner visa application can be lodged whist the applicant is in Australia. The new Migration Amendment (Family Violence and Other Measures) Bill was passed through Parliament on 10 December 2018. It is yet to be confirmed when the new law will take effect and partner visa

BSMQ Update to Queensland SOL … Australia Immigration 22 November 2018 Please note that the following occupations: Finance Manager – 132211 Registered Nurse (Aged Care) – 254412 Registered Nurse (Critical Care and Emergency) – 254415 Developer Programmer – 261312 Software Engineer – 261313 will be removed from all the Queensland Skilled Occupation Lists (QSOLs) on

Skilled Regional NSW Sponsorship … Regional Development Australia Northern Inland (RDANI) RDA Northern Inland reserves the right to refuse refund requests for unsuccessful applications, as the fee is for the assessment service provided and not a positive outcome.   Allow up to 6 weeks for processing by RDA-NI – this timeframe can vary. Please contact

Australian Capital Territory Reopened The Australian Capital Territory reopened today its 190-nomination program with a new expression of interest process. The new program will continue focusing on specific state occupation shortages but will replace its previous first-in/first-out process with a points merit-based approach. The new system will allow intending applicants to express their interest through

DECEMBER CHANGES TO BUSINESS HOURS & SERVICES (VETASSESS)…AUSTRALIA IMMIGRATION OFFICE CLOSURE: During the festive season, VETASSESS offices will close from Friday 21 December 2018 and will reopen, Wednesday 2 January 2019. SUBMITTING NEW APPLICATIONS: Please note the revised time frames for submitting new applications prior to this period: Priority Processing – last applications for 2018

VETASSESS update for PhD students VETASSESS has just announced a change to their skills assessment criteria, that will affect many PhD students studying in Australia and overseas, From Friday 15 December 2018 VETASSESS will no longer accept a full scholarship or stipend as work experience for the purpose of obtaining 1 years work experience for

According to the latest government figures, more than 45,500 citizenship applications were finalised between July and October 2018, of which 39,000 applications were granted Australian citizenship. The Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs, Mr David Coleman has claimed the new investment in boosting resources within the Department of Home Affairs (DoHA) has helped processing

Queensland is temporarily suspending issuing new invitations for the following visas under the Business Innovation and Investment Program from 02/01/2019. Queensland are not accepting any new EOI’s submitted from this date. The visa subclasses suspended include: 188 – Business Innovation (188A), Investor (188B), 188 Significant Investor (SIV or 188C), 188 Entrepreneur (188E), 132 – Significant