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The Minister of Immigration on Monday, 16 March announced cuts to the 2008-2009 Permanent Skilled Migration Program by 14%, ‘to protect local jobs whilst ensuring employers can access skilled professionals in industries still experiencing skills shortages’.
This represents a 14% cut to the Permanent Skilled Migration Quota reducing the total number of places available from 133,500 to 115,000.
The Minister also announced that certain occupations would be deleted from the Critical Skills List (CSL). Most of the occupations deleted from the CSL were in the Trades and this was presumably done because of the impact that the global economic downturn has had on the construction industry in Australia. The CSL now mainly comprises Health and Medical, Engineering and IT Professions.
The Critical Skills List (CSL) is a list that has been used by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) to determine the means of prioritising applications. It is not a list that affects the means of allocation of points to an applicants score under a General Skilled Migrant Application. For the purposes of this exercise one uses the Migration Occupations in Demand List (MODL) and this list has not been subject to any changes.
Implications of the Minister’s Announcement
The main implications of the change will be as far as processing times are concerned.
Only General Skilled Migration Applications which are State/Territory Sponsored that have the occupation on the altered CSL will be processed. No Visa grants will be issued to other applicants under the General Skilled Migrant Category until further notice.
In short the Minister’s announcement doesn’t affect one’s eligibility for Permanent Skilled Migration but will impact upon processing times.
Migration Review Tribunal (MRT) Decisions – February 2009
A total of 325 decisions were made by the Tribunal for the month of February. This excludes the number of applications that were withdrawn and also those that the Tribunal was found not to have jurisdiction.
The figures reveal that the MRT set aside or overturned 203 decisions of the Department (approximately 57%) and affirmed the original decision of the Department in 122 cases or approximately 34% of cases.
Perhaps these figures are the most eloquent argument for using a reputable Migration Agent that could be made.
Kind regards
Colin Adno
Director
IMMAgine Australia Immigration
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