I'm currently got an application in for a skilled worker visa, and figured that there might be some interest in how the system is changing, particularly as migration is one of the drivers of the property market.
On 23rd September of this year, all applicants for a working visa were reclassified into seven priority groups, listed below.
There are some group five applicants being awarded visas. These tend to be people who had been assessed and accepted, but hadn't actually received the visa when the changes were implemented.
Needless to say, this has caused some anger amongst would be migrants.
This doesn't appear to be a permanent change of policy, but a review of migration has been completed and will be published shortly. The sort of recommendations that have been rumoured or discussed are:
There's been no discussion of numbers, but my guess is that these will be tweaked for economic and political reasons. Rudd seems to be committed to the Big Australia, whereas Adams is speaking out against it.
Some of the comments that Adams made have been read as limiting immigration to replacement levels, around 35,000 per year, but the Age article suggests that's a starting point for a debate rather than a limit.
My guess is that the implications of both these changes will be:
On 23rd September of this year, all applicants for a working visa were reclassified into seven priority groups, listed below.
- Employee sponsored workers.
- State sponsored workers whose occupation is on the Critical Skills List (CSL).
- Family sponsored workers whose occupation is on the CSL.
- Unsponsored workers whose occupation is on the CSL.
- State sponsored workers whose occupation is not on the CSL.
- Workers whose occupation is on the Migration Occupations in Demand List (MODL), or those whose occupation isn't on the CSL, but are sponsored by family.
- Everyone else.
There are some group five applicants being awarded visas. These tend to be people who had been assessed and accepted, but hadn't actually received the visa when the changes were implemented.
Needless to say, this has caused some anger amongst would be migrants.
This doesn't appear to be a permanent change of policy, but a review of migration has been completed and will be published shortly. The sort of recommendations that have been rumoured or discussed are:
- Something akin to the aforementioned priority groups will remain.
- The Critical Skills List will be replaced or possibly enhanced by a more forward looking Future Skills List. The aim is to predict skills shortages, but also boost the priority of some lower ranked occupations to aid these applicants.
- The discussion is framed around the Knowledge Based Economy. My guess is that this will be skewed in favour of technical, research and design based professions.
- There will be more importance paid to work experience and English language skills.
There's been no discussion of numbers, but my guess is that these will be tweaked for economic and political reasons. Rudd seems to be committed to the Big Australia, whereas Adams is speaking out against it.
Some of the comments that Adams made have been read as limiting immigration to replacement levels, around 35,000 per year, but the Age article suggests that's a starting point for a debate rather than a limit.
My guess is that the implications of both these changes will be:
- The migration rate will drop sharply over the next year or so as the number of visas fall off.
- The processing times will probably discourage applicants. I'd guess that numbers will remain lower until 2013 or so.
- Longer term, the immigration rate will depend on political factors.
- The focus on professionals will skew the average migrant's wealth and income upwards. So whilst there'll be fewer arriving, those that will should be richer.