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THE SKILLS OCCUPANCY LIST 2010

The Australian Government has recently announced changes to the General Skilled Migration Program which may drastically affect your permanent residency in Australia.

The new Skilled Occupation List (SOL) will come into force on 1 July 2010. It will be a demand-driven list, aimed at delivering longer-term economic value for the country and highly skilled migrants. Already, the new SOL has had a significant impact on international students immigrating to Australia and their future career options. If you were made an offer for a vocationally oriented course in Australia this year, you will have to check whether the resulting occupation arising out of that course has been included in the new SOL.

You may have read a number of articles highlighting the exclusion of ‘cooks’ and ‘hairdressers’ on the new SOL. Yet there are many other occupations that have also been wiped out. Occupations such as journalists, interior decorators and hotel managers, which supposedly require higher-level skills, are no longer on the SOL.

Although international students may still apply for permanent residency under the separate Employer Nomination Scheme Occupation List (ENSOL), they must have an employer in Australia who would be willing to sponsor them over a period of three years. Please note that if you have already made a valid application for a permanent General Skilled Migration visa and are later nominated by an employer under the Employer Nomination Scheme, you may be eligible to lodge a ‘fee-free visa application’ to the Department of Immigration.

Those students who have met all the GSM visa requirements and who lodged an application before 1 July 2010 have been given time till 31 December 2012 to complete their studies and apply for PR or skilled — graduation (temporary) (subclass 485) provisional visa. However, for those who wish apply for a GSM visa on or after the 1^st of July 2010, the message is clear: you can either stay in your home country or pick an alternative route to gain permanent residency in Australia.

If you wish to study in Australia and the course you intend to enrol in does not amount to an occupation on the new SOL list, you would be encouraged to find an employer who would be willing to sponsor you. Some students may consider moving to Canada or New Zealand and may be re-compensated for their Australian immigration application fees. There is also a fear among government officials that some students may be encouraged to stay in Australia ‘illegally’, a drastic step with very serious consequences.

Please note: Any pending General Skilled Migration visa applications lodged before 1 July 2010, would not be affected by this change.

Further to this, the non-inclusion of ‘mathematicians’ and ‘statisticians’ in the new SOL has sparked a degree of lobbying by various professors and teachers in Australia, to the extent that such actions may lead to a further policy change to the new SOL.  Yet up until this stage, there is a great level of uncertainty as to what changes may occur, if any. On all occasions, international students would strongly be advised to stay up-to-date with the latest news on immigration advancements via the various communication mediums, particularly the immigration website http://www.immi.gov.au/.

Not only do the changes to the SOL list negatively impact on current international students and their eligibility for a General Skilled Migration Visa, it also alters the commercial position of various private colleges who have tapped into the Australian market. Demand for various TAFE and private college courses will eventually fall and this will negatively impact on the strategic position of several other ‘short course’ education providers. It is also projected that the recent policy changes will shift demand towards courses in teaching, engineering, information technology, nursing, medicine and accounting, suggesting an alternative path to focus on for the private colleges.

Whether you are a director of a private college or simply an international student, please feel free to contact the Migration team at Berrigan Doube Lawyers for a free consultation in relation to the new policy changes.