Both the Victorian and Queensland Governments have announced that they are no longer accepting new Skilled Nominated Visa (Subclass 190) or Skilled Regional (Provisional) Visa (Subclass 489) nomination applications due to a high volume of applications in the system causing a backlog.

Also, in South Australia (SA) there will be changes to General Skilled Migration (GSM) requirements and Regional Certifying Body (RCB) advice applications for the Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme (RSMS) Subclass 187 visa - Direct Entry stream.

Key terms: Subclass 190 Skilled Nominated visa – Subclass 489 Skilled Regional Sponsored visa – State Sponsorship – State Nomination – Occupation Lists

State sponsorship is a critical component of the Australian visa application for many. Having a state nominated visa application provides:

• an immediate Invitation to Apply (ITA) for the subclass 190 Skilled Nominated and subclass 489 Skilled Regional Sponsored visas, i.e. not subject to invitation round points requirements
• access to additional occupations on the Short-term Skilled Occupation List (STSOL) - each Australian State and Territory creates their own list from the STSOL)

Typically there are limited places for each occupation being sponsored by the different States and Territories. The best time to apply is in early July (NOW) as the planning numbers are reset for the new financial year.

Key terms: Migration Policy Changes – Online system outages – 1 July Changes – Western Australia State Migration – State Sponsorship – Subclass 190 Skilled Nominated visa – Subclass 489 Skilled Regional Sponsored visa – Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme (RSMS) – Australian citizenship

ImmiAccount System Outage on 30 June 2017

The Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP) has announced that the ImmiAccount system will not be available from the following times:

New South Wales, Victoria, ACT, Queensland

9pm AEST Friday 30 June until 1pm Saturday 1 July 2017

South Australia, Northern Territory

8.30pm ACST Friday 30 June until 12.30pm Saturday 1 July 2017

Western Australia

7pm AWST Friday 30 June until 11am Saturday 1 July 2017

If you are thinking about submitting an online visa application you will need to do so before the times above.

Key terms: Queensland State Sponsorship – Subclass 190 Skilled Nominated Visa – Subclass 489 Skilled Regional Sponsored Visa – General Skilled Migration

The Queensland state migration department – Business & Skilled Migration Queensland (BSMQ) has suspended all applications for state nomination/sponsorship on 10 April 2017. The suspension affects state sponsorship applications for:

·         subclass 190 Skilled Nominated visas

·         subclass 489 Skilled Regional Sponsored visas (sponsored by Australian State/Territory)

While most other state and territory migration agencies will finalised applications already lodged, BSMQ will freeze and not process all unfinalised applications until the new programme year on 1 July 2017. The BSMQ announcement reads:

Key terms: South Australia State Sponsorship – Chain Migration – High Points Nomination - Supplementary Skill List – Subclass 190 Skilled Nominated Visa – Subclass 489 Skilled Regional Sponsored Visa

Immigration South Australia (SA) has announced changes to its state sponsorship programme effective yesterday, 5^th April 2017. Two major changes were announced and the details are below.

Change to High Points Requirement

Immigration SA allows access to the Supplementary Skill List of occupations if a SkillSelect applicant is able to meet the high points requirement on the points test. Starting from yesterday the high points requirements has been increase from 80 to 85 points. Applicants will now need to seek additional 5 points to nominate occupations on the Supplementary Skill List or special condition occupations.

Occupations no longer eligible for High Points or Chain Migration Nomination