The Department of Home Affairs has released the invitation September 2020 round for Skilled Independent visa (subclass 189) and Skilled Work Regional (Provisional) visa (subclass 491).

Early in October 2020, the Federal Budget was announced, along with various changes to partner visas for the 2020-21 migration program year.

On 16 October 2020, Move to South Australia has announced that South Australia 2020/2021 skilled & Business Migration Program will have further updates in late November 2020. There may be further update in terms of skilled migration with new occupation lists & updated criteria & Business migration with updated criteria. An exact date is not known at the moment.  

The migration planning level was released with the Federal Budget and the Global Talent Independent Visa was the big winner of the visa subclasses.

On 06 October 2020, Australian government has handed down the federal budget 2020 which is to recover the Australian economy.  2020/2021 migration planning level has also been released shortly after the federal budget announcement.  

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Highlights

• Australia’s net Migration remain the same
• Global Talent Independent Program (GTI) allocations have been tripled
• Business Innovation and Investment Program (BIIP) allocations have been doubled

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Click the following blog for the information about the most recent changes annouced: 2020/2021 Migration Latest Updates

Tonight, the federal government will provide more details to allocate funding towards services and programs for the country for 2020 -2021 financial year.

The Federal budget 2020 will deliver an economic recovery plan in which Australian migration will be a key component.

Highlights

• Australian government will announce the Federal Budget 2020 tonight

• Migration program planning levels will be announced tonight

• Australian states & territories General Skilled Migration (GSM) will open soon

Business & Skilled Migration Queensland Australia (BSMQ) has announced it will temporarily open statement nomination program (BSMQ business and skilled program) from Tuesday 29 September 2020 until Monday 5 October 2020.

BSMQ indicates the following:  

• They will only pick up NEW EOIs lodged from Tuesday 29 September 2020.
• The invitation will be closed if all supporting documents have not been uploaded in 24 hours.

The Australian immigration department has recently offered COVID-19 concessions to international students for Subclass 485 Temporary Graduate. During COVID-19 pandemic, many visa applicants and international students have been adversely affected by circumstances beyond their control, including Border closures, stand-downs and disruptions to courses.

The COVID-19 concessions are designed to ensure provisional and temporary visa holders are not disadvantaged by circumstances beyond their control during COVID-19 Pandemic, including Border closures, restrictions imposed on businesses and the general economic downturn related to COVID-19.

Here are the results of the 2 most recent SkillSelect invitation rounds in July and August 2020. Chris Johnston comments on the likely future of the subclass 189 and 491 (family-sponsored) visas in the coming months.