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

The Western Australia (WA) state government has announced the following with regards to the state migration services:

• An interim Western Australian skilled migration occupation list (WASMOL) is now in place for all new state sponsorship/nomination applications
• The Regional Certification Body (RCB) applications for subclass 187 Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme (RSMS) visa nominations are now open for regional WA and excludes Perth
• All applications submitted before the suspension on 13 March 2017 will be processed according to criteria and policy effective at that time

More on the changes below.

The newly elected Premier of Western Australia (WA) has moved to remove WA from the subclass 187 Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme (RSMS) visa programme. On Friday the 17 of March 2017, Mark McGowan MP submitted a letter to the Australian Prime Minister with the following:

"I would like to request that Perth be removed from the Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme (RSMS)."