Getting hold of an Australian visa is a tough business!
Amid the confusion of the past couple of days, we take an in-depth look at the new Australian immigration changes and find out what they really mean for you.
If you are an overseas student already studying in Australia and you hold a skilled graduate visa then you will not be affected by the changes and should still be able to apply for permanent residency.  Likewise if your application was already in progress before the changes were announced. If you have yet to apply for your visa then you have until the end of 2012 to apply for a temporary skilled graduate visa, after which the DIAC state that you will be given 18 months from the end of your course to try and gain work experience and find an Australian employer willing to sponsor you. If you are thinking of applying to study in Australia, you now need to carefully consider your options.
Also the requirements for English language tests have changed. If you wish to embark on a study for a vocational course you must now score a minimum of 6.0 on each module of the IELTS course instead of the previous 5.0.
So for students, those affected by the changes include skilled graduates who are applying for or hold a subclass 85 visa and wish to apply for a permanent or temporary General Skilled Migration visa, also those in higher and postgraduate education. New student visa applicants from 8 February 2010 will also be affected.
Not all general skilled migration visa applications lodged before September 2007 will be cancelled, but the Australian Immigration Minister, Senator Chris Evans, has said that the number of those visas to be processed will now be capped and the rest will be cancelled and the fees returned to the applicant. This is thought to affect around 20,000 Australian visa applicants. If you are worried that yours might now be cancelled, we can only advise that you speak to your case officer, if you have one, or migration agent.
Australian visa applicants who have their applications pending between the end of September 2007 and the 8th February 2010 will not be affected by the changes made. So if your occupation was on the now scrapped MODL, don’t worry, your visa will be processed but it will not be eligible for priority processing unless you have an occupation on both the MODL AND the CSL. If you apply for residency before the end of December 2012 then your MODL points will also still be awarded to you.
Those wishing to apply for a GSM visa still are free to do so, but they are advised to try and obtain as many points as possible – an explanation of the Australian points system is here – by perhaps getting state sponsorship if your occupation is included in the state migration plan. However this could be difficult as there are currently no state migration plans – and it is not expected at this early stage that any will be lodged and approved by the Minister for at least the next few months, the only way to get State Sponsorship at the moment is to obtain sponsorship for an occupation on current sponsorship lists.
The MODL has been scrapped as from the 8th February 2010 but the Critical Skills List (CSL) will remain in place until the middle of the year. It will be gradually phased out when the new Skilled Occupations List (SOL) becomes effective – this will be viewable by mid-April.  Because the changes will be gradual, new applicants with occupations on the CSL are encouraged to apply as normal.
If you have any further questions relating to the changes then our online community may be able to help you. If you are considering applying to study or work in Australia then have a look at our Australian visa guides which give you all the information you need about choosing the best visa option for you.
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4 Responses to “Australian Immigration Visa Changes Explained”
Comment by matiur — February 11, 2010 @ 1:29 am
beautiful
Comment by Neil coker — February 11, 2010 @ 7:22 am
It is a good idea to have people who are high professionals applying for residecy in Austalia as they are more likely to work in their area of expertise when they get their residency.A lot of students come to Australia and study courses such as cookery,hairdressing, motor mechanics etc. just do these courses to get Austalian residency and do not continue to work in the field they have studied in,which is of no benefit to Australia as it is not fulfilling the shortages in these areas. Some of the advertising campaigns in the coutries where these students originate from are also questionable I have heard being of a very oppurtunist nature encouraging students to come Australia for the wrong reasons maybe of a monetary nature.Some of these students can earn for two hours work in for example Safeway what they would earn for a whole weeks work in their country of origin so the advatages of a student coming to Austalia and working here are immense, best wishes Neil
Comment by atul — February 12, 2010 @ 12:22 am
i realy understand
Comment by Allan — November 22, 2010 @ 2:15 am
Yea, i am really happy to hear so. thats the fair and the right thing to do. I have received my PR like early this year. but i always felt unsecure prior to that due to people trying to take advantage of the system by doing some cheap cookery course. while i paid 2-3 times their fees to do accounting degree when i was intially accountant with years of experience. now i work for one of the big 4 since i came here to really study and i am towards completing CA.