Australian Capital Territory Updates Skilled Immigration Lists

Could IT professionals lose out in migration changes in ACT?

The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) has revealed its sponsorship criteria for workers wanting to emigrate to the ACT. The changes will have repercussions on Australian immigration for that area as some migrants choose to look towards other states for work.

Each state or territory of Australia have their own skilled occupations in demand lists according to the particular needs of that area. So whereas Western Australia’s critical skills in demand have focused largely on mining and engineering professions, The ACT has traditionally focused on white collar work such as business analysts and IT professionals.

However now the ACT are taking four of those occupations off the list and will not be considering any more sponsorship applications for them after 1 April 2010.Those occupations are:

• Business and Organisation Analyst
• Marketing and Advertising Professional
• Designer and Illustrator
• Teacher VET (Vocational Teacher)

As well as taking those occupations off their critical skills list, the ACT Immigration Department will also be limiting all applications for sponsorship from Welfare Associate Professionals.

The ACT sponsorship guidelines now state that the Australian Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) will allow unlimited sponsorship from what it calls ‘baseline lists’. These are lists of occupations that have been identified as being in demand in that particular state by the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR). However in the recent changes a number of occupations have now been taken off that baseline list and added to the quota list instead.

The quota list names occupations that are not deemed as crucial to that territory and are therefore issued with a quota of 500 sponsorships per year. Once the ACT has received 500 sponsorship applications that that occupation is deemed close until the next year.

Those occupations are:

• Systems Manager
• Systems Designer
• Software Designer
• Applications and Analyst Programmer
• Systems Programmer
• Computer Systems Auditor
• Accountant and Accountant – External Auditor
• Hairdresser

If you want to know whether or not the quota has been filled for one of these professions then you must contact the ACT government before you lodge your application. Any applications received after the quota limit has been reached will be refused, so to save yourself time and money, do make sure you check beforehand.

If contacting the ACT by letter or email ensure that you attach your current CV and state clearly what your nominated occupation is. If you have taken an IELTS also ensure that you include your results. For more information on ACT state sponsorship guidelines visit the ACT skilled migration site.

For other state sponsorship lists visit our section on Australian state sponsorship. For all updated Australia immigration news don’t forget to add us to your favourites and visit every day to find out what’s new in Australia. Our lively online forum is also on hand to chat and debate about relevant topics. So go on, embrace Australia today!

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