Vetassess seem to offer a way round the SOL for GSM applicants.
The Australian Department of Immigration and Citizenship has announced that the new Skilled Occupation List will now fully replace the CSL as expected, on the 1st July 2010.
The DIAC have suggested that applicants for affected Australian visas apply before midnight on 30th June if they have occupations on the old list. As the DIAC is highly likely to be flooded with applicants trying to beat the July deadline, we recommend that applicants do this as soon as possible.
However in another twist the VETASSESS people have announced on their site that skills assessments for occupations in the Australian Standard Classification of Occupations will continue to be accepted for the purposes of migration from the 1st of July so long as the application was received before this date. The ASCO list can be found on the DIAC website.
VETASSESS works with the General Skilled Migration Program to assess the skills of people wishing to migrate to Australia from the UK, India, Sri Lanka, South Africa or the Philippines. Applicants from other countries can choose to ‘opt in’ to the VETASSESS service.
The skills assessment can then be used to support an application to emigrate to Australia under the GSM program, Employer Nomination Scheme or state sponsorship scheme. Skills assessments can also support other visa applications. More information can be found on the VETASSESS website.
Some Australian visa applicants have cleverly deduced that the announcement by VETASSESS may mean that although some GSM visas are suspended until 1st July when the new SOL comes into effect, if you apply for a skills assessment with VETASSESS before the 1st of July you can, in theory, still apply for a GSM visa under the old scheme.
This is a topic widely being discussed amongst Australian visa applicants on popular migration forums such as Poms in Oz and in our own online community. We would welcome feedback and thoughts from those affected by the changes.
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