DIAC Re-Organise Australian Immigration Program

Skilled workers are still favoured by Australian immigration.

The Australian Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) have announced a re-organisation of the department that comes just weeks before the unveiling of the new Skilled Occupation List.

Both the Adelaide and Brisbane General Skilled Migration sites are to undergo changes that the DIAC claim will improve customer services and make communication between visa applicants and their case officers easier.

The re-structuring of the Adelaide site will begin on Monday 3 May and will be managed by Ms Elizabeth Kerrish who will also be the manager for the Brisbane site. Meanwhile the General Skilled Migration program will be overseen by Mr Greg Kelly who is currently Global Manager for Skilled and Family Visas.

DIAC say that both sites continue to give priority processing to applicants with an occupation on the Critical Skills List before this is replaced by the Skilled Occupations List due out at the end of this month.

South Australia are also announcing changes ahead of the release of the SOL. The Skilled Occupation List is due to be implemented mid 2010 – the exact date is yet to be announced. Those wishing to apply for Australian visas whose occupations are not on the SOL are advised to lodge all applications with the DIAC before the implementation of the SOL.

South Australia have put forward guidelines to help those applicants who want to lodge their visa applications before the SOL is enforced. Therefore if you wish to receive state sponsorship from South Australia you are advised to do the following:

• Lodge your application with supporting documents before 14 May 2010.
• All applications will be processed on a first come first served basis.
• If an occupation is subject to capping, then once the levels have reached all subsequent applications will be disregarded no matter when that application was lodged.
• Applications received after 14 May 2010 will be placed in a queue for processing under the SOL unless the occupation applied for has already reached its limit.
• Assessing times for sponsorship applications after the 14 May 2010 are estimated to be around 4 – 8 weeks.

Other states have yet to announce their plans to manage the transition to the new SOL. We’ll have full details of the SOL and what it means to future Australian visa applicants once the list is released by the DIAC.

In the meantime there is a full discussion of the changes within DIAC on our online forum so why not join in now and have your say?

Other related articles:

• Australian Immigration Policy Changes Begins - Planned changes to Australian visa immigration policy begin....
• DIAC Making Australian Immigration Tougher - DIAC tightens English language rules and is criticised for capping...
• DIAC Announce Priority Processing Changes to Visas - DIAC in Australian immigration visa changes to priority processing....
• Confusion Continues Over Australian Immigration Program - Chefs dropped from the SOL and states suspend GSM applications...

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