BKate

For anyone who's interested noticed this press release on the immigration website today. Don't know if any of it is 'new' news or not!

http://www.immi.gov.au/media_release...a04/d04025.htm

lauralollipop

sounds good, just after I have filled out for the skilled sponsored!!!

But where is Regional Australia, does anyone know?? You might end up in the bush?? But still its better than here!!

laura

arf

Hi friends,
I was just a little bit excited with the new type skilled visa. I read the bulletin by DIMIA, but there was no enough information on it. anyone to know what this program is like? how to apply and costs involved? there's nothing clear to me on this subject.
good luck friends!

Richard_Gregan

Regional Australia is currently everywhere in Australia excluding;

downtown - Sydney, Brisbane and Perth and a few other areas of NSW.

Whether they will keep it at this is anyones guess - Melbourne could be added to the list on Non-Regional areas it has been speculated.

SuperSeagulls

And I see they are still being coy about saying how many points will be needed for this visa....

SS

Jaj

If you can meet the skilled sponsored pass mark then you don't need to
worry about this visa.

Unlike skilled sponsored this visa gives temporary residence for 2-3
years. There are numerous disadvantages from this, not least a delay in
qualifying for citizenship.

Sounds like you need a good agent to explain things to you.

Jeremy


lauralollipop wrote:
    > Originally posted by BKate
    >
    >>For anyone who's interested
    >
    > noticed this press release on the immigration website today. Don't know
    > if any of it is 'new' news or not!
    >
    > http://www.immi.gov.au/media_release...a04/d04025.htm
    >
    >
    >
    > sounds good, just after I have filled out for the skilled
    > sponsored!!!
    >
    > But where is Regional Australia, does anyone know?? You
    > might end up in the bush?? But still its better than here!!
    >
    > laura
    >
    >

wmoore

Does being a temporary resident not count towards the 2 years for citizenship then??
More info from DIMIA would be nice, the press release is vague to say the least.

bondipom

No it does not.

wmoore

Minor point in the scheme of things I suppose. I have to get there yet!

Steven O'Neil

I would not be so sure that these requirements will be the actual criteria. It says these are the 'minimum' requirements. I expect that the various State governments who will be involved in the process will each have their own state by state criteria to be met.

It may be that they ask for investment in that area, maybe that you live in certain regions only, maybe even selected occupations only.

The point is that DIMIA is very much now prepared to go into relationships with the various state governments to ensure that each state is happy with the migration program. This would avoid adverse publicity for potential migrants created by for example the NSW state Premier who is generally against high numbers going to his state.

I know in WA the State government sponsoring body take their role very seriously and I think it may be still a little time before they say what their 'extra' criteria will be in addition to what is the ministerial release.

Regards

Steven O'Neil
Perth
www.iscah.com

Jaj

Steven

Steven O'Neil wrote:
    > I would not be so sure that these requirements will be the actual
    > criteria. It says these are the 'minimum' requirements. I expect that
    > the various State governments who will be involved in the process will
    > each have their own state by state criteria to be met.

Are we sure there will be involvement from State governments?
After all the STNI scheme may well continue to exist.

A requirement for state involvement may kill the whole thing stone dead,
as many states/territories up to now haven't lifted a finger to get
involved in STNI, and those that have done have got mostly 60 point
occupations on their shortage lists (meaning that many of their
potential applicants could get to the pass mark anyway).

Having said that, it may be that the criteria imposed by DIMIA on the
numbers of STNI visas that states can sponsor for, and how they can
decide on sponsorship, are too inflexible.

    >
    > It may be that
    > they ask for investment in that area, maybe that you live in certain
    > regions only, maybe even selected occupations only.

One major factor that will influence how useful this regional visa is
will be whether visa holders will be free to move to a *different*
designated area, if they wish to. For example, between Hobart and
Darwin, or vice versa.



    >
    > The point is that
    > DIMIA is very much now prepared to go into relationships with the
    > various state governments to ensure that each state is happy with the
    > migration program.


Yes - but do the states have the inclination to get involved in general
skilled migration at all. On current evidence at least 5 out of 8 don't.

It's different with business skills as they all seem to have business
development departments.

    >This would avoid adverse publicity for potential
    > migrants created by for example the NSW state Premier who is generally
    > against high numbers going to his state.

He's actually moans about migration to Sydney rather than the state in
general, but there is much more to NSW than Sydney (with very different
needs).

However, although the rest of NSW could well do with some targeted
migration initiatives, there's little evidence that its special needs
are taken into account by the current state government. For example,
children of temporary residents have to pay school fees (almost AUD5k
per child per year) and while this may he justifiable in Sydney, it's
hard to see why anyone should choose to live in regional NSW under these
conditions, as opposed to in a regional part of another state without
this policy.


    > I know in WA the State
    > government sponsoring body take their role very seriously and I think it
    > may be still a little time before they say what their 'extra' criteria
    > will be in addition to what is the ministerial release.


If state criteria are involved, they may not be in existence by 1 July.
The new business visas were introduced on 1 March 2003 without
criteria from all states, some of which took many months to come up with
sponsorship guidelines.

The real problem with the skilled system currently - IMO - is the
onshore graduate PR system, which seems to have mushroomed beyond what
it was ever intended to be, and where hard questions need to be asked
about the real-world employability of many of those getting PR this way.
Australian qualifications and 60 point skill assessments notwithstanding.

Jeremy