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Business skills reaches the limit
Business skills applicants who are still waiting for their visas to be processed are likely to have to wait until after 1st July 2009 before they find out whether their application has been approved or not.
According to Australian migration agency Go Matilda, the Business Skills programme is close to its planned total of awarded visas for the 2008/09 migration year (7,000), meaning that the grant of any more onshore or offshore business visas are unlikely until the start of the 2009/10 migration year.
The agency also states that the Department of Immigration and Citizenship could look into increasing the thresholds for business skills applicants in the near future. There is a worry within the Department that too many businesses are being set up, that although meet the current requirements, do little to create jobs within Australia.
If any changes are to be made, it is likely they will be announced before the start of July, along with any amendments to the intake target. As with skills visas, though, expect to see a lower number of migrants being targeted, at least until the ongoing economic crisis is over.