Visas & Advice Detail
Addressing Australian anxieties
Tommy Druce, a registered Australian migration agent, calms fears about the Oz immigration department shutting its doors
Everyone asks the same question these days: "Are the doors still open, everyone says that they are taking no more migrants?"
No, that is not so, because Australia has not been as badly affected as the UK and Europe by the global recession.
The Australian government has, in response to this crisis - which has to an extent affected our employment levels, made certain changes to our migration programme.
The changes are in respect to the number of places for skilled migrants and to those occupations that were in high demand, which included the business visa categories for which programming has been suspended until our next financial year begins in July 2009.
In other words, the processing priorities have been changed.
In recent economic booming years, the demand for employees was so high in Australia that certain priority measures were implemented to process visas for these skilled people. Now, though, the government has reverted to the old processing measures of around five years ago. It has also passed on sponsorship authority to the states and territories of Australia based on their individual skill shortages.
The unemployment level in Australia is currently running at around 6 per cent, that means that around 94 per cent of workers are employed, the housing sector is still booming and there is an upturn in demand. Whilst the delay in processing will be of concern to those who have lodged their applications based on old processing times, it could be an advantage to new applicants in the future who need to sell their homes raise the capital and complete their commitments.
Other advantages are the savings in lower cost airfares, allowing prospective migrants to come over and visit the particular state or territory they may be interested in before making their decision.
For further info: Pacific Global