The Australian Department of Immigration – DIAC – has made a number of important changes to the skilled visa system in the last 18 months. These changes (see previous posts) have had an impact on the way a visa application is treated with priority for the purposes of processing times.
In light of this, the Minister for Immigration has just released the latest update with respect to priority processing, which takes into account the latest 1 July changes to the Migration Regulations and law:
1. First to be processed will be Applications from people who are employer sponsored under the ENS and the RSMS.
2. Second to be processed will be Applications from people who are nominated by a state/territory under new state or territory’s state migration plans (these have yet to be released).
3. Applications from people who have nominated an occupation on the new Skilled Occupation List – SOL – Schedule 3.
4. All other applications are to be processed in the order in which they are received.
These visa subclasses are NOT effected by priority processing:
• Skilled – Recognised Graduate subclass 476 Visas
• Skilled – Graduate subclass 485 Visas
• Skilled – Designated Area – Sponsored (Residence) subclass 883 Visas
• Skilled – Regional subclass 887 Visas.
More information on the changes to the GSM program is available from the departmental website by following these links:
New Skilled Occupations List ist (SOL)
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