Using a Migration Agent - Latest Statistics

[Alan Collett]

http://www.immi.gov.au/media/statistics/pdf/migration-agent-stats-oct-dec-2009.pdf

 

Might be of interest to some.

 

Best regards.

[McKlaut]

Thanks Alan. Interesting figures.

Is 485 skill graduate off-shore or on-shore visa? It gives the highest number of applicants among general skilled.

Also the Oct-dec 09 quota gave DIAC 36340 new visa applicants for general skilled migration. If we multiply this figure by 4 we'll get about 145000 new visa applicants per year. Whereas today only about 60000 places available for this category. Am I right?

If 476 - 887 visas are on-shore with the majority applied after Aus study then more than 60% of this 145000 is made by graduated students because of that link "education-PR".

Aus government should blame and punish themselves for that awfull situation not MIGRANTS!

[Guest Gollywobbler]

Hi McKlaut

 

The value of the figures that Alan has published only one calendar quarter's worth of have never been clear.

 

The remainder of the quarterly Migration Agent statistics are here:

 

Statistics - Publications, Research & Statistics

 

I suspect that you might have to go through the whole of 2009 before the figures would make sense.

 

The GSM visas comprise the following subclasses:

 

175, 176 and 475 with offshore visas

885. 886 and 487 with onshore visas

 

At the moment the Migration Program Statistics reveal that about 60,000 GSM visas were planned by the Minister and DIAC for the 2009/2010 Program Year:

 

Migration Program Statistics - Statistics - Publications, Research & Statistics

 

The Minister has made it clear that the total number of skilled PR visas for 2009/2010 will not exceed 108,100 in total and it might yet go down from that figure. Also, ideally the Minister wants to see more than 35,000 employer sponsored PR visas at the expense of fewer GSM visas this year and in future years.

 

We also know that the 2009/2010 figures have been distorted to some extent. During the period 1st July 2009 to 23rd September 2009 inclusive, State sponsored applications were in Cat 2, whether the occupation involved was on the CSL or not, and huge numbers of these Cat 2 visas were granted before the Minister shifted the goalposts yet again on 23rd September 2009.

 

The period (1/07/2009 t0 23/09/2009) might only have been about 12 weeks. However there are 50 COs at the ASPC alone and they are expected to finalise about 30 applications per week each. I don't know how many COs are at the BSPC in Brisbane or how many onshore visas each of them is expected to finalise each week.

 

My instinct is that a lot of the 60,000 GSM visas had been granted before the end of the half year on 31st December 2009, though. When we met with Mr Wilden in London in November, all of the Poms in Oz team realised that we needed to know the total of the 108,100 skilled visas which had been granted to to and including 30th November 2009. We didn't ask him for the details of the 60,000 alone.

 

Mr Wilden was understanding about why we needed this figure and said that he would obtain it from Canberra. Just before Christmas 2009 Mr Wilden wropte to me again and as you can see from the attached Notes, he now refuses to produce the figures. God knows why Canberra refuse to release the figure but they clearly do refuse to release it.

 

With the 3,500 Cat 5 applications in hand at the end of November 2009 (ie those in Cat 5 from 23rd September 2009) Mr Wilden has said all along that by the time all the Cats 1-4 are finalised within the 108,100, he does not think that there will be enough visas left over to enable DIAC to finalise all of the Cat 5s before 30th June 2010.

 

For the moment DIAC insist that they are "focussing" on the Cat 5 applications where a CO has said that the application is completely readly to finalise and a CO has requested tjhe pccs and meds. You and I both know that a huge amount is emerging concerniing external and internal checks for Cat 5 applicants from several HR countries and from at least one LR country to my knowledge.

 

According to the Minister in December 2008, there was to be no discrimination between the HR and LR applicants and for a while the Minister's insistence on that did seem to work. Since then I don't know whether the Minister has changed his mind about this as well or whether DIAC have crept back into their own Bad Old Ways but the various checks do seem to take forever and nobody does anything about hurrying them up except for applicants in Cats 1-4 inclusive as far as I can see.

 

If the applicant is in Cat 5 and the meds and pccs have been frontloaded, that seems to be OK as well as long as a CO has said that the application is completely "decision ready" and can be finalised.

 

Alan Collett of Go Matilda makes much of the fact that his own case management system tells the Go Matilda team when an application is completely "decision ready" as far as Alan and his team are concerned. In that situation, if it is a GSM application, Alan uses the RMA only e-mail address for the ASPC in order to hurry things up. He says that this works and usually produces visa grants fairly swiftly.

 

Other RMAs seem to be content to let matters dawdle along to judge from the complaints that I receive from their clients and these other RMAs seem to be reluctant to use the RMA only e-mail address. Some of them refuse to talk to their clients at all. I've suggested to the clients in those cases that they should make it clear to the RMA that unless there is some professionalism from him/her promptly, the applicant will sack the RMA and at the same time the applicant will complain to the OMARA about slipshod, unprofessional 'service' from the RMA concerned. If I were the clients, I'd do it and teach some of the RMAs a lesson that they won't forget. If Alan Collett can act like a professional man then the rest can as well in my view.

 

Going back to Alan's original post in which he produces only one quarter's worth of statistics, Alan has not said what those stats are intended to prove. No-one has ever known what that set of stats is actually for. DIAC presumably know what they are for because DIAC produce them but they do not say what they are for on their own web-pages so your guess is as good as mine!

 

Cheers

 

Gill