New skills list to be announced in may 2010

[lambfamily]

I agree with you on the service issue. We lodged skills assessment and the person assessing must have been on meds or something because despite all the evidence provided and certificates she said my husband wasn't a skilled apprentice trained engineer. Only after collating 3 more pieces of paper that were references from previous employers did the outcome then come out as ok! How can that be when the evidence is in front of them plus our pockets were somewhat lighter. On top of that, the visa was lodged and granted on 31 Dec 09 but they never told us! Reckoned they'd emailed it to us but it never got to us. Only after us making an expensive phone call to Aus did the person retrieve the data and email the letter! That was six weeks after granting and in that time we lost our house sale and were back to square one again! Appalling service that is funded by the applicant (not a bad thing cos then they know you're at least serious) but the whole system is fraught with problems. Just watch out people for emailed visa info cos the chap said it could end up in junk or spam! Not what anyone wants when they're waiting for a result.

[Guest pogo]

why they announce new date only on 30th April. They could announce earlier in April.

But they did not because they are still in mood to fool applicants.

 

Do they know May has 31 days!

[natmark]

I'm not sure if I'm being naive or stupid but I would have thought that if you have already lodged or about to lodge your visa application before 1st July then your application would be valid as you met the criteria at the time of lodgement? The new SOL would then only affect the people who lodge after the 1st July, right?

So, if this is the case then why are people who have already lodged getting annoyed? My husband and I are spending all our time getting things ready so we can submit before the 1st July so as to avoid the new SOL completely.

I understand that the new SOL may change the order of priority for the visas currently lodged so it may take longer to deal with applications.

[Guest GemandJay]

NatMark

 

Hi, my thinking is that if for instance if 'Carpenter' is on the new SOL list then we may get the green light sooner than we've been told. At he moment we have been advised that no trades not on the current CSL list will be processed until end of 2012! Maybe if we are on this new list we may shoot up from Cat 5 to Cat 2?????

[Guest woodwood24]

NatMark

 

Hi, my thinking is that if for instance if 'Carpenter' is on the new SOL list then we may get the green light sooner than we've been told. At he moment we have been advised that no trades not on the current CSL list will be processed until end of 2012! Maybe if we are on this new list we may shoot up from Cat 5 to Cat 2?????

I got up frist thing hoping Carpenter was on the new sol, a bit disappointed not out yet. But if we are not on it when it comes out I still have hi hopes of being on the WA SMP which they say is coming out in June.At the moment I cant see anything happening until after July. So it looks like another cold winter on site.Was going to put the house on the market this summer,may have to wait till next year.

[Guest Gollywobbler]

I'm not sure if I'm being naive or stupid but I would have thought that if you have already lodged or about to lodge your visa application before 1st July then your application would be valid as you met the criteria at the time of lodgement? The new SOL would then only affect the people who lodge after the 1st July, right?

So, if this is the case then why are people who have already lodged getting annoyed? My husband and I are spending all our time getting things ready so we can submit before the 1st July so as to avoid the new SOL completely.

I understand that the new SOL may change the order of priority for the visas currently lodged so it may take longer to deal with applications.

 

Hi natmark

 

How far along the line are you, please?

 

I have a feelng that they might publish the new SOL on or around Monday 17th May and that when it is published, it will become effective immediately.

 

I do NOT know this for sure. I am merely reading between the lines and my attempts at being Sherlock Gollywobbler could be completely mistaken.

 

I am suspicious of the wording that DIAC have used in their announcement. Their exact words are:

The Government is considering the report from Skills Australia containing their Skilled Occupation List. An announcement and publication of the new Skilled Occupation List for Migration purposes will be made in May.

 

Originally they said that there would be a new SOL but that there would be a period of grace before it came into effect. It would come into effect in "mid-2010," so they said. DIAC have never been specific about when "mid-2010" might be.

 

Everybody has assumed that the new SOL would not become effective until at least 1st July 2010 because that is the start of the new financial year in Oz. There is no particular reason for the Minister to want to be generous by allowing any sort of a period of transition.

 

DIAC have chosen a weird time to "restructure" the GSM visa program. Apparently the re-structuring of the ASPC will have been completed by 3rd May 2010. Why then? Why not make the "restructuring" take effect on the same date as the new SOL takes effect?

 

South Australia have dropped what might be a hint. They say that they must receive State sponsorship applications on the basis of the current SOL by no later than Friday 14th May 2010. They will close their on-line applications system after that. When the system re-opens it will only accept applications for State sponsorship that are based on the new SOL.

 

DIAC are fully aware that they have received a surge of new GSM applications since the latest round of changes were announced on 8th Feb 2010. Everybody is trying to beat the introduction of the new SOL in case the nominated occupation is not on the new SOL. This surge in new applications shows zero desire or intention on the part of the would-be migrants to help the Minister for Immi to cut the backlog of GSM applications. Why encourage that surge to become any worse by permitting a transitional period between the publication of the new SOL and the new SOL taking effect?

 

Just my thoughts.....

 

Cheers

 

Gill

[Guest woodwood24]

Hi natmark

 

How far along the line are you, please?

 

I have a feelng that they might publish the new SOL on or around Monday 17th May and that when it is published, it will become effective immediately.

 

I do NOT know this for sure. I am merely reading between the lines and my attempts at being Sherlock Gollywobbler could be completely mistaken.

 

I am suspicious of the wording that DIAC have used in their announcement. Their exact words are:

 

Originally they said that there would be a new SOL but that there would be a period of grace before it came into effect. It would come into effect in "mid-2010," so they said. DIAC have never been specific about when "mid-2010" might be.

 

Everybody has assumed that the new SOL would not become effective until at least 1st July 2010 because that is the start of the new financial year in Oz. There is no particular reason for the Minister to want to be generous by allowing any sort of a period of transition.

 

DIAC have chosen a weird time to "restructure" the GSM visa program. Apparently the re-structuring of the ASPC will have been completed by 3rd May 2010. Why then? Why not make the "restructuring" take effect on the same date as the new SOL takes effect?

 

South Australia have dropped what might be a hint. They say that they must receive State sponsorship applications on the basis of the current SOL by no later than Friday 14th May 2010. They will close their on-line applications system after that. When the system re-opens it will only accept applications for State sponsorship that are based on the new SOL.

 

DIAC are fully aware that they have received a surge of new GSM applications since the latest round of changes were announced on 8th Feb 2010. Everybody is trying to beat the introduction of the new SOL in case the nominated occupation is not on the new SOL. This surge in new applications shows zero desire or intention on the part of the would-be migrants to help the Minister for Immi to cut the backlog of GSM applications. Why encourage that surge to become any worse by permitting a transitional period between the publication of the new SOL and the new SOL taking effect?

 

Just my thoughts.....

 

Cheers

 

Gill

I think you could be right that sounds very logical. But the diac are not logical. Maybe it was a friday thing and they all when down the the pub and thought they would leave it till next week.

[matjones]

At he moment we have been advised that no trades not on the current CSL list will be processed until end of 2012! Maybe if we are on this new list we may shoot up from Cat 5 to Cat 2?????

 

Moving from Priority 5 to Priority 2 has nothing to do with the new SOL. It will be dependent on your occupation being added to the State Migration Plan for your state.

[surhythms]

Hi natmark

 

How far along the line are you, please?

 

I have a feelng that they might publish the new SOL on or around Monday 17th May and that when it is published, it will become effective immediately.

 

I do NOT know this for sure. I am merely reading between the lines and my attempts at being Sherlock Gollywobbler could be completely mistaken.

 

I am suspicious of the wording that DIAC have used in their announcement. Their exact words are:

 

Originally they said that there would be a new SOL but that there would be a period of grace before it came into effect. It would come into effect in "mid-2010," so they said. DIAC have never been specific about when "mid-2010" might be.

 

Everybody has assumed that the new SOL would not become effective until at least 1st July 2010 because that is the start of the new financial year in Oz. There is no particular reason for the Minister to want to be generous by allowing any sort of a period of transition.

 

DIAC have chosen a weird time to "restructure" the GSM visa program. Apparently the re-structuring of the ASPC will have been completed by 3rd May 2010. Why then? Why not make the "restructuring" take effect on the same date as the new SOL takes effect?

 

South Australia have dropped what might be a hint. They say that they must receive State sponsorship applications on the basis of the current SOL by no later than Friday 14th May 2010. They will close their on-line applications system after that. When the system re-opens it will only accept applications for State sponsorship that are based on the new SOL.

 

DIAC are fully aware that they have received a surge of new GSM applications since the latest round of changes were announced on 8th Feb 2010. Everybody is trying to beat the introduction of the new SOL in case the nominated occupation is not on the new SOL. This surge in new applications shows zero desire or intention on the part of the would-be migrants to help the Minister for Immi to cut the backlog of GSM applications. Why encourage that surge to become any worse by permitting a transitional period between the publication of the new SOL and the new SOL taking effect?

 

Just my thoughts.....

 

Cheers

 

Gill

 

 

Hi Gill

 

Im quite afraid that you may be right about them releasing the new SOL and it having immediate effect. We are still waiting for SS to be granted by the ACT - its been 8.5 weeks now and our agent said that it would take 8-10 weeks which will bring us up to the 10th of May. It gives us precisely 1 week to lodge our application with the DIAC IF your predictions are right. If they are correct why are SA telling people to get their SS apps in by 15th May - surely they would realise that it would not give people time to lodge with the DIAC unless they have done so already. I thought you couldnt lodge your visa app until your SS was approved.

 

Kind worried now

 

Suzanne

[natmark]

Gollywobbler

 

We are applying for a 176 Family Sponsored Visa. Our agent has submitted our application to Vetassess and it has been with them for about 5 weeks now. Hopefully in a couple of weeks we will have a positive response.

I am also due to sit my IELTS next Saturday (8th May). The rest of our application is nearly ready to go pending our Vetassess result.

 

Would the DIAC really implement something this important straight away without a grace period to the beginning of the next financial year? If so, then a lot of people would be up the proverbial creek without a paddle - myself included.

[Ozzieland]

Hi Gill

 

Im quite afraid that you may be right about them releasing the new SOL and it having immediate effect. We are still waiting for SS to be granted by the ACT - its been 8.5 weeks now and our agent said that it would take 8-10 weeks which will bring us up to the 10th of May. It gives us precisely 1 week to lodge our application with the DIAC IF your predictions are right. If they are correct why are SA telling people to get their SS apps in by 15th May - surely they would realise that it would not give people time to lodge with the DIAC unless they have done so already. I thought you couldnt lodge your visa app until your SS was approved.

 

Kind worried now

 

Suzanne

 

Hi Suzanne... this is ACT's processing timeline. You should know where you stand.

 

· 176 Applications

High priority: 1 April 2010

Normal priority: 15 February 2010

Low priority: 11 January 2010

[surhythms]

Hi Suzanne... this is ACT's processing timeline. You should know where you stand.

 

· 176 Applications

High priority: 1 April 2010

Normal priority: 15 February 2010

Low priority: 11 January 2010

 

 

Thanks ozzieland - Yeah we are normal priority and they were processing app for 15th as of 8th April. That was 3 weeks ago so should hear real soon - Im really hoping we can get our app in ASAP otherwise we are rightly STUCK in Ireland.

[Guest Gollywobbler]

Gollywobbler

 

We are applying for a 176 Family Sponsored Visa. Our agent has submitted our application to Vetassess and it has been with them for about 5 weeks now. Hopefully in a couple of weeks we will have a positive response.

I am also due to sit my IELTS next Saturday (8th May). The rest of our application is nearly ready to go pending our Vetassess result.

 

Would the DIAC really implement something this important straight away without a grace period to the beginning of the next financial year? If so, then a lot of people would be up the proverbial creek without a paddle - myself included.

 

Hi natmark

 

I stress that I do not know what DIAC and the Minister are up to. I am merely guessing like everyone else.

 

In your case, what is the main visa applicant's nominated occupation, please? I am wondering why you have opted for the Family sponsored route rather than the State sponsored route?

 

If you have chosen the family sponsored route because the occupation is something like Project or Program Administrator (the description of which can only be described as 'vague' in the ASCO Code) then I think that this occupation and others like it are likely to get the chop in the new SOL.

 

However where the main occupation is a specialist one - eg IT Expert in Oracle or a trades skill like Bricklayer, my suspicion is that these occupations will be on the new SOL. State sponsorship might not be a viable route because your rellies might live in a different State from the one(s) willing to consider sponsoring the person concerned.

 

Could you tell me more about your situation, please?

 

Cheers

 

Gill

[natmark]

Gollywobbler

 

You are right - my nominated occupation is Project Administrator, which is unbelieveably vague. However most of the job description in the ASCO code can be related to my job. It was determined that it was best to go for this as I also have a degree qualification. My actual job title is Project Designer within the energy industry. I do not have a degree in Engineering so cannot nominate an occupation that would require assessing by Engineers Australia. Luckily my job does include alot paperwork and costing, and not alot of hands on work.

Unfortunately I'm not sure that I can apply for state sponsorship under my nominated occupation. My family are in Sydney so ideally this is where we want to go.

[Guest Gollywobbler]

Gollywobbler

 

You are right - my nominated occupation is Project Administrator, which is unbelieveably vague. However most of the job description in the ASCO code can be related to my job. It was determined that it was best to go for this as I also have a degree qualification. My actual job title is Project Designer within the energy industry. I do not have a degree in Engineering so cannot nominate an occupation that would require assessing by Engineers Australia. Luckily my job does include alot paperwork and costing, and not alot of hands on work.

Unfortunately I'm not sure that I can apply for state sponsorship under my nominated occupation. My family are in Sydney so ideally this is where we want to go.

 

Hi natmark

 

Thanks for the above. At least we now know exactly where you stand.

 

My actual job title is Project Designer within the energy industry.

I suspect that there is quite a big market for people like you within the Energy industry in Oz. One of the problems for you, I reckon, is that the SOL has been based on the ASCO Code, which is more than 15 years old now. ASCO is old, outmoded and obsolete. Project Administrator was the nearest that ASCO could provide for a lot of the people whom the energy industry in Oz (amongst others) have been saying that they need to recruit. They might be able to get the purely theoretically-trained and recently qualified people locally but they sure as hell can't recruit anything like enough people with genuine experience of the type that you have from within the local workforce. The only short term solution to that is continued immigration for the time being, I reckon.

 

Plus the occupation itself has become corrupted by prospective visa applicants and those advising them. You can say that the boy who delivers and collects the mail round an office is a Project or Program Administrator if you try hard enough, after all. The occupation only needed an AQF Diploma according to ASCO, which Orion Training in Brisbane chipped out on-line to hundreds of people at a comparitively low cost and for very little effort by the people concerned.

 

Orion Training: Home of Orion Training - Experts in Training for Business and Financial Services

 

I don't regard this sort of method of "working the system" as being an exploitation of it by the allegedly unscrupulous. The Government is always the gamekeeper in this type of game. Lawyers and migration agents are poachers by temperament. The estate is the country concerned. If the gamekeeper does not like what the poachers are up to, it is up to the gamekeeper to alter the rules - the law. I'm not the moral or other guardian of what a sovereign Government might choose to do, after all.

 

I think what has been happening in Oz is that the Minister for Immi has bitten the bullet on this one. I have never opposed him on the principles - the big issues. However I do criticise him for the fact that there has been no need whatsoever to devise and implement the details as crudely and as clumsily as he has been doing it.

 

His methods are inelegant, disorganised, scruffy and they tend to come unstuck as a result - as the antics today over the new SOL have demonstrated. As far as he personally is concerned, he has no credibility left in my eyes. His Government does not have much either. Second rate brains with second rate ideas, executed in clumsy, crude, over-hasty ways that a banana republic might admire but nobody else would, it seems to me. Knee-jerk reactions instead of properly devised solutions does at least indicate that their reflexes work OK, I suppose, except that they don't keep their brains in their knee-caps as far as I know.

 

A few years ago the Aussies decided not to try to write a new ASCO Code for themselves and by themselves. (The UK has a similar document called the SOC - Skilled Occupations Classification. I assume that the UK drivel is shared with other countries in Europe - it would make sense to have an EU-wide one, but I don't know the details of the UK document. ) The Aussies and Kiwis decided to club together and to produce the new ANZSCO between them. It is below:

 

1220.0 - ANZSCO - Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations, First Edition, Revision 1=

 

I've never made any effort to study the details of ANZSCO. In theory at any rate, it ought to describe your occupation in greater detail and with greater precision and accuracy than the half-hearted, tired old Project and Program Administrator thing out of the old ASCO Code.

 

Please have a look through ANZSCO. You know the details of what you and others like you do for a living, what sort of academic qualifications are genuinely useful for the job and so on. You must be in ANZSCO somewhere. The thing cost zillions of bucks to produce so it ought to be accurate and comprehensive, it seems to me.

 

Please paste the link to what you reckon you are under the ANZSCO description.

 

If the Aussies are ever going to adopt ANZSCO for their Immi programme, now is the logical time to do it. Whilst the Minister is keen to alter the philosophy of the old SOL, now is the time to incorporate the new ANZSCO into the new philosophy in my view. Which will be a helluva task for someone to do. Getting it right is likely to take at least 24 months, not a measly 12 weeks or however long it has been since 8th Feb 2010.

 

According to the Minister, his new philosophy is roughly as follows:

 

1. Australia is stuffed with Aussies whose English is poor to say the least. Even where English is the language that they have used since they were infants, they use a version of pidgin English called Strine according to Afferbeck Lauder - who was right about this!

 

2. Many of these same Strine-speaking Aussies also have minimal skills. Personally I think that over-educating the masses is a major mistake. Somebody has to do the low-paid jobs. The Civil Service in the UK is stuffed with youngsters who have minimal brains, minimal skills and minimal English - but they all have Degrees. The Degree is a highly prized kwalifikashun these days, I gather. (Notwithstanding that the young twits with the degrees often can't spell qualification except phonetically.) Personally I think that Eddikashun has been dumbed down to such an extent that it is pointless to try to dumb it up again via these ludicrous Degrees. The kids should learn the 3 Rs properly instead if you ask my reactionary self.

 

3. Nonetheless, I think that Australia is busily falling into precisely the same traps as the UK has already fallen into. Why would a young Aussie with a Degree agree to clean the public dunnies in downtown Perth? The short answer is that he won't. He's far too grand for a menial job such as cleaning the loos - especially when he can claim the dole and spend all day surfing the waves by day and the internet by night instead. I think it is a huge error by the Government, but there we are.

 

4. The Minister is yapping vaguely that he wants the Immigration program to recruit something called "high value skills" from overseas. Really? What is a "high value skill?" He hasn't said so I've no idea what one of these skills might look like. However I wouldn't think it is rocket science to work out that you don't do what you do for £12K GBP a year - roughly the Minimum Wage in the UK - and I can see that there would be a genuine need for you in the Energy Industry, so I assume that yours must be one of these "high value skills."

 

I think that there will be bloodshed before the situation becomes real again, frankly, both in the UK and in Oz. Historically, Europe has sorted this sort of nonsense out via a few good Wars. World Wars have proved to be especially useful for the purpose. God knows whether we are headed for another one. Shrub seemed to think that it might be a good idea..... (Shrub was George Bush - so called because he did not have anything like the brains or breeding of his father, who was a genuine statesman.)

 

It grieves me when I see Australia making exactly the same mistakes as the UK has already made, in the same ways and for the same reasons. Australia is a young country. It has a chance to avoid all the mistakes.

 

How old are you, natmark? I think it is possible that the new SOL will be so crude - based on such moronic assumptions - that it is possible that you might lose out in the short term. However I don't think that Australia will lower the GSM age of 45 for GSM visa applications, and I don't think that GSM visas are the visas of the future either.

 

I think that if the new SOL is too crude and too stupid (both of which I confidently expect that the first draft of the thing has proven to be) Industry in Australia is actually run by people with both brains and political brawn. People like Wal King, for example:

 

Leighton Holdings | Australia's largest project development and contracting group

 

The Wall Street journal repeats every syllable that he utters. I mentioned his name at the meeting in London last year. David Wilden of DIAC seemed to be very interested that Mr King had made an important statement that Mr Wilden did not seem to know about at the time. (The Aussies working for DIAC were too busy with worrying about the Boat People and Christmas Island at the time, apparently. Mr Wilden said that he was receiving about 30 press cuttings per day about the Boat People. The cuttings were reaching him from Australia, apparently. He said that it was major news in Australia which was upsetting the public in Oz and keeping the Minister for Immi busy. 5 phlegmatic Brits took zero notice, I regret to say. We've been there, done that and got the tee-shirt. Humanitarian stream people simply aren't a huge topic in the UK and I wondered what the Aussies are fussing about with that one, to be honest.)

 

Cheers

 

Gill

[Guest GemandJay]

Moving from Priority 5 to Priority 2 has nothing to do with the new SOL. It will be dependent on your occupation being added to the State Migration Plan for your state.

 

Thanks for your reply I am a tad confused by the whole situation (not that that is too difficult!) My way of thinking was that the new SOL is replacing the CSL so at the moment if your job is on the CSL then you are a higher priority, so surely the new SOL could be a good thing if your proffession is on it, or am I on the wrong track?

 

:confused:

[natmark]

Gill

 

Thank you for your lengthy reply.

 

I am currently 29 years old (hitting the dreaded 30 in September so going to Walt Disney World to make myself feel young again!!)

 

I have had a look at the ANZSCO listings. It seems that my job is a mixture of two:

 

312311 ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING DRAFTSPERSON

1220.0 - ANZSCO - Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations, First Edition, Revision 1

 

511112 PROGRAM OR PROJECT ADMINISTRATOR

1220.0 - ANZSCO - Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations, First Edition, Revision 1

 

As I mentioned before, my degree is not related to my current job. My degree is a BA Hons (Combined) in English, and Sport, Recreation and Physical Education. I was internally promoted within the Company I currently work for (a major French energy company in the UK) so all my training has been on the job. I have been in this role for just over 4 years.

The reason I did not pursue the first job role was that I was led to believe that I would need to be assessed by Engineers Australia, and would require a degree in Electrical Engineering, which I don't have. I'm assuming that this is still the case.

 

Natalie

[Guest Gollywobbler]

Thanks for your reply I am a tad confused by the whole situation (not that that is too difficult!) My way of thinking was that the new SOL is replacing the CSL so at the moment if your job is on the CSL then you are a higher priority, so surely the new SOL could be a good thing if your proffession is on it, or am I on the wrong track?

 

:confused:

 

Hiya

 

If we could see the new SOL, your query could be answered for certain.

 

The new SOL is supposed to replace the existing SOL. Australia does need to attract several people in several different occupations. At the moment, for example, the need for Bricklayers probably isn't critical because there are Bricklayers in Oz and the construction industry is still fairly quiet at the moment. Nonetheless, Australia only has a relatively small population who are of working age, spread out in a land-mass which is enormous. Many of the Brickies in Oz will be retiring before long and so forth.

 

So the need to replace them with new, immigrant Brickies is not critical at the moment but there is a definite need to start recruiting the mmigrant Brickies all the same.

 

I think that the occupations which are on the current CSL will move across into several of the new State Migration Plans. My impression is that this is how it is likely to work, with visa processing priorities being re-arranged in order to suit once the new SMPs are published.

 

Hence I reckon that Matjones is right.

 

Sight of the new SOL would give certainty, though, and waiting until the day of its promised publication in order to announce a delay in producing the new SOL simply makes the Minister for Immi look like a disorgansed, bungling prat if you ask me!

 

Cheers

 

Gill

[Guest karan sandhu]

hi gill

 

well i just saw that u wrote that new SOL may come around 17th may and will take immediate effect ..... but i still rememmber that DIAC seminar which was posted by george lombard and in that DIAC said that new SOL cannot be implemented before 18th june... i just keeping my fingers crossed and hope that is true. what you think about it ? yea i know one more theng that DIAC can do anything they want so nothing is impossible for then and JUST DO IT. but whatever u writes gill i always take it seriously and now i again gonna have few sleepless nights. anyways

thanks

Karan

[Guest Gollywobbler]

hi gill

 

well i just saw that u wrote that new SOL may come around 17th may and will take immediate effect ..... but i still rememmber that DIAC seminar which was posted by george lombard and in that DIAC said that new SOL cannot be implemented before 18th june... i just keeping my fingers crossed and hope that is true. what you think about it ? yea i know one more theng that DIAC can do anything they want so nothing is impossible for then and JUST DO IT. but whatever u writes gill i always take it seriously and now i again gonna have few sleepless nights. anyways

thanks

Karan

 

Hi Karan

 

I stressed that my own theory is nothing more than pure speculation on my part and it should NOT be taken as anything other than the pure guess that it is.

 

I am aware that senior DIAC officers claimed that there would be all sorts of technical problems with making the new SOL become "live" on their website prior to 18th June 2010. They might well have been telling the truth at the time. No doubt the visa experts got their information from the boss of DIAC's IT Department.

 

I know nothing about computers, websites etc so I questioned Matjones closely at the time, since he knows about IT. What would happen if the Minister for Immi simply ordered DIAC to fix the "technical problems" with its IT system so that the new SOL could go onto the website and have immediate effect on the day when the Minister orders DIAC that this should happen? After all, Modern Man invented the computer and he invented everything that IT systems can now do. Therefore surely he can fix a few "technical problems" with an IT system as well and he can do it quickly if he tries?

 

Matjones said that the limiting factor is always cost. Apparently it costs a huge amount to make an IT system work in a way that it might not be designed for at present. I can see Matt's point. You can get external consultants to write special software that will overcome present "technical problems" but it would be very expensive to do it. Also DIAC wouldn't want to risk any sensitive information making its way into the public domain, whereas their own IT boys would keep quiet about any changes that they were asked to make to the system.

 

However the Minister for Immi is very headstrong and Kevin Rudd supports the idea of cutting the Immigration program to the bone for the next year or two. If the Aussie Government makes the money available in order to alter DIAC's computer system quickly, I am not convinced that "technical problems" cannot be overcome, though I am a typical user of commercial IT systems. I haven't a clue how they work but I assume that they can do anything I want them to do and that they can do it by 9am the next day. I get cheesed off if I am told that they can't.

 

Matjones says that major alterations would be much more expensive to make than I realise and that they would probably take longer to make than I realise as well. I am content to run with his advice on that because he knows what he is talking about with IT, whereas I am the clot who phones the IT Helpdesk if the machine on my own desk doesn't seem to be working properly. (Indeed, I assumed that my laptop at home had developed a major software fault the other week when it wouldn't boot up. Several days later I worked out that although the machine would not respond to its remote mouse, it seemed to work OK when I pressed the buttons on the machine itself. I bought a new mouse in case that was the problem and the machine has worked perfectly ever since....)

 

And my own speculation about what the Minister might be up to is just that - pure speculation and guesswork.

 

We will find out what is really going on at DIAC's HQ in the fullness of time, hun.

 

Cheers

 

Gill

[Guest Caitmelbourne]

Is it really helpful to make speculations like this, that the new SOL could take effect immidiately?

 

I for one have taken that on board & if it does become the case, I am screwed. But if it doesn't, my panic has increased unnecessarily. This whole process is bad enough without even more 'what ifs'

[Guest Jonathanz]

Is it really helpful to make speculations like this, that the new SOL could take effect immidiately?

 

I for one have taken that on board & if it does become the case, I am screwed. But if it doesn't, my panic has increased unnecessarily. This whole process is bad enough without even more 'what ifs'

 

Dear Waterkitty,

 

I understand your feelings as I am anxious about the coming changes as well. However, I think here Gill simply presents her opinions and suggests people to lodge applications ASAP. And her warnings (or speculations) DO make sense, I feel.

 

I wish the changes will be in your favour.

 

Regards,

[Guest Gollywobbler]

Dear Waterkitty,

 

I understand your feelings as I am anxious about the coming changes as well. However, I think here Gill simply presents her opinions and suggests people to lodge applications ASAP. And her warnings (or speculations) DO make sense, I feel.

 

I wish the changes will be in your favour.

 

Regards,

 

 

Hi Waterkitty

 

I do understand how you feel, hun, and I hate the present uncertainty as much as everyone else does.

 

However I am seeing migration agents cosily telling people that those people have "until 1st July 2010." There is no evidence to prove this proposition. It is merely what the migration agents believe that they have been led to believe - by a Government which has proven that it specialises in the double-bluff game.

 

Is their drafting really so hopeless that they have not managed to identify the year in which the new SOL is now supposed to be published? They have said "May." They have left everybody else to make assumptions about which year this "May" might be in.

 

The only hard evidence that I have seen is the announcement from South Australia...

 

Cheers

 

Gill

[claireg]

Hi all, would be grateful if someone could give me some advice please.

 

IF the new SOL does come into effect 17th May as speculated about in this thread, this could leave us high and dry as we are also waiting on ACT SS which we hope to get around mid May but we could be too late by then.

 

On other threads we have seen that Agents are advising to LODGE asap and we were initially going to lodge 176 Family sponsored then switch to SS but, when we lodged our ACT SS approx 6 weeks ago our Agent advised us to wait for this before lodging our Visa App.

 

Am now wondering after reading this thread, should we ask our agent (who has all of our Visa app docs ready and waiting) to immediately lodge a 176 Family sponsored visa and we switch to SS in about a month?

 

Or, can we just lodge a 176 SS and sit in a pool until SS comes through?

 

Grateful for any advice as getting a little worried now.

 

Thank you

Claire

[matjones]

Thanks for your reply I am a tad confused by the whole situation (not that that is too difficult!) My way of thinking was that the new SOL is replacing the CSL so at the moment if your job is on the CSL then you are a higher priority, so surely the new SOL could be a good thing if your proffession is on it, or am I on the wrong track?

 

:confused:

 

Take a look at the following, Question 2:

 

http://www.immi.gov.au/skilled/general-skilled-migration/pdf/priority-processing.pdf

 

Priority 2 is just the SMP stuff, all CSL, SOL is processed AFTER the SMP. My guess is that one the new SOL is released, they will modify the wording of Priorities 3-7, but 1 & 2 should remain the same.