State Migration Plans - ACT and Victoria Going Live Together?

[George Lombard]

Having seen how the Victorian SMP is constructed, and considering what gossip is available about the ACT's SMP, the following considerations come to mind:

 

a) Victoria has picked up very few Schedule 4 only occupations in its SMP. There are some 200 occupations in Schedule 4 which are not in Schedule 3, and at first blush I think they're only sponsoring about 20 of those Schedule 4 occupations. Although it's impossible to know how this will be handled until the Memorandum of Understanding between Victoria and the Commonwealth is released, it does seem that there will be a lot of Schedule 4 applicants already sponsored by Victoria whose priority will not be changed by this announcement.

 

b) Victoria has signalled that it will consider cooks, pastrycooks, welders and airconditioning and refrigeration mechanics in the future, but that quotas for those occupations are full at the moment.

 

c) Almost all offshore applicant IT people holding a pre-July 2010 skills assessment in IT will be eligible to apply for Victorian sponsorship, particularly if assessed in the specified former MODL skills. One new IT specialisation is GIS. Existing sponsorships in most IT occupations except Data Warehousing will also be included in the SMP.

 

d) The ACT list is most likely going to be longer than Victoria's but with higher English and work experience requirements; given that they will only have 1700 places I would imagine it will fill up very quickly.

 

e) Hard to believe any other state will have more places to fill than Victoria - it's going to be a tight squeeze to get SA, WA and Queensland in on that kind of quota.

 

f) Doesn't seem to be much hope in this list for subclass 475 applicants with more diverse occupations, a lot of them will remain in Priority 4.

 

g) Most existing decision ready checklist applications have until Wednesday to be allocated since as soon as the SMPs come into effect those cases take priority in Brisbane - but as the ACT doesn't sponsor many onshore graduates, relatively speaking, and given the narrow list of occupations which Victoria is now sponsoring, there's still hope that some decision ready checklist applications will continue to be allocated in the Brisbane Skilled Processing Centre. A lot will depend on whether other states come in with their SMPs at the same time.

 

 

Cheers,

 

George Lombard

[rebejes3]

Hi George

 

Thanks for the opinion, Why do you think it wouldn’t be much hope for 475 applicants?? Could you please brief about it

[musmanasghar]

Having seen how the Victorian SMP is constructed, and considering what gossip is available about the ACT's SMP, the following considerations come to mind:

 

a) Victoria has picked up very few Schedule 4 only occupations in its SMP. There are some 200 occupations in Schedule 4 which are not in Schedule 3, and at first blush I think they're only sponsoring about 20 of those Schedule 4 occupations. Although it's impossible to know how this will be handled until the Memorandum of Understanding between Victoria and the Commonwealth is released, it does seem that there will be a lot of Schedule 4 applicants already sponsored by Victoria whose priority will not be changed by this announcement.

 

b) Victoria has signalled that it will consider cooks, pastrycooks, welders and airconditioning and refrigeration mechanics in the future, but that quotas for those occupations are full at the moment.

 

c) Almost all offshore applicant IT people holding a pre-July 2010 skills assessment in IT will be eligible to apply for Victorian sponsorship, particularly if assessed in the specified former MODL skills. One new IT specialisation is GIS. Existing sponsorships in most IT occupations except Data Warehousing will also be included in the SMP.

 

d) The ACT list is most likely going to be longer than Victoria's but with higher English and work experience requirements; given that they will only have 1700 places I would imagine it will fill up very quickly.

 

e) Hard to believe any other state will have more places to fill than Victoria - it's going to be a tight squeeze to get SA, WA and Queensland in on that kind of quota.

 

f) Doesn't seem to be much hope in this list for subclass 475 applicants with more diverse occupations, a lot of them will remain in Priority 4.

 

g) Most existing decision ready checklist applications have until Wednesday to be allocated since as soon as the SMPs come into effect those cases take priority in Brisbane - but as the ACT doesn't sponsor many onshore graduates, relatively speaking, and given the narrow list of occupations which Victoria is now sponsoring, there's still hope that some decision ready checklist applications will continue to be allocated in the Brisbane Skilled Processing Centre. A lot will depend on whether other states come in with their SMPs at the same time.

 

 

Cheers,

 

George Lombard

 

Thanks for this analysis George.... always to the point and helpful ... only one question please

 

1- As you know some us (already ACT SS applicants) have got reconfirmation email from ACT, what you think after reading below mentioned email that .... we will be in SMP or not? ... just a rough idea>>

 

Hi ******

Thank you for reconfirming your Commitment to Canberra.

We have accepted your reconfirmation and are happy to hear you still have a strong commitment to Canberra and look forward to living in our wonderful city.

Once our State Migration Plan (SMP) is finalised (hopefully in November) the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) will process your visa application under priority 2. This means your visa might be granted more quickly and we will hopefully be able to welcome you to Canberra soon. Don’t worry, we will let you know as soon as the SMP is signed off. It will be a cause of celebration for all.

Once you have had your visa granted by DIAC, please let us know by emailing a copy of your visa grant letter and if you know, your expected arrival date in Canberra. We will then send you valuable information, including access to our new Settlement website, the Canberra Information Portal, which you will find useful to prepare for your move to Canberra.

As you might know, we offer a settlement service upon arrival here in Canberra in order to make your move and integration as easy as possible. We know what a big step this is for you and that moving countries can be quite daunting and overwhelming. But remember: we are here to help!

We are looking forward to welcoming you to Canberra soon. We are sure you will enjoy living in our beautiful city and being a part of our multicultural, friendly and unique society.

All the best and good luck with your visa grant.

[Alan Collett]

Hmmm. VIC has 4,500 visas available under their SMP. Some of those will already be in priority category 3.

 

The same pertains to all the other States and Territories.

 

The total program for Skilled State Sponsored applications for 2010/11 is 23,000.

 

The total program for Skilled Independent for 2010/11 is 35,200.

 

Assuming all in cat 3 move into cat 2 if they are State/Territory Sponsored (as you say, George, there are likely to be few occupations on the SMPs that are not in priority category 3) I reckon we must see some movement in the cat 4s as we get closer to the end of the program year - otherwise where are the 35,200 Skilled Independents going to come from?

 

Again, I'm happy to be put right if I'm missing something ...

 

Planning Levels for 2010/11 are here: Migration Program Statistics - Statistics - Publications, Research and Statistics

 

Best regards.

[SHANO7]

So much for those with SS but not Schedule 3 being allowed on SMP. Nice of them to wait 5 montsh to tell people

[SHANO7]

Hmmm. VIC has 4,500 visas available under their SMP. Some of those will already be in priority category 3.

 

The same pertains to all the other States and Territories.

 

The total program for Skilled State Sponsored applications for 2010/11 is 23,000.

 

The total program for Skilled Independent for 2010/11 is 35,200.

 

Assuming all in cat 3 move into cat 2 if they are State/Territory Sponsored (as you say, George, there are likely to be few occupations on the SMPs that are not in priority category 3) I reckon we must see some movement in the cat 4s as we get closer to the end of the program year - otherwise where are the 35,200 Skilled Independents going to come from?

 

Again, I'm happy to be put right if I'm missing something ...

 

Planning Levels for 2010/11 are here: Migration Program Statistics - Statistics - Publications, Research and Statistics

 

Best regards.

 

Hi Alan

 

We had lodged 175 skilled Independant and then converted to 176 sponsored when wife received SS from WA as a Hairdresser.

 

What will happen ? Will we be considered under 175 independant if not considered under 176 sponsored as they are in the same subclass.

 

Like you poined out the figure for Skilled independat has to be reached somehow.

 

Any help would be great.

 

Shane

[mlsdq]

is it possible that they include those occupations from pending previous SS holders before sept 23 changes in the SMP but tagged as closed for reaching its quota for the program year so that there will be no incoming applicants for those occupation but only to lift the existing SS holders to cat 2 to clear the backlog? If SMP is likely to be revised every program year, obviously those closed occupations will be removed since there's no shortgae and no more nacklogs to be considered.

[FamilyGuys]

Thanks for your reflections George and Alan.

 

Can you clarify where the family sponsored applicants stand? You talk about quotas for State sponsored and Independent visas. Do these include family sponsored?

 

We are Cat 3 but, although my job is on the Vic SMP, I don't fulfil all the requirements at present. Not sure if I could switch to state sponsorship in a year or so once I had the work experience (I'm already over 45)? Or maybe they will have got round to me in Cat 3 by then?!

 

Thanks for any advice.

[mlsdq]

sorry about my typos, im using my mobile. I just hope they will really move all existing SS applicants to cat 2

[SHANO7]

is it possible that they include those occupations from pending previous SS holders before sept 23 changes in the SMP but tagged as closed for reaching its quota for the program year so that there will be no incoming applicants for those occupation but only to lift the existing SS holders to cat 2 to clear the backlog? If SMP is likely to be revised every program year, obviously those closed occupations will be removed since there's no shortgae and no more nacklogs to be considered.

 

Hi mlsdq

 

The Idea is good but Surely the cut off should be 1st of July 2010 when the SMPS should have been released or Feb 8th when the main changes took effect.

 

Again it begs the question shouldnt people that lodged prior to changes be allowed fair treatment.

Shane

[Guest Gollywobbler]

Hi George

Although it's impossible to know how this will be handled until the Memorandum of Understanding between Victoria and the Commonwealth is released,

 

Do you reckon it is likely that either DIAC or the State Government will release the MoUs voluntarily, please?

 

If they won't hand them over voluntarily, will it be possible to use the FOIA in order to force their production, do you think?

 

I'm not sure what is possible when a Government has entered into an MoU that contains gagging clauses, hence my curiousity.

 

Many thanks :notworthy:

 

Gill

[Waitingawhile]

I am now even more confused-how are some people going to be awarded the 475 visas if they cant get state sponsorship and which also carries 10 points? This inherently means that unless there is a new way of allocating points then those at the older end of the spectrum are going to be even more disadvantaged than before despite the wealth of skills and knowledge they can bring. The old way of having a 2 tier state sponsorship list of occupations that attract allocation of permanent visas and those that attract provisional visas with 10 points allocated to each seems to be potentially changing or am I very wrong?

 

Also in the Victoria lists details it states :All applicants for sponsorship under the Skilled – Regional

Sponsored (475 and 487) visa must have an offer of employment in

regional Victoria in their nominated occupation.

 

Is this new? I Thought the 475 was an independent temporary visa linked to state sponsorship and not linked to an employment offer!!!!!

[Guest zaske]

Hmmm. VIC has 4,500 visas available under their SMP. Some of those will already be in priority category 3.

 

The same pertains to all the other States and Territories.

 

The total program for Skilled State Sponsored applications for 2010/11 is 23,000.

 

The total program for Skilled Independent for 2010/11 is 35,200.

 

Assuming all in cat 3 move into cat 2 if they are State/Territory Sponsored (as you say, George, there are likely to be few occupations on the SMPs that are not in priority category 3) I reckon we must see some movement in the cat 4s as we get closer to the end of the program year - otherwise where are the 35,200 Skilled Independents going to come from?

 

Again, I'm happy to be put right if I'm missing something ...

 

Planning Levels for 2010/11 are here: Migration Program Statistics - Statistics - Publications, Research and Statistics

 

Best regards.

 

Alan, maybe I'm wrong here (not a migration agent) but I can give you my example - I am cat 3, and lodged 175 request on Sept. 2010 -I did not want to wait for SMPs as I did not know if my profession (Developer programmer) will be in them - I know that now, when my profession is on Victoria's SMP I should have probably waited, but I did not want to take that chance. I know about more people in my condition, and yes, I know that we won't get the grants this year, but I guess there are others like me, who filed 175 requests in the past, and not sure or don't want to commit to a certain state or territory (personally, i would have been willing to commit to VIC or any other state, but did not want to wait for SMP).

[Alan Collett]

Thanks for your reflections George and Alan.

 

Can you clarify where the family sponsored applicants stand? You talk about quotas for State sponsored and Independent visas. Do these include family sponsored?

 

We are Cat 3 but, although my job is on the Vic SMP, I don't fulfil all the requirements at present. Not sure if I could switch to state sponsorship in a year or so once I had the work experience (I'm already over 45)? Or maybe they will have got round to me in Cat 3 by then?!

 

Thanks for any advice.

 

There is a quota for Skilled Australian Sponsored - have a look at the link in my posting.

 

Best regards.

[Guest Lankan1]

Having seen how the Victorian SMP is constructed, and considering what gossip is available about the ACT's SMP, the following considerations come to mind:

 

a) Victoria has picked up very few Schedule 4 only occupations in its SMP. There are some 200 occupations in Schedule 4 which are not in Schedule 3, and at first blush I think they're only sponsoring about 20 of those Schedule 4 occupations. Although it's impossible to know how this will be handled until the Memorandum of Understanding between Victoria and the Commonwealth is released, it does seem that there will be a lot of Schedule 4 applicants already sponsored by Victoria whose priority will not be changed by this announcement.

 

b) Victoria has signalled that it will consider cooks, pastrycooks, welders and airconditioning and refrigeration mechanics in the future, but that quotas for those occupations are full at the moment.

 

c) Almost all offshore applicant IT people holding a pre-July 2010 skills assessment in IT will be eligible to apply for Victorian sponsorship, particularly if assessed in the specified former MODL skills. One new IT specialisation is GIS. Existing sponsorships in most IT occupations except Data Warehousing will also be included in the SMP.

 

d) The ACT list is most likely going to be longer than Victoria's but with higher English and work experience requirements; given that they will only have 1700 places I would imagine it will fill up very quickly.

 

e) Hard to believe any other state will have more places to fill than Victoria - it's going to be a tight squeeze to get SA, WA and Queensland in on that kind of quota.

 

f) Doesn't seem to be much hope in this list for subclass 475 applicants with more diverse occupations, a lot of them will remain in Priority 4.

 

g) Most existing decision ready checklist applications have until Wednesday to be allocated since as soon as the SMPs come into effect those cases take priority in Brisbane - but as the ACT doesn't sponsor many onshore graduates, relatively speaking, and given the narrow list of occupations which Victoria is now sponsoring, there's still hope that some decision ready checklist applications will continue to be allocated in the Brisbane Skilled Processing Centre. A lot will depend on whether other states come in with their SMPs at the same time.

 

 

Cheers,

 

George Lombard

 

Hi

 

Please somebody give me some light on bellow :hug:

 

Any indication about the proof of funds requirement for Victoria, and any other special IELTS requirement for a 261399 (J2EE) ICT applicants.

 

Regards

[FamilyGuys]

There is a quota for Skilled Australian Sponsored - have a look at the link in my posting.

 

Best regards.

 

Thank you Alan,

 

That means that there is only a slim chance of us getting a visa/ CO this year as the family sponsored quota is so low. I hope we will automatically be transferred over to the next year (although who knows how many fam spons places they will allocate in 2011/2012). Do you know if we can apply for SS as I'm already 45?

 

Best regards.

[George Lombard]

South Australia has today removed another group of occupations from their list for application for sponsorship, see General skilled migration :: Make The Move .

 

That makes 10 occupations they've removed from their interim list now. This is certainly how it's going to operate in practice from now on, for all states.

 

The four latest removed occupations for South Australia are:

 

 

 

• 323112 - Aircraft Maintenance Engineer (Mechanical)
  
• 233611 - Mining Engineer (excluding Petroleum)
  
• 341112 - Electrician (Special Class)
  
• 233213- Quantity Surveyor
  

 

 

And answering other enquiries on this thread:

 

@ Lankan - no I didn't see any English requirement above the GSM threshhold for you, ie 6.0 x 4. Financial requirements don't seem to vary between occupations.

@ Zaske - yes I think many applicants didn't see the point in waiting and I'm sure that the various states will find it hard to manage the volume of applications they receive, as well as avoiding oversubscription issues which might even delay your application if the Department treats SMP applications for Schedule 3 occupations as having to wait for SMP processing places - who knows how they'll manage their queues now.

@Rocki - yes it sounds as though Victoria is tightening the 475 procedure but the critical issue for 475ers is going to be what South Australia does.

@Gill - classical freedom of information procedures allow governments to claim an exemption if another government is involved, which of course in this case would be fatuous. Hopefully the MOUs need to be put on the register of legislative instruments as they will determine visa grant queuing and processing.

 

 

Cheers,

 

George Lombard

[Guest jigarercivil]

Hi George Lombard, I always waiting for your input on poms....

 

can i get ans of one ques plz ?....on 25/10/10 SA has approved my SS ..now civil engg removed from them list...what are chances of civil in SA SMP ?

 

South Australia has today removed another group of occupations from their list for application for sponsorship, see General skilled migration :: Make The Move .

 

That makes 10 occupations they've removed from their interim list now. This is certainly how it's going to operate in practice from now on, for all states.

 

The four latest removed occupations for South Australia are:

 

 

 

• 323112 - Aircraft Maintenance Engineer (Mechanical)
  
• 233611 - Mining Engineer (excluding Petroleum)
  
• 341112 - Electrician (Special Class)
  
• 233213- Quantity Surveyor
  

 

 

And answering other enquiries on this thread:

 

@ Lankan - no I didn't see any English requirement above the GSM threshhold for you, ie 6.0 x 4. Financial requirements don't seem to vary between occupations.

@ Zaske - yes I think many applicants didn't see the point in waiting and I'm sure that the various states will find it hard to manage the volume of applications they receive, as well as avoiding oversubscription issues which might even delay your application if the Department treats SMP applications for Schedule 3 occupations as having to wait for SMP processing places - who knows how they'll manage their queues now.

@Rocki - yes it sounds as though Victoria is tightening the 475 procedure but the critical issue for 475ers is going to be what South Australia does.

@Gill - classical freedom of information procedures allow governments to claim an exemption if another government is involved, which of course in this case would be fatuous. Hopefully the MOUs need to be put on the register of legislative instruments as they will determine visa grant queuing and processing.

 

 

Cheers,

 

George Lombard

[George Lombard]

South Australia has advised today that its SMP won't be in place - realistically - before December.

 

They have also very helpfully provided the following clarifications concerning their anticipated SMP process:

 

We are considering some kind of ‘alert’ system on the spaces available for occupations but given that our system is ‘live’ just providing planning level numbers will not necessarily alert potential applicants to what is still available. The planning levels are deemed to be reached when approvals are granted ie in a live system. When the SMP is released, we will also have to take into account what is in the DIAC pipeline which may determine how we manage the planning levels.

 

I imagine every state is struggling with these issues. But I think that having an occupation approved recently - as in Jigarercivil's case - must be a very positive sign.

 

Cheers,

 

George Lombard

 

[Alan Collett]

Thanks George.

 

This has echoes of those that were trying to get a place on a lifeboat as the Titanic was sinking ... replace the Titanic with the UK ... if you see what I mean ...:biggrin:

 

Onwards!

[Guest ivyc10]

Hi~all

 

I would like to ask whether ACT`s SMP included applicants who sponsored by ACT Government and pending with DIAC without distinction of occupation.

 

Is that right??

[AllyB]

We are looking to apply for a 176 Skilled Sponsored Visa in Victoria and are currently in Australia coming to the end of a 1 year working holiday visa.

 

We meet the skills criteria for this visa but are not sure if we are allowed to apply for it from within Australia. Does anyone know the answer to this?

 

Many thanks, Ally

[Alan Collett]

You can apply for a subclass 176 whether you are onshore or offshore.

 

There is no bridging visa entitlement attaching though.

 

Note that you have to be offshore at time of visa grant.

 

Best regards.

[AllyB]

You can apply for a subclass 176 whether you are onshore or offshore.

 

There is no bridging visa entitlement attaching though.

 

Note that you have to be offshore at time of visa grant.

 

Best regards.

 

Thanks Alan, much apreciated.

 

One more question. Does anyone know if we need to do a skills assessment before we sumbit an application for state sponsorship?

[Guest perfectstranger]

I wonder when ACT's SMP is going live??? Anyone heard from them yet??