Priority Processing Arrangements Changes Effective From 14th July 2010

21 Jul 2010

Senator Chris Evans, the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, has set new priority processing arrangements for certain skilled migration visas which are in account of the changes to the Skilled Occupation List (SOL) introduced on 1^st July 2010 as well as the revocation of the Migration Occupation in Demand List (MODL) and the Critical Skills List (CSL). These changes are not applicable to criteria for the grant of a visa.

Priority Processing refers to the order in which the department considers skilled migration applications. As per Section 51 of the Migration Act 1958, Minister for Immigration and Citizenship has the power to consider and finalise visa applications in order of priority that the Minister considers appropriate.

Priority processing arrangements are designed to complement other recent changes to skilled migration to support economic climate and the demand for particular skills in the Australian economy. This helps in fulfilling the needs of the industry like skills demands.

The new priority processing arrangements apply to the following visas:

• Employer Nomination Scheme (ENS)
• Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme (RSMS)
• General Skilled Migration (GSM) visas

Under the arrangements, processing priorities (with the highest priority listed first) are:

• Applications from people who are employer sponsored under the ENS and the RSMS.
• Applications from people who are nominated by a state or territory government agency with a nominated an occupation that is specified on that state or territory’s state migration plan.
• Applications from people who have nominated an occupation on the new Skilled Occupation List (SOL) – Schedule 3 in effect from 1 July 2010.
• All other applications are to be processed in the order in which they are received.

The following visa subclasses are exempt from priority processing:

• Skilled — Recognized Graduate subclass 476
• Skilled — Graduate subclass 485
• Skilled — Designated Area — Sponsored (Residence) subclass 883
• Skilled — Regional subclass 887