Britons rush for Australian visas

The threat of changes to the Australian visa application process has led to a surge in applications by Britons to move Down Under, according to a migration agency

Changes to Australia's visa system could make it harder to obtain permanent residency Photo: Peter Scholey / Alamy

By Mike Goodman

6:02PM GMT 24 Jan 2012

VisaFirst.com is using Australia Day (January 26) to launch a campaign raising awareness of the changes, urging prospective migrants to act now or risk missing out.

The latest changes, which come into effect on July 1 this year, are set to lengthen the application process and make it harder to obtain permanent residence.

Nearly 24,000 UK citizens were granted permanent resident visas for Australia in 2011, despite a toughening of the “points system” in July of that year. The prospect of further changes has already sparked a rise in applications from would-be emigrants, claims VisaFirst.com, which registered a three-fold increase in applications in January alone.

“Currently, if you meet the points requirement you can lodge your visa application,” said Edwina Shanahan, director of the company. “After July 1, applicants will have to achieve the pass mark and will then be entered into a skills pool. Australian immigration authorities will then decide which applications they want to invite for further processing from the pool. Applicants can languish here for up to two years, with no guarantee of ever receiving an invitation to apply.”

She urged would-be migrants to act quickly even if they do not plan to move soon, adding: “Once the visa is granted, applicants have a five-year window to relocate, so it's worth submitting the application now, even if you're not planning the move just yet.”

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Under the new system, applicants over 32 years of age or with limited work experience are most at risk of disappointment, due to scoring less points, but families in the "middle road" category shouldn't be complacent, warned Shanahan. “The immigration process is going to be a lot more selective, based on those who score the highest number of points. The Australian government will also be setting quotas on the number of skilled workers from each sector – carpenters, for example – in the pool at any one time,” she said.

Skills in demand vary from state to state, but nursing, engineering, trades and construction are among the most sought-after.

For would-be emigrants, Australia offers a better quality of life and higher living standards but the cost of housing in the major cities can be high, while the strength of the Australian dollar against the pound sterling affects the spending power of migrants who rely on sterling income or savings.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/offshorefinance/9036643/Britons-rush-for-Australian-visas.html

New Australian migrant list will hit business

New migrant list will hit business
YUKO NARUSHIMA
May 18, 2010

Restaurant and Catering Australia chief John Hart says the changes will force some restaurants out of business.

THE catering and restaurant industry has hit back at new rules published this week halving the number of skilled migrant places available for chefs and cooks.

Some restaurants would go out of business and others be forced to shorten their trading hours without migrant labour, according to Restaurant and Catering Australia chief executive John Hart.

''It's a nonsense,'' he said. ''Despite every tourism minister in every state calling for chefs to be left on, they took them off. It seems absurd.''

He said the industry was already 3000 cooks short before the federal government halved the number of places for which independent skilled migrants could apply.

Immigration Minister Chris Evans said a trimmed list would draw higher calibre migrants and would stop anyone subverting migration rules by studying ''low-value'' education courses in Australia.

Other jobs dropped were hairdressers, acupuncturists, journalists and naturopaths. Nurses, accountants, teachers and engineers were retained.

The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry said the list struck a balance between the immediate and long-term skills needs of the country. Private educators, however, predicted more college closures, thousands of job losses and a flight of international students to other countries.

Chief executive of the Australian Council for Private Education and Training, Andrew Smith, said international students had been given inadequate advice.

''We have to be absolutely honest about what Australia has done over a number of years now, and that was to link immigration and education,'' he said.

''Students invested tens of thousands of dollars on the basis of a clear government policy. It's unfair to them that the rules have changed during their courses.''

A high Australian dollar and widely publicised attacks on Indian students had already affected international colleges, Mr Smith said. Just a 5 per cent slump in student numbers would lead to more than 6000 job losses and $700 million in lost revenue.

A hairdressing tutor for four years at a private college, Vicki Bartlett, said the changes penalised students who were learning the trade legitimately.

''It will weed out the ferals who are rorting the system,'' she said, but added that international students she knew had already paid fees to salons for the equipment they needed to complete unpaid work-experience hours.

''Some are working so hard and it's unfair to move the goalposts on them,'' she said.

One foreign-owned college she knew of had continued to collect course fees until the moment it collapsed, she said.

''It's appalling how these kids are being treated,'' Ms Bartlett said.

Students in India, who have had visa applications cancelled, have reported difficulty in reclaiming millions of dollars in pre-paid fees.

The body that decided on the new list, Skills Australia, will update the list annually. It is scheduled to publish in coming weeks its rationale for exclusions.

Source: The Age