The Minister said the removal of occupations from the skilled occupation list (SOL)would not hinder the industry’s ability to target the skilled workers it needs, as employers can nominate chefs and cooks on 457 visas, employer-sponsored visas and the new state migration plans.
Chefs and cooks were just two occupations removed from the recently announced SOL, which dropped from 400 occupations to only 181 as part ofAustralian immigration reform to target specific workers needed by the economy.
“The removal of the classifications for chefs and cooks from the Skilled Occupation List will not affect the ability of restaurateurs to bring in qualified staff to meet demand in the industry,” Senator Evans said.
"We have reformed the skilled migration system to allow employers to target the skills they need in their businesses."
Senator Evans said employers were already using this migration pathway to recruit qualified staff with almost 1000 cooks and chefs being granted employer-sponsored visas to April 30 in 2009-10. As of 31 March this year, there were 3210 cooks and chefs working in Australia on employer-nominated 457 visas.
“Despite more than 4000 chefs and cooks being granted visas under the independent skilled migration program in 2007-08, there were critical shortages in the industry,” Senator Evans said.
“Clearly the majority of these people were not working as either cooks or chefs. The changes we have introduced will ensure that only those who have real jobs to go to in the industry will be granted visas.”

While it's a relief that the new Australian SOL has been announced, there still remain a few unanswered questions, many of which stem from the fact that the new list of occupations is drawn from the ANZSCO as opposed to the ASCO.
For example, while the ANZSCO is very similar to the ASCO in some respects, it still doesn't match up exactly in terms of the names and classifications of the occupations. Therefore, even though we can make a fairly informed prediction for most of the occupations on the new SOL, it's still unknown as to how many points will be allocated to each occupation. Additionally, while we can make assumptions, we still don't know exactly which Australian body will be responsible for assessing which ANZSCO occupations.
It's also currently unknown what will happen to applicants who have already obtained a positive skills assessment. Potential solutions are that that the assessing bodies will simply transfer an applicant's positive assessment in the ASCO occupation to the corresponding ANZSCO occupation (if possible) or that the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) will accept old skills assessments for a time. However, it's also possible that these applicants will need to obtain a new skills assessment, particularly if their previous ASCO occupation only has a partial ANZSCO match on the new SOL.
Another factor that makes the transition confusing is that the skill level requirements (i.e. the level of degree, trade certificate or years experience required) for the ANZSCO is different than the ASCO in some instances. Therefore, even though an applicant might have a valid skills assessment and perform the ANZSCO-listed associated tasks for that occupation, they will still need to meet the skill criteria for DIAC.
As a result, further clarification will be needed from DIAC before we can be sure how to proceed in advising our clients going forward. However, it's still useful to finally have the new Skills Occupation List and have some idea of what Australian skilled migration will look like going forward, even though many questions remain unanswered.

• Subclass 175 – Skilled Independent


• Subclass 176 – Skilled Sponsored and


• Subclass 475 – Skilled Regional Sponsored

Applications for affected visa subclasses submitted on or after 8 May 2010 will be considered invalid and the application will be returned to the client together with the Visa Application Charge (VAC). However, associated fees such as those incurred for medical examinations, English language tests and skills assessments cannot be refunded as these payments were not made to the Government.
Applications for visa subclasses affected by the temporary suspension will be able to be made once the suspension has been lifted."

Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia (ICAA), Certified Public Accountants (CPA) Australia and the Australian National Institute of Accountants (NIA), are all changing their assessing policies on 1 July, 2010. These are the three bodies that are responsible for assessing the skills of accountants, finance managers, corporate treasurers and external auditors applying to immigrate to Australia.
Each body is implementing an almost identical set of changes, which you can read for yourself by clicking here for the ICAA, here for the CPA or here for the NIA. Alternatively, read on for my interpretation of some of the key changes.
Changes
One of the main changes is that there will no longer be two distinct pathways (i.e. either through membership of a recognized body or holding a qualifying degree). Instead, should an applicant hold membership of a recognized body, it will now need to be considered comparable to an Australian degree. That comparability is set by the Australian Education International National Office for Overseas Skills Recognition (AEI-NOOSR).
Having checked the Country Education Profiles on the AEI-NOOSR website, members of the ACCA, CIMA and ICAEW are all listed as comparable to an Australian degree, which is positive news for UK applicants. However, it also has the following note:
"Qualifications are assessed on a case-by-case basis if the holder earned the qualification by means other than a program of study (e.g. work experience), or was granted several subject exemptions in the program."
Therefore, on the basis of the above, it seems that people who are members of an accounting body but DO NOT have a degree and received exemptions from studying the full course to gain membership may have issues.
Changes to units studied
Previously, applicants would need to study 9 out of the 12 units that the assessing body sets, with the applicant free to evidence which 9 of the 12 units they had studied in.
From 1 July, 2010, applicants will still need to study 9 out of the 12 units, but the assessing bodies will set 4 mandatory units, and then the applicant must choose 5 from the remaining 8 optional units. The assessing bodies break down (by occupation) which units are mandatory and which are optional in order to make the 9 out of 12 units.
Changes to IELTS requirements
It also appears that a score of at least 7.0 in all four core units of the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) test will be required for accountant assessing body applicants from 1 July, 2010. Currently, there is no news on whether there will be any exemptions for UK applicants.
Please understand that all these observations are made without a full, detailed explanation of all the changes being provided by the accounting assessing bodies, and also that much of my comments only relate to Australia visa applicants from the UK. Some parts of the changes still remain unclear as it appears there will be a much higher level of subjectivity applied to the accounting bodies' assessment process from 1 July, 2010.

ഏപ്രില്‍ മുപ്പതിനു പ്രതീഷിച്ചിരിന്ന പുതുക്കിയ Skilled Occupations List സ്കില്‍ ഓസ്ട്രേലിയായുടെ കൂടെ റിപ്പോര്‍ട്ട്‌ പരിഗണിച്ചിതിനു ശേഷം മെയ്‌ മാസത്തില്‍ പ്രസദ്തീകരിക്കുമെന്നു DIAC വെബ്‌ സൈറ്റ് വ്യക്തമാക്കി. പുതുക്കിയ ലിസ്റ്റ് ജൂലൈ ഒന്നിനു പ്രാബല്യത്തില്‍ വരും . കുക്ക് , ഹെയര്‍ ഡ്രസര്‍ തുടങ്ങി അനവധി ജോലികള്‍ പുതിയ ലിസ്റ്റില്‍ ഒഴിവാക്കപ്പെടാനും വേറെ ചില പുതിയ തൊഴില്‍ മേഖലകള്‍ ഉള്‍കൊള്ളിക്കുവാനും ചാന്‍സുണ്ട് . അഭിഭാഷകര്‍ , അക്കൌണ്ട്നസ്, തുടങ്ങിവര്‍ക്കു പിആറിനു പകരമായി Practising Visa നല്‍കുവാനും നീക്കമുണ്ട് .

സൌത്ത് ഓസ്ട്രലിയന്‍ സ്റ്റേറ്റ് സ്പോണ്‍സര്‍ഷിപ്പിനു ആഗ്രഹിക്കുന്നവര്‍ എല്ലാ രേഖകളും സഹിതം ‌ മെയ്‌ പതിനാലിനു മുന്‍പ് അപേക്ഷിക്കേണ്ടതാണ്. Commonwealth Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) പുതിയ Skilled Occupations Lists (SOL) മെയ്‌ മാസത്തില്‍ കൊണ്ടുവരുന്നതാണു കാരണം. മെയ്‌ പതിനാലിനു ശേഷം കൊടുക്കുന്ന അപേക്ഷകള്‍ 2010 ജൂലൈയില്‍ പുതിയ SOL ലിസ്റ്റ് പ്രകാരമേ പരിഗണിക്കൂ. കൂടുതല്‍ വിവരങ്ങള്‍ക്ക് സൌത്ത് ഓസ്ട്രലിയന്‍ എമിഗ്രഷ്യന്‍ വെബ്‌ സൈറ്റ് കാണുക .

http://www.migration.sa.gov.au/


news related to South australian immigration

Australia has further tightened its policy on student visas to ensure these are only given to "genuine" individuals. A press release of the Australian high commission Wednesday quoted the minister of immigration and citizenship, Chris Evans, as saying that the tough new measures will ensure that only genuine international students are accepted to study in Australia”. This latest round of changes strikes the right balance between making the visa application process easier for genuine students while imposing additional checks on those who may seek to abuse the system, Evans said in an address to the American Chamber of Commerce in Perth. The measures include changes to the assessment of students studying more than one course, increased powers to cancel visas and streamlining the processing of post-graduate students. "This means that students applying for more than one course will be required to meet the highest level of risk assessment within their package of course. Further, changes have been made to the migration regulations to improve visa cancellation guidelines if it is found that a student has suspended or deferred studies for non-genuine reasons," Evans said. “However, my department now has an improved capacity to verify students' claims where there are not compassionate or compelling reasons for deferral or suspension,” he added. Indian nationals account for the second highest international student community in Australia after the Chinese. There are nearly 90,000 Indians studying at various educational institutions in Australia.

The recent Australian immigration changes mean that fewer people qualify for Australian immigration under the skilled independent visa. The Migration Occupations in Demand List no longer exists. Changes to the Skilled Occupation List in June 2010 may make Australian immigration more difficult still.

Sponsorship by an Australian State or Territory under the State Sponsorship permanent 176 visa (relatives may sponsor as well) or the provisional 475 visa may be an alternative to the Australian Skilled independent visa. If you meet the requirements for a State Sponsorship visa it may be worth applying now instead of waiting until later in the year when you may no longer meet the requirements:

STATE SPONSORSHIP – PERMANENT VISA (176)

Under the State Sponsorship permanent visa you will need to meet the following requirements:
· You must be under 45 years of age.
· You must have an occupation on the Skilled Occupation List (SOL) as well as the individual State Skills in Demand list (or be sponsored by a relative).
· You must have recent experience in your occupation.
· You must have good English language skills.
· You need to be sponsored by a State or Territory or a relative.
· You need to reach a pass mark of 100 points – This points requirement is lower than for the skilled independent visa.
· You must live in the sponsoring State for the first two years after which you can live elsewhere in Australia.
If you come under this visa category you benefit from Medicare cover and are also able to sponsor your relatives for permanent resident visas.

STATE SPONSORSHIP – PROVISIONAL VISA (475)

If your occupation is not on the state Skills in Demand list you may consider the provisional 475 visa instead:
· You must be under 45 years of age.
· You must have an occupation on the Skilled Occupation List (SOL) as well as on the State regional skilled occupations list. There is no option to be sponsored by a relative for the provisional visa.
· You must have recent experience in your occupation.
· You must have good English language skills.
· You need to be sponsored by the regional area.
· You need to reach a pass mark of 100 points – Again lower than the points requirement for the independent visa.
· You must live in the regional area for the first two years. You can apply for permanent residence if you have lived for two years and worked for at least 12 months in the sponsoring regional area.
As this is not a permanent visa you do not come under Medicare and so would need to take out private health cover. Until you have permanent residence, you will also not be able to sponsor relatives for entry to Australia.
If you are interested in these visas you may wish to look in particular at the States of S Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania as these have the greatest choice of occupations for the State Sponsorship visa categories.