Australia and New Zealand Immigration News

The Immigration Minister of Australia, Philip Ruddock, recently announced that priority visa processing arrangements for Information and Communications Technology (ICT) workers would be suspended.

The Government introduced the priority processing arrangements for ICT workers on 1 February 2001 to help address the urgent and growing shortages that were affecting Australian business at that time.

From 8 May 2002 the pass and pool marks for some general skilled migrationvisa categories has changed.

These changes only effect you if you lodged your application on or after 8May 2002. If you lodged your application before 8 May 2002 these changes willnot affect your application.

If you apply to migrate to Australia under the Skilled - Australian Sponsoredcategory or any of the Skilled - Independent categories, you will be assessedagainst a points test.

It has jus t been announced by the New Zealand Immigration Service (NZIS)that from 18 June 2002 to 31 July 2002, overseas nationals applying for permanent residence in New Zealand under the General Skills Category will need a total of 28 points, instead of the 25 that are currently required.

Applications received before 18 June 2002 will still only require a total of 25 points.

From 1 July 2002, the passmark will be reviewed each month.

The Minister of Immigration will give five working days notice if the passmark is to be changed.

Recent changes to the Migration Occupations in Demand List by DIMIA mayaffect the number of points skilled migrants intend to claim on their visaapplication points tests.

Major changes include the removal of the following occupations:

Electronics Engineers Nurse Managers Nurse Educators and Researchers Cabinetmakers Furniture Upholsterers

If you have nominated one of the occupations above and your visa applicationhas already been lodged with DIMIA, then you will still be able to claim MODLpoints.

Australia, which has a popular points-based independent immigration programme (the ‘General Skilledcategory’), has centralized the administration of this system in a newspecialized Skilled Processing Centre in Adelaide, Australia.

Hitherto, points-basedapplications were submitted to and processed by overseas diplomatic offices suchas Australian Embassies, High Commissions and Consulates.

The Australian High Court has upheld the Australian Government’s decision in September to prevent 433 asylum seekers rescued by a Norwegian cargo ship, from entering Australia. This verdict involves Australia’s Executive and Judiciary both turning their back on hundreds of years of international maritime law. In centuries past such treatment was not even meted out to soldiers and sailors of hostile powers in time of war.