Australian Immigration Minister Chris Bowen MP announced this month a new Skilled Migrant Selection Model to be introduced in July 2012. When introduced this will represent the biggest change to the Australian immigration system for many years.
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Australia and New Zealand Immigration News
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There has been a significant increase in the demand for the Australian 457 work visa. This is a temporary visa that allows entry to Australia for up to four years. This is the biggest demand for 457 work visas since the Worldwide financial crisis of 2008. This is due to increased demand from a strong Australian economy.
The Treasurer of the Northern Territory government said that she welcomes Australia's plans for a 16,300 increase in skilled immigration.
"While we are working to train our own workforce, we have also lobbied the federal government to attract migrant workers to fill skills gaps for major resource projects across northern Australia," said NT treasurer Delia Lawrie.
Australia will make it easier for the resources sector to recruit overseas workers under the Temporary 457 work visa. The new initiatives for temporary migration visas will result in streamlining of the application process and cutting of waiting times by fifty percent.
Enterprise Migration Agreements (EMAs) will allow large resource projects to hire foreign workers for vacancies that cannot be filled from the local workforce.
The Australian government will implement a number of regional migration initiatives and will increase permanent immigration during the 2011-12 fiscal year.
The increase in permanent migration visas to 185,000 will make Australia an even more popular destination for skilled individuals looking to live and work abroad.
New Zealand has announced changes to its business migration scheme designed to promote investment in the country. It is hoped that this will result in new investments in New Zealand of over half a billion New Zealand dollars. Immigration Minister Jonathan Coleman said recently that the Government's business migration scheme has attracted over half-a-billion dollars in potential investment: