Immigration newsletter 6 July 2011

Australia implemented major changes to its General Skilled Migration program on 1 July 2011. The pass mark for various visa subclasses is now 65 points. The age limit has also been raised from 45 years of age to 50.

Nominated occupations no longer earn points, but applicants are still required to nominate an occupation. Points are scored for experience in an occupation. Experience within Australia and overseas in a nominated occupation can be combined to earn points of up to 20 points.

There have been significant changes to the UK Tier 4 student visa category recently. The Tier 4 student visa changes include the following:

1. You will only be allowed to work in the UK if you are a student sponsored by higher education institutions (HEIs) and publicly funded further education colleges. You will be able to work part-time during term time and full-time during holidays.

2. You will only be able to sponsor dependants if you are a student sponsored by a higher education institution on postgraduate courses lasting 12 months or longer, and if you are a government-sponsored student on courses lasting longer than 6 months;

More and more Indians are studying in Australia. This represents a significant resurgence in demand for student places after two years of declining student immigration levels. Declining student numbers over the past few years caused serious problems for Australian universities many of whom are very dependent on overseas student fee income.

During the first six months of 2011, the Australian Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC), recorded a 21 percent rise in student visa applications from India.

According to Ruth Dyson, New Zealand Labour Party spokesperson on immigration, New Zealand is in dire need of more skilled immigration. There are skills shortages in many areas of the New Zealand economy. Immigration is good for the New Zealand economy. Government research suggests that even at existing immigration levels there will be a gain of $28 billion to the New Zealand economy by 2021. 

Dyson feels that Immigration Minister Jonathan Coleman's stance on immigration is detrimental to the Kiwi economy.

"The Minister's response seems to be that we have an increasing number of unemployed, therefore we should reduce the number of people coming to New Zealand from overseas," Dyson said. "This is an extremely shallow and damaging analysis."

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