SkillSelect: First round offers go to skilled professionals

Doctors, dentists, nurses and engineers have dominated the first round of skilled migrants invited on the 1 August 2012 to formally apply for visas under the government’s new online SkillSelect service.

Accountants, ICT analysts and programmers were also strongly represented in the 100 invitations in the first round, which drew the highest scoring candidates from the initial expressions of interest (EOI).

“This is an excellent result for the economy, employers, and ultimately for Australia,” a spokesman from the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) said today.

“SkillSelect helps to ensure the skilled migration program is based on the economic needs of Australia. It supports the government in managing who can apply for skilled migration, when they can apply and in what numbers.”

More than 10 000 skilled people have completed EOIs through SkillSelect since it went live on July 1.

Earlier this month, the first automated invitation round for skilled independent (90 visas) and skilled regional family-sponsored (10 visas) was completed.

The lowest points score invited was 75 points in both the skilled independent and skilled family sponsored visas. This is significantly above the 60 point pass mark, and demonstrates the quality of the skilled people interested in migrating to Australia, and the benefits of selecting only the best.

“The points score varied from 75 up to 85 across the two visa subclasses,” the spokesman said.

“Additionally, almost 400 skilled people have been invited since July 1 following nominations lodged by state and territory governments.

“More than 160 of these invited clients have already lodged their visa applications, and the others have 60 days to lodge their documentation using DIAC’s electronic lodgement system,” he added.

Article courtesy of DIAC and full details of the first round of SkillSelect visa invitations are available at www.skillselect.gov.au.

Administrator’s comment:

Its encouraging to see that Skill select appears to be working, with the first round of invitations on the new SkillSelect visa invitation system have gone out and professional occupations have dominated the numbers with an average selection score of 75 points going up to 85 points, which is significantly higher than the entry rate of 60 points. This shows that in certain occupations, unless you have good points, you may not receive an invitation immediately – or at all if quotas are reached with higher point ranked applicants.

A worrying trend indicated in the DIAC figures in the SkillSelect reports, show South Australia, New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia leading the way in terms of state governments sending out visa invitations, with the majority of these being skilled nominated visas (subclass 190). Queensland was the only state not to issue a single nomination between July 1 and August 1!