States and Territories have recently received a very small allocation of places for Business Innovation and Investment program and SC 491/190 nominations, until the Federal Budget is handed down on 6 October 2020.
States can only invite occupations that are critical to the COVID economic recovery. The critical occupations and industry sectors are listed on the Department's website.
• providing critical or specialist medical services, including air ambulance, medical evacuations and delivering critical medical supplies
• with critical skills required to maintain the supply of essential goods and services (such as in medical technology, critical infrastructure, telecommunications, engineering and mining, supply chain logistics, agricultural technology, food production, and the maritime industry)
• delivering services in sectors critical to Australia’s economic recovery (such as financial technology, large scale manufacturing, film and television production and emerging technology), where no Australian worker is available.
More information: https://covid19.homeaffairs.gov.au/critical-skills-and-sectors
This is further confirmed by the below update available on South Australia’s website
Based on direction from the Department of Home Affairs, applications will be prioritized according to:
· High quality applications within the Business Innovation and Investment Program, with those who have already lodged an ‘Intention to Apply’ given priority consideration.
· Applicants critical to supporting South Australia’s response to the COVID19 pandemic, including individuals providing critical or specialist medical services, critical skills required to maintain the supply of essential goods and services; or delivering services in sectors critical to Australia’s economic recovery.
· Early consideration to onshore applicants that satisfy the above criteria.
More information: https://www.migration.sa.gov.au/news-events/news-releases/interim-allocation-for-sas-general-skilled-and-business-migration-program
Department announced the occupation ceiling for 2020-2021 Financial year on 13th August 2020 and has also released the official results of July 2020 skill select invitation round.
An 'occupation ceiling' may be applied to invitations issued under the independent, skilled regional (provisional) visas. This means there will be a limit on how many EOIs can be invited for skilled migration from an occupation group. This ensures that the skilled migration program is not dominated by a small number of occupations. Once this limit is reached, no further invitations for that particular occupation group will be issued for that program year. Invitations will then be allocated to intending migrants in other occupation groups even if they are lower ranking. See 'occupation ceilings' tab on this page.
Occupation ceiling values are based on a percentage of stock employment figures for each occupation. Employment figures are provided by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, and represent the number of people employed in Australia in each occupation.
Occupation ceilings do not apply to State or Territory Nominated, Employer Sponsored or Business Innovation and Investment visa sub classes.
Occupations ceiling has increased for some Engineering and health professionals.
Below is a comparison for some of the occupations:
Civil Engineers have been given 3919 places compared to 3772 last financial year
Electrical Engineers have been given 1348 places compared to 1000 in the last financial year.
Engineering Managers have been given 1474 places compared to 1000 in the last financial year.
Industrial, Mechanical and Production Engineers have been given 2682 seats compared to 1600 places that were given in 2019-2020 financial year.
General Practitioners and Resident Medical officers have been given 4257 seats compared to 3550 places that were given in 2019-2020 financial year.
Registered Nurses have been given 17859 seats compared to 17509 places that were given in 2019-2020 financial year.
Occupations ceiling has significantly decreased for Accountants and have been given 1000 places compared to 2746 last financial year.
Some trade occupations ceiling has been slightly decreased for example:
Chef occupation has been allocated 2256 places compared to 2738 in the last financial year.
Cabinet maker occupation has been allocated 1694 places compared to 2112 in the last financial year.
Motor Mechanic occupation has been allocated 5205 places compared to 6399 in the last financial year.
Based on the official skill select round results for July 2020
Occupations that have been given most invites are occupations related to Engineering and Telecommunications. 528 invites were given for these occupations.
60 invites were given to Scientists.
180 invites were given to Health professional with registered nurses given the most invites (40 invites).
Official results: https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/working-in-australia/skillselect/invitation-rounds?fbclid=IwAR360h-G1Stx7Q6WqebVmZaVf_3h6O4Q7R3GvomjcJzjjO9GWexlu1N8jzQ
It seems like the focus for this year’s invites will mainly be on the critical sectors while Australia recovers from the pandemic. Focus may also be on onshore applicants due to the travel bans imposed. States will soon be updating their occupation list based on the direction received from the Department.
Suman Dua
Registered Migration Agent
MARN 1800859
