Every year hundreds of thousands of foreign workers choose to live and work in Australia because of the lifestyle and employment opportunities offered.
But the skilled migration program is not an ‘open system’. The government has introduced the occupation ceiling in an effort to protect the employment opportunities for the locals or to meet the high demands.
Occupation ceiling is a quota for individual occupations that translates to the maximum number of skilled migrants allowed in a specific career field under the skilled migration scheme.
The Department of Home Affairs (DHA) has the ceiling for different occupations for the year 2018-19.
Jujhar Singh Bajwa of Bajwa Immigration Consultants says the trade-related occupations are in high demand.
“For the year 2018-19, we’re seeing a high demand for visa seekers applying in the occupations like nursing, livestock farmers and civil engineering,” Mr Bajwa told SBS Punjabi.
“It's better to make a move towards trade courses or move to other states that have better opportunities.”
Mr Bajwa says the ceiling often applies to skilled migration program in the visa subclass 189, 190 and 489.
He suggested that the skilled visa seekers must check the ceiling or the number of seats available for their occupations in the SkillSelect program.
“But the most important thing is that you need to be invited to apply for a visa in this category,” he says.
“An invitation is essentially permission from the government that allows invitees to apply for a visa under the skilled migration programme.
“If the quota or ceiling has been reached you may never receive an invitation even after having points as high 100.”
According to DHA website, an invitation round to apply for the Skilled - Independent (subclass 189) and Skilled - Regional (Provisional) (subclass 489) was conducted on 11 August 2018.
Invitation rounds are anticipated to run on the 11th day of each month.
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Mr Bajwa says he expects his clients with IT and accountancy occupations to face the same problem as last year.
“Accountants, IT professionals and engineers were required to have a very high score in order to get an invite. That is likely to be the case this year too,” he said in an interview with SBS Punjabi.
“It's better to make a move towards trade courses or move to other states that have better opportunities.”
Here is the complete list of occupation ceilings for Skilled - Independent (subclass 189) for the 2018-2019 program year.
Last year, Australia ’s migration intake fell to a ten-year low as Australia took in 20,000 fewer permanent migrants than in the previous financial year. There was a cut of 12, 468 in the skilled visas and 8,000 in family visas.
Occupation ceiling for 2018-19 skilled migration Source: Supplied
Source: Supplied
Source: Supplied
