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Australia September 26, 2011 – Australia second most populous state, Victoria, has recently updated its State Migration Plan (SMP).

Just recently, an updated version of its State Migration Plan (SMP) has been released by the Victorian Department of Business and Innovation that outlines a number of new additions to the list of Victoria’s Australian visa sponsored occupations.

Updated for 2011-2012, Victoria’s new lists of State Sponsorship Occupations reflect the occupations that are eligible to apply for Victorian state sponsorship.

Victoria’s Skilled Migration Program is designed to attract highly skilled and employable professionals and trades people that have occupations that are difficult to source from the local labor market for immigration to Australia and to apply for Australia visa.

Extensive research and industry consultation on Victoria’s current and forthcoming labor market needs has been undertaken in order to identify occupations that are as highly suitable for state sponsorship. This move would ensure that Victoria’s industries have the skills necessary to remain highly productive, and in order for skilled migrants who applied for Australia visas be well placed for employment in their nominated occupation.

Occupations such as in — Engineering and Building, Financial Services, Biotechnology and Science, Tourism and Hospitality, Information and Communications Technology, Health, Education and Trades — are currently priority industries for victorian state visa sponsorship.
Now with the current updated version of Victoria’s new lists of State Sponsorship Occupations under Victoria’s State Migration Plan (SMP), the new lists of State Sponsorship Occupations for Victoria now includes:

• Surveyor

• Ship’s Engineer (Marine Engineer)

• Computer Network and Systems Engineer

So under these new lists, occupations such as ship engineers, surveyors or computer network and systems engineers are now eligible to apply for Victorian state sponsorship under the either of the Australian visas:

• Skilled – Sponsored (176) visa and the

• Skilled – Regional Sponsored (475 and 487) visas

Australia immigration visa applicants applying for Victorian sponsorship under the Australia migration Skilled – Regional Sponsored (475 and 487) visa must have a valid job offer in their nominated occupation and evidence that they accepted the job.

Applicants for Australian visas who have work experience will now be considered for sponsorship under the State Migration Plan.

In a statement released on 20 September, the department stated that it is “seeking to attract up to 6000 skilled migrants and dependants in a range of priority industries”.

Beyond the additions to the list, a number of occupations retained their status, particularly in the field of ICT.

In January 2011 the department discontinued processing applications for ICT occupations due to overwhelming interest from this field.

The re-emergence of ICT occupations in the list is significant according to Australian Visa Bureau spokesperson Lauren Mennie.

“We feel it (ICT occupations) is a notable inclusion as it is showing a long term demand, despite easily filling their quota for that occupation last year,” Ms Mennie said.

A number of non-ICT occupations such as ‘cook’ and ‘pastry cook’ were also retained in the list and no occupations were removed from the previous list.

The department has this year changed the reporting of financial criteria, explicitly outlining the required funds to secure sponsorship for Australian immigration for each occupation. Previously financial assessments have been made on a case-by-case basis.

Victorian sponsorships for people emigrating to Australia are highly competitive. The department has stressed that “meeting the minimum eligibility requirements will not guarentee you an offer of sponsorship”.

source:
visabureau.com