07 May 2008

Improvements to Australian immigration underway

The Australian government is looking to improve the country's immigration process by making amendments to their temporary visa scheme. The Minister for Immigration and Citizenship Senator Chris Evans said that 14 changes were being made to the subclass 457 Australian visa in an attempt to make it more effective.

Mr Evans commented that the reason for the alterations was to make it "more responsive to industry needs". The changes will also see centres for excellence in processing the temporary skilled Australian visas established in Perth, Melbourne and Sydney, following advice from an External Reference Group (ERG) that extra resources were needed to clear visa application backlogs.

The ERG also recommended that a long-term strategy is introduced to respond to the labour needs in particular sectors and more extensive staff training to make the Australian skilled visa application process smoother.

Immigrations levels are higher so far this year than last, with the temporary skills visas seeing a 17 per cent rise in applications than the previous year. This is the latest move to improve Australian immigration, with other recent efforts made by the government to improve their migration and residency process including a governmental review of the citizenship test.

Australia needs skilled workers: Anyone applying for an Australian visa should begin by completing the Australian Visa Bureau's online Australian visa application to see if they meet the Australian visa requirements.