Just a quick update to notify any Surveyors (ASCO: 2123-13) that the Institute of Surveyors Australia (ISA) has gone into voluntary liquidation (as you can see from the surprisingly blunt note on the top of the ISA website homepage). It's unclear what will happen to surveyors yet to receive their assessment results, but I imagine a solution will be presented by DIAC in due course.

Also, to avoid any confusion, I'd like to make it clear that Quantity Surveyors (ASCO: 2122-11) don't need to worry; they need to have their skills assessed by the Australian Institute of Quantity Surveyors (AIQS), who are still in operation

Even though the ISA only assess the skills of Surveyors and a handful of other Australia visa occupations (such as Cartographers), it's still a reminder of the harsh economic times we live in and an example of the difficulties many skills assessing bodies are having to face.

Another of the Australia skills assessing bodies we heard from over the weekend was Trades Recognition Australia (TRA). They made the following statement:

"Changes to Processing Times

From 1 July 2009 Trades Recognition Australia (TRA) will introduce additional quality assurance arrangements to improve the integrity of its assessments. As a result processing times will change.  It is expected that most applications will be assessed within 30 working days."

While it's not as concerning as ISA's news, it's still an indication of the strain that assessing bodies have been put under, especially given that the processing times for TRA skills assessments used to typically be 10 working days for occupations listed on the Migration Occupations in Demand (MODL) list, and 20 working days for all other occupations.

 - Tom Blackett is Online Editor for the Australian Visa Bureau

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