Legislative changes in Australian General Skilled Migration program

The Australian Skilled Migration Program (GSM) has undergone a thorough evaluation by prominent independent academics in Australia, and as a result, there will be legislative changes, which will come into effect from September this year.

The motivation behind the evaluation of the migration program was to identify if the current migration program actually addresses the existing skills shortage and at the same time to test if the skills and attributes which the migrants bring to Australia will assist them to integrate quickly into the Australian labour market and use the skills in Australia.

Among the proposed changes, increase in the English language threshold for all GSM visas, making the recent work experience requirement uniform across all offshore visas and enabling overseas students to apply for visa's under GSM with 50 points are vital.

The most significant change out of all is the increase in the English language threshold. According to current legislation, a professional (professionally qualified with a degree or equivalent) who is under 30 years, and has more than three years of work experience, is competent in English (six or more in each band in the IELTS test), and the occupation is not in the Migration Occupations in Demand List (MODL) may qualify to obtain permanent residency in Australia.