New immigration rules have left 20,000 Indian applied for Australian Visa shattered. Now, migrants have to secure more points in tests. Also those students under temporary visa regime will have to go home if they found unable to produce visa sponsors in the specified time.
A new policy has
shattered of dreams of many Indians who were moving to Australia. Australian
government has decided to cancel over 20,000 Australian visa applications
applied by the Indians.
Because the Australian government
tweaked its immigration system that identifies
occupations in demand and creates a point system is likely to hit the Indians
who are residing in the country under the existing skilled migration program.
Under the new changes which were unveiled on Monday, Feb 8, the Australian Immigration
Minister has the new legal
authority to decide the number of visas for a single occupation.
Now, the immigration plans would be developed by the state governments. In order to allow time for
foreign students to find sponsors for their education, a temporary 18-month
visa will be granted to those pursuing courses which are no longer in demand. However,
foreign students under temporary visas will have to go
home if they fail to find sponsors within the scheduled time-frame.
The applications which have been canceled cover all offshore
general skilled migration claims lodged before Sep 2007, while transitional
arrangements will introduced to onshore overseas students to apply until 2012.
Occupations such as nurses, general medical practitioners, mechanical engineers
and teachers instead of groups such as cooks and hairdressers fall under the
demand and expected to favor skilled workers list according to the new system.
On the other hand, Immigration Minister Chris Evans is likely to point out the
loop holes in the skilled migration program in his arguments.
"The program has been delivering self-nominated migrants from a narrow
range of occupations with poor to moderate English language skills who struggle
to find employment in their nominated occupation," Senator Evans said.
A newspaper report quoted Evans as saying that foreign students 'can
still gain residency if they gain qualifications in professions that are in
demand'.
Evans accused the unscrupulous visa agents of deteriorating the existing
tensions and misunderstandings.
