New Australian Immigration Rules Endangers 20,000 Visas.

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.