Litigation

Migration Law Services

Skilled Migration

Australia's skilled migration categories are specifically targeted at skilled migrants who are able to contribute skills and experience to Australia. There are many skilled visas available, but all have basic criteria. For general skills migration to Australia, you or your spouse must be able to satisfy the following basic requirements:

Basic Requirements

Age
When you apply, you must be under 45 years of age.
English language
You must have a certain standard of English language ability. We will give you further details on this requirement.
Qualifications
You should have qualifications or relevant work experience in your occupation or trade. Your qualifications and work experience must be assessed first by the relevant skills assessing authority before you can lodge a skilled visa application. We will compile and lodge your skills assessment prior to lodging the visa application.
Nominated Occupation
You must nominate an occupation on the Skilled Occupation List (SOL). This occupation must be relevant to the qualifications and work experience that you have. It can be difficult to know which occupation on the (SOL) is best suited to you. We will provide you with detailed descriptions of these occupations and help to find the relevant occupation.
Recent Work Experience
Depending on which occupation you have nominated, you will be required to have "recent work experience" for a certain period of time immediately prior to lodging the visa application. We will provide you with this information once we have established your nominated occupation.
Skills Assessment
Before you are able to lodge a skilled visa application, you must have had a skills assessment done. There are many different skills assessing authorities that vary depending on which occupation you have nominated. Each assessing authority has different criteria for the assessment.

Independent Skilled Migration

This visa category is for skilled migrants of professional or trade related or other occupations. To apply for this category, you must:

• Satisfy the basic requirements
• Pass a points test
• Nominate a skilled occupation from the SOL

Skilled - Australian Sponsored

This visa category is for people who have relatives in Australia that are willing to sponsor them. The relative must be close family. We will explain the requirements for family relationship. To apply for this category, you must:

• Meet the basic requirements
• Nominate a skilled occupation from the SOL or if your sponsor lives in certain areas in NSW, nominate an occupation from the SSASSL
• Have a sponsor and be related to that sponsor
• Have an assurer

An assurance of support will also be required by either the Australian resident sponsor or another party. We will provide you with the support that will be required for your application.

Skilled – Designated Area Sponsored

This category is not points tested but you must have a relative living in a designated area of Australia who is willing to sponsor you. This relative must be close family. We will explain the requirements for family relationship and the designated areas that are acceptable. To apply for this category, you must:

• Meet the basic requirements
• Nominate a skilled occupation from the SOL
• Have a sponsor who lives in one of the designated areas
• You or your spouse must be related to the sponsor
• Have an assurer

An assurance of support will also be required by either the Australian resident sponsor or another party. We will provide you with the support that will be required for your application.

 

Skilled – State/Territory Nominated Independent

This visa is also for skilled migrants of professional or trade related or other occupations. To apply for this category, you must:

• Satisfy the basic requirements
• Meet the pool mark for the points test
• Nominate a skilled occupation on the SOL
• Be nominated by a participating State or Territory

Skill Matching

To apply for this category, you must:

• Satisfy the basic requirements, although lower English levels are accepted and there is a lesser recent work experience requirement
• Nominate a skilled occupation from the SOL

Skilled Independent Regional Visa (SIR)

This visa has been developed together with some State/Territory Governments. The main aim of the SIR visa is to assist the development of regional Australia through higher levels of skilled migration. This visa allows a temporary stay of 3 years during which time you must live and work in regional Australia. After living in regional Australia for at least 2 years and being employed for at least 12 months, you are then eligible to apply for permanent residence through a range of existing regional visas. We will provide you with the applicable regional areas.
To apply for the SIR visa, you must:

• Satisfy the basic requirements
• Pass the points test
• Nominate a skilled occupation form the SOL
• Hold sponsorship from the relevant State or Territory authority

Overseas student – skilled independent
Overseas student – family sponsored
Overseas student – designated area sponsored

To apply for these visas, you must:

• Be the holder of a substantive student visa or
• Have held a substantive student visa at some time in the 6 months immediately before making the application
• Studied in Australia at an Australian educational institution for at least 2 years full time
• Completed an Australian degree, diploma or trade qualification
• All tuition was conducted in English
• Qualification is relevant to the occupation nominated

In conjunction with the above, you must also:

• Satisfy the basic requirements
• Pass the points test
• Nominate a skilled occupation from the SOL
• Hold a positive skills assessment in a 60 point occupation (unless you have completed an Australian Doctorate)

For the family sponsored category you must also:

• Nominate either 50 or 60 point occupation
• Have a sponsor that you are related to
• Have an assurer

For the designated Area Sponsored category you must also:

• Have a sponsor who lives in one of the designated areas
• Be related to the sponsor
• Have an assurer
• There is no points test under this category.

An assurance of support will also be required by either the Australian resident sponsor or another party. We will provide you with the support that will be required for your application. We will explain the requirements for family relationship.

Graduate Temporary Visa

This visa is a temporary visa that is applied for at course completion. You need to have a genuine intention to apply for Australian permanent residency through one of the Overseas Student Categories.
This visa acts as a bridging visa, allowing time for your skills to be assessed before lodging your Australian permanent residency. This visa allows you to remain in Australia for 6 months from course completion before lodging your permanent residency.

Skills Assessments

For the skilled visas, a skills assessment is required. There are many occupations on the skilled occupation list and each of these occupations has a different assessing authority. Each assessing authority has different criteria for a successful application.