Warning – people desperately awaiting an invitation for a visa may get MAD when they read this article!
It’s no secret that it’s become incredibly difficult to get on the visa ladder in the last 12 months. Change in policy and direction, a focus on regional Australia, dropping the permanent visa intake by 30,000 places, has all added up to visa invitations becoming very scarce. That means visa grants becoming scarce as well.
We know the 189 visa is now effectively restricted to people who can get 80 or more points, and that means everyone else has to look to State Sponsorship and Regional Visas (when they commence in November).
Each year, States and Territories are given a fixed allocation of positions that they can nominate for Skilled and Business Visas. There is a breakdown by visa type. States don’t publish their numbers, but it stands to reason that the larger states get a bigger share. They do, of course, have bigger demand for their share.
Every time a person receives an invitation to apply for a visa, that number reduces by 1, regardless of whether they actually apply for a visa within the 60 days.
Here’s a fact that may surprise you…
Around 30% of all invitations issued lapse and never result in a visa application being lodged!
To illustrate, let’s say hypothetically a State is given 1,000 invitations for a 190 visa to give away during the year. This means that the State has negotiated with the Commonwealth to have 1,000 skilled or business migrants, because they have a pressing need. The State diligently examines all applications that come to them, and selects the people they want. BUT – 330 of the invited people never lodge an application! The State misses out on 330 skilled migrants, and 330 people who could have been selected have also missed out.
The State does not get those 330 places refunded! It’s simply a lost opportunity; a waste of a very valuable resource.
Why don’t people lodge Visa applications against Nominations?
There can be a lot of reasons.
- It’s estimated that there are a huge number of fake and duplicate EOI’s in the Skill Select system at any one time. If an EOI is fabricated it’s hardly likely that a person would spend thousands on a visa application. Why do they do it? They may be created by scammers, trolls, time wasters, people shopping around, or genuine people who don’t really know what they are doing or who are just ‘testing the waters’ to see if they can get an invitation. The fact that no payment is required for an EOI, unfortunately encourages this sort of misuse. If a person lodges an EOI with high points, with claims that can’t be substantiated, and is offered a position during an invitation round, that’s a position that could have gone to a genuine applicant, but instead is lost.
- Unprepared applicants lodge an EOI, and then only after lodging, start to work out whether their claims are correct. They claim 15 points for work experience, but later realise they actually only have 10 points, because some of their work was in a different occupation. When they find out, they choose to let the invitation lapse and wait for another one. Or, they might not have a skills assessment or English test result.
- Some people shop around different States, waiting for their preferred State to become available, but pursuing sponsorship from a State they have no genuine intention of going to.
- Personal circumstances change and they decide they will no longer pursue migration. Or, having worked out the total costs of the move, they consider it’s not for them.
How can you help?
No one likes to see avoidable waste, and everyone that misses out on an invitation could have been one of the lucky ones. Make sure that, if you get an invitation, you make the most of it.
Don’t lodge an Expression of Interest on the spur of the moment. Research thoroughly and make absolutely sure you have everything you need to lodge a valid application, before you submit the EOI. Don’t leave anything to chance.
Work out where you’d like to live in Australia. If you are completely fixated on living in a particular State, don’t apply for another State’s sponsorship if you are not prepared to commit to that State for at least two years (for a 190 or 489) or three years (for a 491 regional visa) after entry to Australia. You’d be keeping someone else out! You’ll need to wait and hope your preferred State opens up for your occupation; or perhaps explore an employer sponsored route, which could be quicker and more certain. The new Regional Visas may instead be an attractive alternative. Bear in mind that all of Australia has something great to offer and 3 years passes very quickly indeed!
Get some professional help and advice about your options and application. It’s easy to become fixated on skilled migration, but sometimes a Registered Migration Agent can offer you a more lateral view of what sort of visas might be available, in your particular circumstance, that you might be unaware of. For example, at Emergico we have so far nominated three people for the new Global Talent Visa, designed for high calibre applicants. If you are specially nominated, this is a much more direct pathway to obtain a visa, and much quicker, than skilled migration.
