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THOUGH the federal government’s Skilled Occupation List for prospective emigrants to Australia gets most attention, the lesser known state and territory lists can offer further options.
Because different regions have different skills requirements – a mining engineer being more likely to find work in WA than in the ACT – State Migration Plans were introduced in 2010/11 to allow individual states and territories to sponsor applicants to fill shortages in local labour markets.
The plans specify which occupations state and territory governments can nominate applicants under and specify the number of visas that will be granted as part of this program.
The South Australian government recently announced a new State Nominated Occupations List, including 18 new occupations now classified as “in demand” in that state. The list includes food trades such as baker, cook and chef, along with customer service manager, librarian, aeronautical engineer and biomedical engineer.
In NSW applications for the 2014/15 Skilled Nominated visa (subclass 190) program will soon open. Applications for 2014-15 will be lodged electronically through a new online system and will be open for four intakes per year with a maximum of 1000 applications per intake. It is anticipated that all the occupations on the previous year’s list will remain and that some new occupations will be included.
Victoria’s list was updated on March 3. Eligible occupations are divided into: PhD graduates; engineering and building; biotechnology and science; financial services and human resources management; information and communications technology; tourism and hospitality; health; education; and trades. Applications are not currently being accepted from web designers or help desk operators/managers.
In Western Australia, occupations in demand range from childcare centre manager to meat inspector to vascular surgeon. But your luck is out if you are a fruit grower, museum curator or construction estimator.
If you want to take advantage of Tasmania’s state migration plan you might need to provide examples of “substantial and current links to Tasmania”. This could include study or employment in the state for more than a year, or having relatives in Tasmania who are willing to assist with relocation. A quick visit won’t do: “Short holidays to the state are not considered to be links to Tasmania.” Occupations on Tasmania’s list include dairy cattle manager, architect and wine maker.
Queensland’s current list was updated on January 1, with its stated aim being to provide “nominations to skilled migrants with skills in demand who can make a contribution to Queensland’s economy”. It also points out that applicants from Ireland “are not required to sit an English language test” in most cases. Occupations currently in demand in the sunshine state include environmental manager, microbiologist and social worker. Registered nurse (perioperative) also makes the cut, so long as the applicant has experience in three of the four following areas: post anaesthetic care unit, scrub, scout and recovery.
In the ACT, the list was last updated in February. It divides occupations into open (such as cartographer, spatial scientist and sonographer), limited (such as early childhood teacher, environmental health officer and naval architect) and closed (such as cotton grower, goat farmer and arts administrator).
The Northern Territory divides its list into high priority occupations (including university lecturer, audiologist and waiter), priority occupations (including youth worker, prison officer and panel beater), and industry priority occupations (including hotel service manager, steel fixer and slaughterer).
