Australian Government
Department of Immigration and Citizenship

I am writing to you concerning your General Skilled Migration (GSM) <subclass> application lodged on <Lodgedate>.

The Government recently announced 190,000 places for the 2012-13 migration program year. This includes 129,250 places for the Skilled Migration Program including Skilled Independent, Employer Sponsored, State and Territory Sponsored, and Skilled Australian Sponsored (Family Sponsored) applicants.
See: http://www.immi.gov.au/media/fact-sheets/20planning.htm

The Minister for Immigration and Citizenship has set new priority processing arrangements for skilled migration applications, which took effect from 1 July 2012. Information about the priority processing groups and the order of processing applications is available on the departmental website.
See: Priority processing groups and order of processing applications.

As at 1 July 2012, there were approximately 16,350 Skilled Independent cases representing approximately 27,600 applicants in Priority Group 5 awaiting allocation. As such, many Priority Group 5 applicants still face a considerable wait until their application is allocated to a case officer for processing.

You can follow the progress of GSM applications being allocated to case officers on the departmental website:
See: www.immi.gov.au/skilled/general-skilled-migration/estimated-allocation-times.htm

As you have not been nominated by a state or territory government, and your nominated occupation is not on the SOL in effect from 1 July 2012, your application is in priority group 5 for the purposes of priority processing arrangements

As your GSM visa application was lodged before the legislative changes made on 1 July 2010, you are eligible to seek a nomination from any state or territory government.

When seeking a nomination from a state or territory government agency you should consider whether your nominated occupation is listed on the current State Migration Plan (SMP) for your intended state or territory.

State Migration Plans commenced for all states and territories in late 2010 and early 2011, and list which occupations state and territory governments can nominate applicants under. States and territories have a limited capacity to submit nominations for occupations not listed on their State Migration Plan. These provisions allow states further flexibility in providing nominations which may be valuable in meeting shortages in very specialised occupations.

It is important to note that it is entirely at the discretion of the state or territory government agencies to nominate applicants and to submit nominations of their choosing to the department. Once a nomination of their choosing is received by the department, it will be considered and the nominating agency will be informed of the decision.

If you are able to obtain a state or territory nomination, and meet the other eligibility requirements, you should email a completed Form 1022 to gsm.documents@immi.gov.au notifying GSM of a change to your visa application category. Your visa application category will change once your nomination has been submitted to the department by the state or territory government and approved.

You may also wish to consider alternate visa options including:
– considering your eligibility for an employer sponsored visa, which would require a new visa application
– submitting an Expression of Interest (EOI) for another skilled migration visa through SkillSelect
Information about SkillSelect can be found on the departmental website.
See: www.skillselect.gov.au

You can withdraw your application at any stage during processing if you no longer want to be considered for the grant of this visa. Information on how to withdraw an application, along with other information for applicants who have already lodged a GSM application, is available on the departmental website. Applicants who do not wish to continue their application and withdraw for this reason, are not eligible for a refund of the visa application charge.
See: http://www.immi.gov.au/skilled/general-skilled-migration/lodged-information.htm

Further information on the processing of priority group 5 applications is available on the departmental website:
See: http://www.immi.gov.au/skilled/general-skilled-migration/gsm-priority5-processing.htm

General Skilled Migration