The Minister has released a new Ministerial Direction for priority processing arrangements last night effective 14 July. Effective July 2010, processing priorities (with highest priority listed first) are:
* Applications from people who are employer sponsored under the ENS and RSMS.
* Applications from people who are nominated by a state or territory government agency with a nominated occupation that is specified on that State or Territory's state migration plan.
* Applications from people who have nominated an occupation on the new SOL -Schedule 3 effective from 1 July 2010.
* All other applications are to be processed in the order in which there are received.
The priority processing arrangements applies to current applications, including those in the final stages of processing. Case Officers must follow the Direction made by the Minister about priority processing and cannot process applications outside the order set out.
Applicants who lodged before 1 July 2010 that have been nominated by a State or Territory in an occupation that is subsequently specified in their nominating State or Territory's State Migration Plan (SMP) will receive processing under Priority Group 2.
Applications with State Sponsorship which is not on the subsequent SMP will be processed on the basis of the nominated occupation. Therefore if the nominated occupation is on the new SOL it will be Priority Group 3. If the nominated occupation is not on the new SOL it will be Priority Group 4.
The average processing times for GSM have not been updated in the Client Service Charter in accordance with the new Ministerial Direction. Once DIAC have updated this information we will advise the standard processing times.
The State and Territories to release approved State Migration Plans. Whilst some States have indicated that they were expecting to release the Plans in August there is no exact date.
Federal Election has just been called for 21 August 2010 this may impact the approval and release of the State Migration Plans.
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