Planned system maintenance
Friday 22 August 2014
There is a planned system outage from 9pm 22 August 2014 to 10am 23 August 2014 AEST (UTC+10).
SkillSelect clients will not be able to commence a visa application during the planned outage.
You might receive a 'Server 500' error message during this time, try again after 10am AEST (UTC +10).
We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause
New validity requirement for skills assessments
From 1 July 2014, if a skills assessment is mandatory as part of a visa application, that assessment will only be valid for a period of three years from the date of issue, unless a shorter validity period is specified on the assessment.
A skills assessment must be valid at the time of lodgement for the following visas:
Direct Entry stream of the Employer Nominated Scheme (subclass 186) visa
Direct Entry stream of the Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme (subclass 187) visa
Graduate Work stream of the Temporary Graduate (subclass 485) visa.
A skills assessment must be valid at the time of invitation to apply through SkillSelect for the following visas:
Skilled—Independent (subclass 189) visa
Skilled—Nominated (subclass 190) visa
Skilled Regional (Provisional) (subclass 489) visa.
These changes do not affect the Temporary Work (Skilled)(subclass 457) visa.
About SkillSelect
SkillSelect is an online service that helps Australia manage its skilled migration programme. It helps to ensure that the skilled migration programme is based on Australia's economic needs. It supports the government in managing who can apply for skilled migration, when they can apply and in what numbers. As a result, the time taken to process a visa application is significantly reduced.
SkillSelect also helps address regional skill shortages. SkillSelect allows intending migrants to indicate if they are willing to live and work in regional Australia. This is of particular benefit to employers experiencing regional skill shortages and state and territory governments attempting to settle migrants in regional Australia.