kuha ko lang sa expat, share ko na rin dito...
<b>EOI - The Earlier The Better</b>
As you all know, the Skill Select has kicked in today. From now on, aspiring immigrants would have to submit an Expression of Interest (EOI) to the DIAC to be considered for a visa.
Applicants are ranked based on different factors including Age, English language ability, Skilled employment, Educational qualifications, Australian study requirements and some other factors (Partner Skills and so on) - but you would not be able to view your rank.
Why?
Because it will keep changing as "better" EOIs are made.
Now coming back to the topic.
Why should you make the EOI without any delay?
There are two main reasons.
- Points-tie
Person A makes an EOI for a particular occupational code. Person B, a day later, makes the EOI for the same occupational code.
Now suppose that both have 65 points.
What would happen?
Skill Select is a point based system.
In case of a points-tie, the person to make the first EOI gets the preference. So in our example Person A gets the preference.
But what exactly is taken into account here is the time you submitted your EOI or the time at which you make an update to your EOI causing your points score or visa eligibility to change - whichever is later.
Now suppose Person C has filed his EOI on 1st July with 60 points and Person D files on 2nd July with 70 points.
Few days later, Person C receives a higher IELTS score (may be through EOR) and updates the EOI to have 70 points.
Now that both of them have the same point score, who will have the ranking preference?
You guessed it, it's D - because C's last updated time (causing points score or visa eligibility to change) is after D's.
Most applicants would be getting scores between 60 and 80.
With thousands of applicants, that means there will a high number of point-ties which will lead to the early applications being pushed up in priority among the similarly scoring ones.
So it goes without saying that you should make your EOI at the earliest if you have your skills assessed and possess a favourable IELTS result.
- Occupation Ceiling
Skill Select would help DIAC to streamline issuing PRs.
The provision to specify an occupation ceiling has been incorporated into the Skill Select to do this efficiently.
What is an Occupation Ceiling?
It is simply a number - the number of applicants that would be granted a visa in a particular occupational group.
An occupational group is the set of all occupations that come under the 4 digit unit group level of the ANZSCO.
For example, group 2613 is for SOFTWARE AND APPLICATIONS PROGRAMMERS. The occupations that come under this group are:
261311 Analyst Programmer
261312 Developer Programmer
261313 Software Engineer
261314 Software Tester
261399 Software and Applications Programmers nec
How would the occupational ceiling be specified?
It will be specified as a number that holds good for a program year from 1 July 2012 - it will not be divided into a monthly amounts.
An example would be 5160 (as per reports) for the group 2613 (SOFTWARE AND APPLICATIONS PROGRAMMERS).
What does this mean?
Only 5160 people from the group 2613 will be given a visa in the particular program year.
What happens when the ceiling is reached?
Once the occupation ceiling is reached, no further invitations for that occupation group will be issued.
That means, after 5160 invites have been send out to the group 2613 (and all of them applies for the visa within 60 days), someone who makes an EOI even with 80 points will not receive an invite in the same program year!
So what can we conclude?
As the ceiling is for a year, there is little chance that it gets used up in the initial months of the program year.
As the program year keeps progressing, more and more visas get issued and the total inches towards the ceiling.
So a person who applies in July or August 2012 is more likely to get an invite to apply for the visa than someone who applies in May or June 2013!
In short - the earlier you apply, the better!
References
<a href="http://migrationblog.immi.gov.au/2012/06/18/why-you-should-submit-an-eoi-on-1-july-2012/#comment-1082">The benefits of submitting an expression of interest on 1 July | Migration Blog</a>
<a href="http://migrationblog.immi.gov.au/2012/05/14/busting-the-myths-about-skillselect/#comment-729">Busting the myths about SkillSelect | Migration Blog</a>
<a href="http://migrationblog.immi.gov.au/2012/06/18/why-you-should-submit-an-eoi-on-1-july-2012/#comment-965">The benefits of submitting an expression of interest on 1 July | Migration Blog</a>