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The
Australian Government uses the skilled migration program to bring to
Australia people with qualifications and work experience needed to
address specific skill shortages in Australia and enhance the skill
level of the Australian labor force.
The
regulations have therefore steadily been tightened to increase the
focus on the applicant's employment skills rather than on their
family relationships with Australian citizens or permanent
residents.
Since
1996, the Australian Government has rebalanced the migration program
towards the Skill Stream. In 1995-96 the Skill Stream comprised 29.2
percent of the program, but this share increased to 50.3 percent in
1999-00, and 52.6 percent in 2000-01.
These
changes are a result of new requirements: Applications made after 1
July 1999 must be for the new visa classes: Skilled -
Australian-sponsored (Migrant) (Class BQ), and Skilled - Independent
(Migrant) (Class BN). These two classes include the following
subclasses:
-
Subclass 136 (skilled - independent)
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Subclass 137 (skilled - State/Territory nominated independent)
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Subclass 138 (skilled - Australian-sponsored)
-
Subclass 139 (skilled - regional-sponsored)
A
further new class, Skill Matching (Migrant) (Class BR), and
subclass, subclass 134 (skill matching) visa, were also created.
In
addition, on 1 July 2001, another two new onshore points-tested visa
classes has been created to enable successful tertiary qualified
overseas students in Australia to apply for general skilled
migration visas onshore:
The
new subclasses are subject to common minimum requirements for the
skill, age and English language ability criteria, which must be
satisfied.
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