Migrating to Australia VIA the Australia SkillSelect Program

What is the Australia SkillSelect Programme?

As recent as 2012, Australia re-hauled its immigration method and introduced the Australia Skill Select.

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.

How can you apply for the SkillSelect?

Skilled workers and business people interested in migrating to Australia can be considered for a skilled visa by submitting an Expression of Interest (EOI) through SkillSelect.

An EOI is an indication that you would like to be considered for a skilled visa. An EOI is not a visa application. You will be asked to provide a range of information in your EOI depending on the visa you want to be considered for, such as:

• basic personal information
• nominated occupation
• work experience
• study and education
• level of English skills
• details of a skills assessment, related to your nominated occupation
• business and investment experience.

These skilled workers and business people can then be found and nominated for skilled visas by Australian employers or state and territory governments, or they might be invited by the Australian Government to lodge a visa application.

All people interested in the points based skilled migration or business investment and innovation visa programmes will need to submit an EOI and receive an invitation in order to lodge a visa application.

For more detail on what questions and information you will need to supply in your EOI, you should refer to the web page of the visa you are interested in.