Since July 2015, Department of Immigration and Border Protection has announced a series of policy update, herewith the summary of the major changes:
1. Changes to the SOL & CSOL
Skilled Occupations List (SOL) is for you to apply for a Skilled Independent Permanent Visa Subclass 189, Skilled Regional Provisional Visa Subclass 489 (Family Sponsored Points Tested) or Graduate Visa Subclass 485 – Graduate Work Stream.
From 1st July 2015, some of the occupations have been removed from the SOL:
· Urban and Regional Planner 232611
· Dental Specialist 252311
· Dentist 252312
Although these three occupations are no longer on the SOL, applicants may still be eligible to acquire a state or employer sponsorship under these occupations.
Two occupations added to the list are:
·  Panelbeater 324111
· Cabinetmaker 394111
Consolidated Sponsored Occupations List (CSOL)Â is used when an applicant is nominated by an employer for a 457, a 186 or ENS (Employer Nominated Scheme) by either Direct Entry Stream or Temporary Residence Transition Scheme (2 years with same employers).
One occupation was removed on CSOL list:
· Primary School Teacher 241212
2. Increased of Visa Application ChargesÂ
Since 1st July 2015, the Department of Immigration and Border Protection released new visa application charges.
Some examples of new visa charges are:
3. Occupation ceilings for the 2015-16 programme year
An occupation ceiling will again be applied to invitations to apply to migrate under the points based skilled visas of the general skilled migration programme- Skilled Independent Permanent Visa Subclass 189 .
We have done a comparison of the occupation ceilings in 2014-2015 and 2015-2016.
