EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

Migration Regulations 1994

RESIDENTIAL POSTCODES, SKILLED OCCUPATIONS, RELEVANT ASSESSING AUTHORITIES AND POINTS

(REGULATIONS 1.03 AND 2.26B)

1. This Instrument is made under regulations 1.17, 1.03 and subregulation 2.26B(1) of the Migration Regulations 1994 (‘the Regulations’).

2.                  Regulation 1.17 provides that the Minister may, by Notice published in the Gazette, specify matters required by individual provisions of the Regulations to be specified for the purposes of those provisions.

3.                  Regulation 1.03 defines the term skilled occupation.  In relation to an applicant for a Skilled Australian Sponsored (Migrant) (Class BQ) visa whose sponsor has a residential address the postcode of which is specified by Gazette Notice, the occupation must be in the Sydney and Selected Areas Skilled Shortage List specified in that Gazette Notice and for which a number of points specified in that Gazette Notice are available.  In any other case, a skilled occupation is an occupation that is specified by a Gazette Notice as a skilled occupation for which a number of points specified in that Gazette Notice are available.

4.                  Regulation 1.03 also provides that relevant assessing authority means a person or body specified under regulation 2.26B.

5.                  Subregulation 2.26B(1) provides that the Minister may, by notice in the Gazette, specify a person or body as the relevant assessing authority for a skilled occupation if the person or body is approved in writing by the Minister or the Department of Education, Science and Training (Education) as the relevant assessing authority for the occupation.

6.                  All principal applicants for a General Skilled Migration visa must nominate a skilled occupation and have their skills assessed as satisfactory for that skilled occupation.  Hence the purpose of the Gazette Notice is to specify what a skilled occupation is, and which body is responsible for determining whether an applicant has skills that are satisfactory to work in that skilled occupation in Australia. As some General Skilled Migration visa applicants are required to pass the General Skilled Migration Points Test, each skilled occupation has a number of points which may be allocated.

7.                  The Instrument operates to specify skilled occupations, the number of points that correspond to each occupation, bodies that are relevant assessing authorities for each occupation, and postcodes for residential addresses of sponsors. 

8.                  The following document is incorporated in the Instrument by reference:

• The Australian Standard Classification of Occupations (Second Edition) (ABS Catalogue No. 1220.0), available online from the Australian Bureau of Statistics at www.abs.gov.au/Ausstats .

9.                  Consultation was undertaken with the Department of Education, Science and Training before the Instrument was made.

10.              The Instrument, IMMI 06/035, commences on 1 July 2006.