A recent report from a reliable source has revealed that the Government of Australia has made some significant changes to its Skilled Migration Program, which will come into effect from 1 July, 2012.

SkillSelect (Skilled Migrant Selection Register) is a latest visa program of the country that aims to reform the selection procedure of skilled migrants to Australia along with their visa processing.

The said report has also mentioned that from 1 July, the existing skilled migration program of Australia will be replaced by SkillSelect. This new visa program will ensure that immigration applications of highly skilled overseas aspirants get selected for further visa processing. It provides the nation’s government more power over the immigrants.

However, SkillSelect may create some form of uncertainty for skilled aspirants. Overseas aspirants interested in family, independent, state or territory sponsored and business skills migration may get affect by this program.

SkillSelect is an electronic two-step process:

• Submitting an EOI or Expression of Interest

• (After EOI gets approved) Immigrants are asked to apply for a skilled visa by the Immigration and Citizenship Department of Australia

However, lodging the EOI doesn’t necessarily provide any guarantee to the applicants that they will be able to reach the second stage, which is receiving an invitation to apply for skilled visas. There are certain points criteria that the applicants have to meet, while lodging EOI. The applicants have to go for their skills assessment along with English language test in this process.

In case you are thinking of applying for PR Australia, then this is the right time for you. With all the new modifications to its existing immigration policy, obtaining PR would a little tougher this year. Hence, lodge your application as soon as possible, if you don’t want to get affected by the future changes, which are going to take place from 1 July, 2012.