The recently announced new points system in order to facilitate the country in assessing people applying to immigrate under the skilled migrant visa category by the nation’s immigration minister is facing criticism of late. According to the Australian Industry Group, the new points system is not likely to cater to the skill shortages that country has been currently facing.

The new points system was announced on last Thursday by Chris Bowen, where the least number of points required to pass has been adjusted from earlier 120 to 65. The group of industries in Australia has criticized the system, alleging that it does not promise to boost the migration to the country in order to meet the skill requirements.

If we have an insight of the system, we can see that it does not award points to applicants with competent language skills in English. Only the applicants who have superior language skills are awarded with points, but that too very less, unlike the old points-based system that existed. This certainly does not ensure the level of migration that the country needs in the present time. Other than the above, there are more glitches to the new points system.

One significant aspect of the new points system is that foreign doctorates will be awarded with the same number of points as the country’s local doctorates. Earlier, as per the old system foreign doctorates applying under skilled migrants visa category were not allotted with any points.

All the changes to the Australian skilled migrant visa category points system were made as part of the immigration department’s attempt to reform its skilled migration program. With the amendments, the department hopes to meet the country’s economic needs in the long term. It is expected that the new points system will work well in integration of Australia’s new skilled occupation list, which has been in effect since July1, 2010.