DIAC has announced that it expects to commence allocating some General Skilled Migration (GSM) Priority Group 5 applications this program year (2011-12).
This group comprises approximately 27 347 onshore applications, and 15 284 offshore applications.
About 1000 priority cases are given to case officers each week.
As of 18 November 2011 there were approximately 751 onshore applications and 5544 offshore applications in Priority Group 4 awaiting allocation.
DIAC has given the following advice on how processing of Group 5 will occur:
Processing of Priority Group 5 applications lodged in Australia will begin with the remaining applications in the visa subclasses in effect prior to September 2007, the oldest of which was lodged on 28 July 2005. There are approximately 756 cases in this group.
Processing of Priority Group 5 applications lodged outside Australia will begin with applications in visa subclasses 495 and 496, which were lodged prior to 1 September 2007, the oldest of which was lodged on 10 July 2006. Unlike other GSM visa applications lodged from outside Australia, prior to 1 September 2007, these applications were not affected by the Minister’s Cap and Cease arrangements. There are approximately 594 cases in this group.
The number of Priority Group 5 applications processed this program year will ultimately depend on the number of higher priority applications received, and other factors including any change in the size of the Migration Program or variation of the Processing Direction. Many Priority Group 5 applicants still face a considerable wait until their application is allocated to a case officer for processing and may want to consider other options available.
Source: http://mia.org.au/
