.gif)
Fiji citizens intending to study or migrate to Australia will need to familiarize themselves with changes to the General Skilled Migration (GSM) program.
This follows this weeks’ announcement that Australia axed 20,000 migrant applications in a major overhaul, aimed at clamping down on foreign students gaining permanent residency through courses such as hairdressing and cookery.
Australian Immigration Minister Chris Evans announced major changes to their GSM program and revoked the Migration Occupations in Demand List (MODL).
Australian High Commission spokesman in Suva, Dennis Rounds, confirmed the changes made to the GSM program.
However, he said this has not altered student visa regulations.
“Anyone studying or intending to study in Australia should ensure they meet the current visa requirements,” he said.
The MODL prompted a massive influx in foreign students attending courses that put them in line for permanent residency.
Such courses included cookery, hairdressing and accounting.
But Rounds noted that the revocation of the current MODL will not affect those who at the date of the announcement, hold a skilled-graduate visa.
Also according to Rounds, it also won’t affect those who have yet to apply for a permanent or provisional GSM or have a pending GSM visa application lodged before 1st of September, 2007.
Evans earlier said the reforms, which follow a sudden rise in Australia's Indian population and an embarrassing rash of attacks on students from the country, would give priority to migrants with higher skills.
The new measures are likely to weigh on Australia's large overseas education sector, which successfully targeted Asian students to become the country's fourth largest earner of foreign money.
