The Australian Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) have recently updated their website to include information on current application processing stages and times for people who have previously lodged an application for skilled migration to Australia.

The DIAC website now incorporates an ‘Allocation Dates for General Skilled Migration Applications’ page. This page provides details on which applications are currently being allocated to DIAC case officers (where applicable), according to the date on which a GSM application was lodged and the processing priority category that it falls under.

DIAC intend to update this information every fortnight. This will allow GSM applicants to 'track' the progress of their application so that they aware of what processing stage it is up to, and when they are likely to receive contact from a DIAC case officer.  

You can view the ‘Allocation Dates’ page on the DIAC website or visit this link;

http://www.immi.gov.au/skilled/general-skilled-migration/estimated-allocation-times.htm

DIAC have asked applicants to keep in mind that Australia’s skilled migration program is primarily focused on Australia’s current skills needs, and that over the last few years more people have applied to migrate to Australia than there are places in Australia’s skilled migration program.

Due to this, all GSM applications are catogorised into priority groups according to the skills an applicant processes and the current need for those skills in the Australian labour market. GSM applications which have skills currently in demand in Australia will be given higher priority and will therefore be processed ahead of lower priority applications, regardless of when the application was lodged.

To view the specific details of these priority categories as well as the expected processing timeframes for each, visit the ‘Skilled Migration Visa Processing Times’ page on the DIAC website or visit this link;

http://www.immi.gov.au/about/charters/client-services-charter/visas/8.0.htm

DIAC have indicated they expect to see an improvement on the current processing times due to the recent reforms to Australia’s skilled migration program, which have enhanced their ability to match the skills of a new visa applicant to those needed by the Australian labour market. It is also expected that the priority category 5 caseload will be significantly reduced during the 2011-2012 financial year.