Regional Immigration Australia

Permanent State/Territory Sponsored Visa (subclass176)

We've said elsewhere that one of the principal aims of Australia's immigration programme is to poach skilled workers from overseas. Ideally, this is a win-win game. Australia wins by getting skilled workers without the need to spend money educating and training them, while the migrants win by getting a better quality of life, and possibly better wages.

A weakness in the process is that most migrants gravitate to the same places - Melbourne, Sydney, Perth and Brisbane. To provide incentives for migrants to move to less obvious locations, regional migration programmes support regional development and help supply the skills needs of regional employers.

The programmes aim to attract young, skilled, English speaking migrants to areas of Australia where they are most needed. Generally, skilled migrants are under 45 years of age, have functional English, diploma level qualifications or above and relevant work experience.

The subclass 176 Visa offers permanent residence in Australia for skilled migrants. You must live and work in the sponsoring state at least for the first two years. These visas are given highest priority by the government at the moment making it the quickest non-employer sponsored visa.

To qualify for this visa you will have to have state/territory sponsorship and achieve 100 points on Australia's Department of Immigration and Citizenship points test.

Each State/Territory has its own requirements for regional sponsorship for this visa. The main requirement is that your skill/occupation is on the state's skilled occupation shortage list - these vary between the states.

If you find that your occupation is not on the list for one state don't give up, it may be on another one. If you are flexible about where you want to live and work, it's worth while to check them all.

South Australia
http://www.migration.sa.gov.au/public/download.jsp?id=5386

Queensland
http://www.workliveplay.qld.gov.au/dsdweb/v4/apps/web/content.cfm?id=13714

Victoria
http://www.liveinvictoria.vic.gov.au/downloadable-documents/Skilled-Sponsored-176-Visa-Eligibility-List

Western Australia
http://www.migration.wa.gov.au/media/documents/WAOIDL_24_Aug_2009.pdf

New South Wales
http://www.business.nsw.gov.au/migration/state_independent_migration.asp

ACT
No current list.

Australian Northern Territory
http://www.nt.gov.au/dbe/employment/workforce_nt/docs/nt_occupation_shortage_list.pdf

Tasmania
Skilled Nominated Occupation List from DIAC
http://www.immi.gov.au/allforms/pdf/1121i.pdf