At the end of each year of the Australian migration program the grant of skilled visas is slowing. This is nothing unusual, as the Department of Immigration needs to make sure that the number of skilled professionals who are migrating to Australia is not different to the number announced by the Immigration Minister for the program year, which ends on 30th of June.

Many applications that are ready for visa grant are being put on hold until the new program year will start on 1st July 2009.

The Adelaide Skilled Processing Centre (deals only with offshore skilled visas) allocates its limited number of visas available at the moment to:

- Prioritised applications (State/Territory sponsored or Critical Skills List occupations) where individuals are onshore and have planned to leave Australia to be eligible for visa grant;

- State/Territory sponsored applications with limited validity of initial entry;

Brisbane Skilled Processing Centre which deals only with onshore skilled visa applications is said to be in similar position at the moment.

Any further availability of visas is likely to be allocated under the Employer Nomination Scheme and Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme.