The Australian Government has released a discussion paper inviting submissions on options to reform the points test.
What is the points test?
Australia uses a points’ test for ranking of candidates who apply for general skilled migration visas. These visas include the Skilled Independent Visa (189), Skilled Nominated Visa (190) and Skilled Work Regional (Provisional) Visa (491). Points are awarded for various attributes such as age, work experience, qualifications, Australian study etc. and the threshold pass requirement is currently set to 65 points.
Reason for review
The discussion paper notes that since its introduction in 1979, there have not been any major changes to the points test. The Government’s Migration Strategy released in December 2023 also highlighted that that a reform of the points was needed better identify migrants who will drive long term prosperity. Several attributes within the current points test system have been identified as not delivering the intended outcomes in terms of migrant selection.
What changes are being considered?
While all 14 elements of the points test are open to review, the discussion paper highlights some of the components that the Government is keen to review. These include age, English, qualifications and work experience.
Our analysis of expected changes
It may be some time before the review is completed and a report released so we are presenting our analysis, based on our 30 years of experience in the immigration environment, of changes that can be expected.
Age
The Government is highly likely to change the way points are awarded for age. Currently, the maximum 30 points of age can contribute to around 46% towards the pass mark of 65. Ironically, someone at 39 years of age can get 25 points for age but on turning 40, this drops to 15 and the person would need 5 years of ‘additional’ work experience to gain the lost 10 points.
There is a strong possibility that the points scale may be adjusted to make the distribution less steep. The Government intent is apparent from the direct comparison in the discussion paper to Canada where the reduction of points with age follows a relatively flatter distribution of points.
For example, under the Canadian system, a maximum of 12 points are awarded for someone between 18-35 years old and this reduces by 1 point for every 1 year till the age of 47 years when the points become zero.
Work experience
There are likely to be some changes to points awarded for work experience. Currently, a candidate outside Australia can score between 5 (for 3 years’ work experience) to 15 points (for 8 years’ work experience) and there are no additional points for someone with more than 8 years’ work experience.
This unduly skews migrant selection towards younger and less experienced candidates. For example, a 30 year old person with 3 years work experience would get a combined score of 35 points for age and work experience (30 + 5). However, 10 years later, the same person would get a combined score of 30 points (15 +15) for the same attributes.
We believe that these changes may come in the form of points being awarded for work experience more than 8 years, or adjustments to the current scale of awarding points. Time will tell.
Partner points
This is another area that has been considered in the discussion paper where we believe changes can be expected. Currently, a skilled partner is able to contribute up to 10 points towards the primary candidate’s points, depending on certain factors. The factors consider the partner’s level of English, their occupation and whether their skills are recognized in Australia but gives no consideration to their work experience.
The discussion paper makes a reference to findings from the Migration Review report and the need to have a greater emphasis on the skills of partners of primary candidates. We believe that this recognition may be delivered through additional points for work experience of partners.
English proficiency and Qualifications
While the discussion paper does address distribution of points for English and qualifications, we do not consider any meaningful changes can be expected in these areas. The minimum English proficiency requirements were recently raised by the Government for student and temporary graduate visas and we believe further across-the-board changes are unlikely.
Most important – will the pass mark be raised?
It is difficult to answer this question without a crystal ball but we can take a guess that the pass mark is less likely to be raised at the same time as the overall points system is changed. Our reasons for this are below.
- There does not appear to be any evidence from recent reviews and reports that the pass mark of 65 is too high or too low
- The focus of the points test is better targeting of good migrants so the Government may be looking to see the effectiveness of the new distribution before raising the bar for everyone
- In the current environment, migrant selection for the 189, 190 and 491 visas is already occurring at points much higher than 65 so the gain is likely to be minimal.
Do you like our analysis? Please feel free to provide your comments/feedback below.
If you have any questions of interested to check your eligibility for these visas, specially if some of our predicted changes do occur, you can complete our Free Eligibility Assessment form.
Disclaimer
The above analysis is Assure Visa Pty Ltd view of the changes that are more likely to occur. We do not take any responsibility if changes, when announced, are different to our analysis. Readers should also use this information as a guide and consult a Registered Migration Agent before applying this analysis to their individual circumstances.