‘The purpose of this instrument is to update the name of The Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia to Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand’
The new Migration (LIN 18/170: Professional Year Programs) Instrument 2018 was registered on 14 December 2018 and commences on 15 December 2018. It repeals IMMI 12/029.
Under item 6D61 of Schedule 6D of the Migration Regulations 1994 (Cth), a person scores 5 points if, at the time of invitation to apply for a points-tested GSM visa (subclasses 189, 190 and 489), the applicant has completed a ‘professional year’ in Australia in the nominated occupation or a closely related occupation for a period totalling at least 12 months in the 48 months immediately before that time.
‘Professional year’ is defined under reg 2.26AC(6) for the purposes of Schedule 6D of the Regulations. It means a course specified by the Minister in an instrument. The purpose of both the repealed and new instruments is to specify professional year programs for the purposes of the definition of ‘professional year’.
The new instrument makes a minor change, as explained by the explanatory statement:
6. The purpose of this instrument is to update the name of The Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia to Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand…
The new instrument provides as follows:
For the purposes of the definition of professional year in subregulation 2.26AC(6) of the Regulations, any of the following professional year programs are specified courses:
(a) The Professional Year Program provided by the Australian Computer Society which is available to information technology graduates;
(b) The Professional Year Program provided by Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand, the Certified Practising Accountants Australia and the Institute of Public Accounting which is available to accounting graduates;
(c) The Professional Year Program provided by Engineers Australia which is available to engineering graduates.
The repealed instrument also made references to regs 2.26AA and 2.26AB. Given that those provisions no longer exist, the new instrument refers only to reg 2.26AC.
Disclaimer: the above is a mere tentative analysis of a new piece of legislation. The views there expressed might not reflect the views of the Department, the AAT or the courts. The law or policies might have changed between the writing and reading of this article. The author of this article and Migration Law Updates disclaim any liability for any action (or omission) on their part based on any information provided (or not provided) in this article and are under no obligation to keep the general public nor practitioners informed about the matters discussed in this article or any other matters, or any future changes to any of those matters. It is the responsibility of each practitioner to obtain access to primary sources of law and policy by themselves and to carry out their own research and come to their own conclusions on legislation, case law, policies and more. This article is not intended for the general public.
Sergio Zanotti Stagliorio is a Registered Migration Agent (MARN 1461003). He is the owner of Target Migration in Sydney. He can be reached at sergio@targetmigration.com.au