NSW Subclass 190 State Nomination Update - 22 October Intake

By Mark Webster Tuesday, 04 November 2014

The NSW government completed its latest nomination intake for the Skilled Nominated Subclass 190 on 22 October.

This article shares some of the insights from the 22 October intake, as well as some of the likely changes for the next intake round which is likely to be held in February 2015.

Insights from 22 October Intake

The intake on 22 October was open for approximately 3.5 hours from 10 am through to 1:30 pm. During this time, it was clear that there was much more demand on the NSW servers, and a number of technical issues were experienced. For instance:

• Loading the application form was very slow, with frequent server timeouts
• When the application form did load, certain controls did not load properly - particularly the occupation selector and date selectors. This made it difficult to proceed with lodgement
• Even where it was possible to load and complete the form, the next page (credit card details) would generally not load - either an error message would display (eg invalid email address) or the server would timeout.

Feedback from the NSW Government is that only very few applicants were able to provide credit card details and complete the application. As a result, there were hardly any applicants who received confirmations via email on the 22nd of October.

On the 27th of October, many applicants received emails confirming that their NSW state nomination applications had been received. As a result, processing will proceed for these applicants - most of whom will need to provide payment details to NSW. We are still awaiting notice of payment methods for our clients.

Most of the reference numbers received for our applicants were in the range 1300-1600. However, we had one reference number in the 2000's - this suggests that more than 1000 places were available in the October intake. This was perhaps as a result of some applicants lodging more than one application in the July intake.

Project 190 Report

For clients participating in Project 190, our success rate for lodgement was over 50% - far better than our rate in the first intake in July.

In particular, having our clients attend our office allowed them to learn from other peoples' experience in real time.

We also developed a few techniques on the day to make it possible for our clients to proceed with lodgement even if the form did not load properly.

We consider Project 190 had a significant positive impact on the ability for our clients to be able to lodge despite the severe difficulties experienced with the load on NSW servers. However, we are still not satisfied and will work on improving Project 190 to make it possible for our clients to continue to have the best possible chance of success.

Likely Upcoming Changes to NSW 190 State Nomination

NSW acknowledges that the "first in, first served" methodology of selecting 190 candidates is not the best solution.

We consider it likely that NSW will make a significant change and move to an "Expression of Interest" style system for the next intake in February 2014.

Whilst we do not as yet have details on the exact process, the new system may incorporate the following features which are consistent with the Commonwealths' EOI system for General Skilled Migration:

• Open for longer: the intake may be open for a few weeks, allowing more applicants to lodge, and leading to fewer systems issues
• Points-based Selection: applicants with the highest points score may be selected first
• Occupational Selection: we believe that certain occupations make up a high proportion of 190 nominations received by NSW so far (eg Accountants, IT professionals). Quotas may apply for each occupation, which would result in a broader range of occupations nominated

Conclusion

The NSW state nomination process has been a very challenging one for the first two intakes of the 2014-15 program year.

We expect to see significant changes for the next intake, and will post further details when they become available.

If you would like to discuss your situation and get advice on the best immigration strategy for you, please book a consultation through our website.