Newzealand Skilled Migrant Category Points and bonus points

Skilled Migrant Category

The Skilled Migrant Category (SMC) offers you the opportunity to move to New Zealand to work and live permanently.

Who can apply?

To be eligible for residence under SMC you must:

• be 55 or under
• be healthy
• be of good character
• speak English.

To decide if you can apply we use a points system. You get points for age, experience, employability and qualifications.

How to apply

There are two steps:

1. You complete an Expression of Interest, telling us about yourself, your family, your skills and your experience.
2. If you have enough points, we accept your Expression of Interest, and send you an Invitation to Apply. You complete it, and return it to us with your supporting documents.

Find out more

• Points indicator – Gives you an idea of how many points you could claim when you apply.
• Can I apply? – Gives you the basic requirements you have to meet, and more about the points system.
• How to apply – How you lodge your Expression of Interest, and what you’ll need to provide later with you application.
• After you’re approved – Some things you need to know about when your application has been accepted.

Points and bonus points

All of the available points are listed below. 100 points will get your EOI into the ‘Pool’, but the more points you have, the more likely you are to be selected.

Age

• 30 points: 20-29 years
• 25 points: 30-39 years
• 20 points: 40-44 years
• 10 points: 45-49 years
• 5 points: 50-55 years.

Close family

10 points for close family in New Zealand.

Skilled employment

• 50 points: job offer
• 50 points: working in a skilled job in New Zealand for less than 12 months
• 60 points: working in a skilled job in New Zealand for more than 12 months.

Bonus points

• 10 points: work in an identified future growth area
• 10 points: work in an area of absolute skills shortage
• 10 points: work in a region outside Auckland
• 20 points if partner has a skilled job or job offer.

Work experience in skilled employment

• 10 points: 2 years
• 15 points: 4 years
• 20 points: 6 years
• 25 points: 8 years
• 30 points: 10 years.

Bonus points for work experience in New Zealand:

• Five points: one year
• 10 points: two years
• 15 points: three or more years.

And if the work experience is in an identified future growth area:

• 10 points: 2 to 5 years experience
• 15 points: 6 or more years experience.

And if the work experience in an area of absolute skills shortage:

• 10 points: 2 to 5 years
• 15 points: 6 or more years.

Qualifications

• 40 points: recognised level 4-6 qualification (e.g. trade qualification, diploma)
• 50 points: recognised level 7 or 8 qualification (e.g. bachelor degree, bachelor degree with honours)
• 60 points: recognised level 9 or 10 post-graduate qualification (masters degree, doctorate)

Bonus points for qualifications:

• 10 points: two years full-time study in New Zealand completing a recognised bachelor degree New Zealand qualification 
• 10 points: One year of full-time study in New Zealand completing a recognised post-graduate New Zealand qualification
• 15 points: two years of full-time study in New Zealand completing a recognised post-graduate New Zealand qualification
• 10 points: qualification in an identified future growth area
• 10 points: qualification in an area of absolute skills shortage
• 10 points   if your partner holds a level 4-6 qualification
• 20 points: if your partner holds a level 7+ qualification.

Click the link for points calculator:  http://www.immigration.govt.nz/pointsindicator/

Australa's New Skilled Migration Selection Model for 2012

Australia will introduce a new Skilled Migrant Selection Model in July 2012 in one of the biggest changes to the Australian immigration system in years.

The new SkillSelect model will see Australia move to a system similar to that used by New Zealand, and based upon an Expression of Interest (EOI). People applying for a Skilled Migrant visa will first have to register their claims for skilled migration through an online Expression of Interest (EOI), and may then be invited to make an immigration application – a process that could take up to six months.

Under the current system, applicants for independent or state/territory sponsored migration can submit an immigration application immediately as long as they meet all requirements. Once the new model comes into effect on 1 July 2012, they will first require an invitation from Australian immigration to lodge a visa application.

Australian Immigration Minister Chris Bowen said: "It is critical that Australia's skilled migration program is driven by Australia's skills needs, rather than the desires of prospective migrants."

"That's why the government will introduce a new model for selecting skilled migrants to better target Australia's future skill needs."

Mr Bowen said the new system would be more equitable for migrants, and would deliver stronger outcomes for employers who weren’t able to fill their skilled positions locally.

The following Australian immigration visa categories will be affected by the new Skilled Migrant Selection Model:

Applicants living outside Australia:

• Subclass 475 Skilled Regional Sponsored
• Subclass 175 Skilled Independent
• Subclass 176 Skilled Sponsored

Applicants already living in Australia:

• Subclass 487 Skilled Regional Sponsored
• Subclass 885 Skilled Independent
• Subclass 886 Skilled Sponsored

The new system is expected to come into effect 1 July 2012.

Visa eligibility and approval depends on the applicant's individual circumstances.To find out if you're eligible for a General Skilled Migration visa, take Working In's free online eligibility assessment.

How to create hard-drive partitions in Windows

It's likely that your hard drives are all formatted with one large partition.

The major advantage to splitting up individual disks into multiple partitions is to soften the blow when you need to reinstall your OS. This is achieved by putting your OS and applications on one partition and your media on a separate one.

For Windows users, there are several third-party programs that you can download/purchase that will assist you with this process. In reality, none of these are really necessary because Windows comes with a built-in (and well-hidden) disk-management system. Let's get started.

Find the disk manager

(Credit: Screenshot by Nicole Cozma)

Step 1: Open the Start menu and type "disk management" into the search window. Click on the entry that appears labeled Create and format hard-disk partitions.

Create empty space on the hard drive

If didn't build your computer, the chances of having unformatted space is pretty unlikely. If you actually do have unformatted space, or you just bought a new hard drive and are partitioning it, you can skip this part.

(Credit: Screenshot by Nicole Cozma)

Step 2: Recent versions of Windows are capable of splitting off unused parts of your hard drive into newer partitions (with older versions, as in Windows XP-era, you'll probably need to freshly format the drive). To do this, select the drive from the list in the bottom pane of the window.

(Credit: Screenshot by Nicole Cozma)

Step 3: Right-click on the main partition of the drive and select Shrink Volume. The program will then calculate how much space it can split off. The time it takes will vary based on the capacity of the hard drive.

(Credit: Screenshot by Nicole Cozma)

Step 4: In the window that appears, enter the partition size that you want to cut away from the main segment. Note that the size is in MB, and there are 1024 MB in a GB. Click the Shrink button once the size is to your liking.

Select and format your partition

With space cleared on your hard drive available for partitioning, you are ready to set it up for use.

(Credit: Screenshot by Nicole Cozma)

Step 5: Right-click on the empty partition, labeled Unallocated, from the bottom pane. Select New Simple Volume... from the menu that appears.

(Credit: Screenshot by Nicole Cozma)

Step 6: A wizard will appear to walk you through the formatting of the partition. It will prompt you for the desired size of the partition, allow you to set a drive letter for the partition, and select the file system (you'll most likely want NTFS). A summary of your choices will be displayed before any formatting occurs.

(Credit: Screenshot by Nicole Cozma)

Once the format is completed, a new drive will appear for use in Windows.

(Optional) Step 7: Move your media onto the newly partitioned drive!

For best results when splitting your disk into partitions, a nearly empty hard drive should be used. The more data you have, the more difficult it will be for the operating system to separate a partition large enough to be useful. If deleting your data isn't an option, try running the disk defragment program to move space around.