What is the General Skilled Migration Program?

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General Skilled Migration Program (GSM) which assesses applicants based on their qualifications, work experience and language ability to satisfy Australian Immigration requirements. Candidates must meet The Basic Requirements for an Australia Skilled Visa include:

Age - you must be under 45 when you apply;

English language - you should have sufficient ability in the English language to work in Australia (at least at a vocational level);

Qualifications - you must have post-secondary qualifications and your skills must be assessed by the relevant assessing authority as suitable for your nominated occupation;

Nominated occupation - when you apply you nominate a skilled occupation, which fits your skills and qualifications. Your nominated occupation must be found on the Skilled Occupations List; As a nurse, you should have no problems with this, because nursing staff are very much in demand in the Australian economy at the moment. It attracts 60 points from the SID list. You can find the exact type of nurse on the Skills in Demand list here:

http://www.immi.gov.au/allforms/pdf/1121i.pdf

Recent work experience - the period of work experience required will vary depending on the number of points you may be granted for your nominated occupation;

Australian qualification exemption - you do not need to meet the work experience requirement if you have completed an Australian qualification less than 6 months before lodging your visa application; and

Skills assessment - before you apply, you must have your skills assessed by the Australian assessing authority designated to assess your nominated occupation.

Health assessment - you should be of reasonably good health and all applicants must have their health assessed by a panel doctor and undergo a medical examination.

Character assessment - you should be of good character and this too will be assessed. As long as there is no substantial criminal record or history of imprisonment, this should not be an issue.

The skilled visa class requires the points test outlined here: http://www.visabureau.com/australia/immigration-points-test.aspx#ausworkexperience

It may be possible to apply for an skilled (independent) visa but you need 20 more points on the points test to qualify for an independent visa as opposed to a sponsored one. You should read through the aspects of the points test to see if you will be able to claim the additional 20 points, perhaps because of your work experience in Regional Australia. However, because of your relatively short existing period of work experience, this may be difficult to achieve. If you can get at least one year of work experience, that will make your application much stronger.

You can begin an application online here: http://www.immi.gov.au/e_visa/