The highest numbers of permanent residency visas were granted to Accountants last year, followed by Software Engineer and Registered Nurses, new government figures have revealed.

The total permanent Migration Program outcome for 2017–18 was 162,417 places, compared to 183,608 permanent visas granted in 2016-17.

Professionals, technicians and managers emerged as top major occupation groups granted skilled visas in 2017-18 which accounted for 68.4 per cent of the total 2017–18 Migration Program outcome.

The top five occupations granted visas in the skilled stream in 2017-18 are:

Accountants (3505)

Software Engineer (3112)

Registered Nurses (1561)

Developer Programmer (1487)

Cook (1257)

SBS

Within the Skill stream, the Employer Sponsored category was granted 35,528 places. Under which, 29,307 visas issued under the Employer Nomination Scheme (ENS) and 6221 visas issued under the Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme (RSMS).

“It is getting tougher to get permanent residency”

Over 20.5 per cent of the total permanent migration program outcome for 2017-18 came from India.

33,310 places of 162,417 places were granted to Indian citizens.

But it is getting tougher to get Australian permanent residency, says migration agent Rohit Mohan.

“Accountants, software engineers and nurses are in demand, no doubt. But it is getting very competitive. It is tough to get permanent residency now. It is very tight,” Mr Mohan told SBS Hindi.

“Due to cut in immigration intake, only the top applicants with more points are being invited to apply for skilled visas.

“First it was easy to get an invite. The benchmark for an invitation was not this high. Now, with more supply and less demand, only those applicants who have high points, thanks to the high score in English, work experience are getting an invite to apply for these visas.

“Nursing is getting competitive too,” he says.

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