Privacy Statement

SkillSelect System Privacy Notice

The Department of Home Affairs (Home Affairs) is bound by Australian Privacy Principles (APPs), in Schedule 1 of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act), which regulate the way we collect, use, store and disclose personal information. Under APP 5, Home Affairs is required to notify you of certain matters when it collects personal information about you. This Privacy Notice is your notification of those matters.

SkillSelect System

Home Affairs provides the SkillSelect Program for you to make an expression of interest (EOI) if you are a skilled worker or business person from overseas who wants to migrate to Australia under one of several available visa subclasses. An EOI is not to be confused with a visa application. It is simply a method of showing your interest in migrating to Australia under one of several available visa subclasses.

EOIs must be submitted online using the SkillSelect System. The submission of an EOI is voluntary, however if you submit an EOI but do not wish to provide the requested information, we may not be able to correctly assess your eligibility to be invited to apply for a visa.

Home Affairs will use the information you provide to create and manage your SkillSelect System account and to assess your eligibility to be invited to apply for a visa. Home Affairs may disclose this information to State and Territory government departments and agencies in relation to sponsorships, nominations and for monitoring or compliance purposes.

Home Affairs will not usually disclose your personal information to an overseas recipient. Should a circumstance arise where there is a requirement to disclose your personal information to an overseas recipient, Home Affairs only do so in ways permitted by the APPs, for example, with your consent or where authorised or required by law.

Publication of statistical information about the SkillSelect Program

There is strong community interest in the SkillSelect Program. Home Affairs publishes a SkillSelect Dashboard to provide de-identified statistics about the SkillSelect Program to the public.

While Home Affairs takes steps to ensure that there is no reasonable likelihood of an individual being re-identified from information released via the SkillSelect Dashboard, the Privacy Act 1988 recognises that it is not possible to provide absolute certainty that de-identified information can never be re-identified. This is due to risks that include the possibility that a member of the public may be able to re-identify an EOI applicant through other publicly available information sources, such as social media, or through prior personal knowledge of an EOI applicant.

Updating your EOI

You can access your EOI and update your information while in draft, submitted or hold status. It is your responsibility to access your EOI and update your details if your circumstances change. These changes may affect your points score.

Further information about our information handling practices

The SkillSelect System and SkillSelect Dashboard are maintained by the Department of Education, Skills and Employment (DESE) under a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Home Affairs. Access is limited to DESE ICT staff and contractors who are directly involved in providing hosting, maintenance and support of the SkillSelect System and SkillSelect Dashboard and are subject to strict security and confidentiality measures.

More information about the personal information handling practices of Home Affairs, including how you may access the information Home Affairs holds about you, or seek correction of this information, is available in Form 1442i and our privacy policy, which is accessible here. Our privacy policy also contains information about how you can make a privacy complaint if you believe that Home Affairs has handled your personal information in way that breaches its obligations under the APPs.

You can contact Home Affairs through the following channels:

complete a feedback form online at www.homeaffairs.gov.au
write to: