Like many ambitious people Kushal Patel also shifted to Canberra from Melbourne hunting for better opportunities for future growth. The reason he showed his interest in moving to Canberra is for a reason that it will be easy for him to apply for permanent residency in the ACT despite of the occupation closes. He stated in Hindi: "Canberra started this program last year. I was studying in Melbourne. I moved to Canberra as it increased my chances of getting a permanent residency". "But they suspended the program on June 29, 2018 without any prior notice."

The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) has certain arrangements especially for the residents. They are authorized to apply their nominated occupation was listed as ‘closed' on the current ACT Occupation List. The recent changes made without prior announcement is no longer available. As per the notice over the ACT web portal www.canberrayourfuture.com.au states:

EFFECTIVE 4:00PM AEST FRIDAY 29 JUNE 2018: Canberra residents:

  • The residents are qualified to apply for ACT 190 nomination in case your nominated occupation is listed as ‘open’ on the current ACT Occupation List.
  • The residents lose the eligibility to apply for ACT 190 nomination if your nominated occupation is listed as ‘closed' on the current ACT Occupation List.

For the Residents Overseas:

  • For the overseas residents the ACT 190 nomination program remains closed without close connection to Canberra and are presently closed to overseas applicants with close connection to Canberra.

Chaman Preet, a registered Migration and Education consultant, stated that these changes made by ACT recently have crushed the hopes of many residents. Her words "As we know, Canberra was offering 190 nominations to applicants for closed occupations on their skill list if they met the Canberra residence requirements". "This has been in place since January 2018. Due to this a lot of applicants especially those on 485 moved to Canberra and started Looking for jobs in their nominated occupations or enrolled in studies."

The occupations that has been marked closed on Canberra’s list comprise of major occupations such as: accountants, cafe and restaurant managers and ICT business analysts. These popular occupations have been the targeted added Mr Preet. This new change has hit the overseas applicants who were planning to apply for ACT nomination. The Australian Capital Territory has closed its program for overseas applicants as well.