Immigration News

From 26 March 2012, the Visa Conditions 8104 and 8105 were amended to provide:

• Student work entitlements are measured as 40 hours a fortnight instead of 20 hours a week.

• Unlimited work rights for Subclass 574 (Postgraduate Research Sector) visa holders if they have commenced their masters degree by research or doctoral degree.

The new definition of 'fortnight' refers to the period of 14 days commencing on a Monday.

The amendments apply to visas that are subject to condition 8104 or 8105 in Schedule 8 to the Regulations and which are in effect on 26 March 2012.

The amendments also apply to applications for relevant visas:

• made on or after 26 March 2012
  or
• made, but not finally determined before 26 March 2012.

Employer Sponsored Permanent Residency / Migration Visa Changes

On 9 March 2012, the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, the Hon Chris Bowen MP announced changes to the Permanent Employer-Sponsored visa program to be implemented from 1st July 2012.

These changes will impact the following current visa types:

•Employer Nomination Scheme (ENS)
•Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme (RSMS)
•Labour Agreements program.

Following a a comprehensive review, the reforms include:

• collapsing the existing visa subclasses from six to two. This will be achieved by:

• removing the existing distinctions between in and outside Australia
• replacing the permanent labour agreement visa with streams in the ENS and RSMS

• introducing a streamlined and simplified pathway to permanent residence for eligible Temporary Business (Long Stay) subclass 457 visa holders

•raising the upper age limit to less than 50 years

•changes to key visa criteria including English language and skill requirements

•introducing one consolidated sponsored occupation list to replace the 457 occupation list, the Employer Nomination Skilled Occupation List (ENSOL) and the State and Territory Sponsored Occupation List (StatSOL)

•strategically refocussing the regional certifying body (RCB) network to the Direct Entry stream of RSMS

•integrating the new ENS and RSMS visas with the skilled migrant selection model—SkillSelect, which will be launched on 1 July 2012.

A New ENS / RSMS Visa Structure

The current employer-sponsored visa classes and subclasses will be replaced with two new visas:

•Employer Nomination (Class EN) Employer Nomination Scheme (subclass 186)
•Regional Employer Nomination (Class RN) Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme (subclass 187).

Within each of these visa subclasses there will be three streams:

•The Temporary Residence Transition stream is for subclass 457 visa holders who have worked for their employer for at least the last two years and the employer wants to offer them a permanent position in that same occupation.

•The Direct Entry stream is for applicants who are untested in the Australian labour market and have not held a subclass 457 for at least the last two years or are applying directly from outside Australia.

•The Agreement stream is for applicants who are being sponsored by an employer through a highly scrutinised and negotiated labour agreement or regional migration agreement.

An employer or visa applicant will need to meet the requirements of the particular stream.

Amendments to the Social Security Act 1991 from 1 January 2012, will allow access to Special Benefit payments for the holders of temporary Partner visas. This will align with access to Special Benefit for the holders of permanent Partner visas.

Thus, during the Partner (temporary) visa holder's initial two-year residence in Australia, the visa holder must prove they are in financial hardship and have experienced a substantial change in circumstances beyond their control since arrival in Australia to be eligible for payment of Special Benefit.

As the amendments to the Social Security Act 1991 align access to Special Benefit for the holders of temporary Partner visas with that of permanent visa holders, the discretionary Assurance of Support requirement will become redundant for these visas.

DIAC have also decided to remove the requirement for the discretionary Assurance of Support from the permanent Partner visas.

This group comprises approximately 27 347 onshore applications, and 15 284 offshore applications.
About 1000 priority cases are given to case officers each week.

As of 18 November 2011 there were approximately 751 onshore applications and 5544 offshore applications in Priority Group 4 awaiting allocation.

DIAC has given the following advice on how processing of Group 5 will occur:
Processing of Priority Group 5 applications lodged in Australia will begin with the remaining applications in the visa subclasses in effect prior to September 2007, the oldest of which was lodged on 28 July 2005. There are approximately 756 cases in this group.

Processing of Priority Group 5 applications lodged outside Australia will begin with applications in visa subclasses 495 and 496, which were lodged prior to 1 September 2007, the oldest of which was lodged on 10 July 2006. Unlike other GSM visa applications lodged from outside Australia, prior to 1 September 2007, these applications were not affected by the Minister's Cap and Cease arrangements. There are approximately 594 cases in this group.

The number of Priority Group 5 applications processed this program year will ultimately depend on the number of higher priority applications received, and other factors including any change in the size of the Migration Program or variation of the Processing Direction. Many Priority Group 5 applicants still face a considerable wait until their application is allocated to a case officer for processing and may want to consider other options available.

DIAC Fee Increases and Form Changes from 1st July 2011

DIAC have increased Visa Application Charges from  1st July 2011.

http://www.immi.gov.au/allforms/pdf/990i.pdf

DIAC have also updated some Visa Application Forms from 1st July 2011.

http://www.immi.gov.au/allforms/application-forms/