Amendments to Australian Student Visa announced

From time to time the Australian Department of Immigration make amendments and Legislation Changes which make obtaining an Australia Visa easier or indeed a litttle harder.

On the 26th of April a number of minor changes were announced. Most of these are not particularly relevant to most of our readers, however a changes to the Student Visa class are worthy of a mention.

The regulations are amended to:

• Include work rights on all initial student visa grants thus removing the need for student visa holders to make a separate application for permission to work.
• Prevent students and their family members from undertaking work until the student has commenced their course of study or training by amending student visa work conditions.
• Define the term ‘week’ as it applies to student visa work conditions.

Read more

Popularity: 4% [?]

IELTS Preparation Video - Useful Stuff

Not so long ago I wrote a post which gave an overview of the IELTS Exam.

IELTS or the International English Language Testing System measures a persons ability to communicate in English across all four language skills – listening, reading, writing and speaking – a key requirement for folks who intend to study, work and generally live in Australia.

Although a written post is always going to prove useful, I thought I’d also include a Video which I found on Youtube which some of you folks may also enjoy watching.

There’s actually a ton of stuff on Youtube which I think might be of interest or of use to visitors to our site so as I find them I’ll add them for you to review

I hope you find the Video of use, please let me know if you’d like to see similar resources added to the site

Popularity: 5% [?]

Australian 457 visa program to be reviewed

The 457 Temporary Skilled Migrant Visa is in the news today, with the federal government commissioning a review following accusations that foreign workers are being exploited.

Industrial relations commissioner Barbara Deegan will head a working party of industry and trade union leaders looking into the 457 visa program.

Immigration and Citizenship Minister Chris Evans said the six-month review would address concerns about the exploitation of migrant workers, salary levels and English language requirements with Industry and union groups in Australia welcoming the decision.

The general secretary of the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union, John Sutton, says the deregulation of the visa program under the Howard government allowed abuse of the system and workers’ rights

Mr Sutton told ABC Radio. Read more

Popularity: 6% [?]

UK Applicants - Police Clearance Certificates

For Australian Visa Applicants applying from the UK, it’s worth noting that Police certificates are now being issued by the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO).

This covers applicants who have lived or currently reside in England, Wales, Scotland, the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland.

Application forms and guidance on how to apply for the police certificates for residents and non-residents can be located online at www.acpo.police.uk

Until further notice, the Australian Department of Immigration has announced that they will also continue to accept the outcome of a Subject Access Request made under the Data Protection Act 1998 for each relevant UK jurisdiction.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Current Australian Immigration processing lead time as of April 2008

Well, we’re into April so let’s look at the current Australian Visa Processing timelines for April 2008.

To discuss this post, please use the appropriate thread in our forums here

PROCESSING AND ALLOCATION INFORMATION - For the week of 1 April 008

Applications lodged on or before the dates shown below have been allocated to case officers for further processing.

Applications Lodged Before 1 September 2007

Onshore Skilled visas (permanent and provisional)

Student/Graduate applications - Class DD and DE visas
Subclass 880: 18 August 2007 (paper), 9 August 2007 (e-lodged)
Subclass 881: 29 August 2007 (paper), 29 August 2007 (e-lodged)
Subclass 882: 29 August 2007 (paper), 29 August 2007 (e-lodged)

Onshore Skilled Independent Regional (Provisional) (SIR) – Class UX visas Subclass 495: All applications: all applications are now allocated to case officers

New Zealand Citizen (Residence) - Class DB visas
Subclass 861, 862 and 863: all applications are now allocated to case officers

Offshore Skilled visas (permanent and provisional)

Skilled Migration visas - All paper based applications for Class BN, BQ, BR, UX and UZ visas
Subclasses 134, 136, 137, 138, 139, 495 and 496: 2 May 2007

e-lodged Skilled Independent Regional (Provisional) applications
Subclass 495: all applications are now allocated to case officers

Applications Lodged After 1 September 2007

General Skilled Migration visas: Class VE, VF,VB and Class VC subclass 487
Subclasses: 175, 176, 475, 476, 885, 886, 887, and 487
E-lodged: 8 November 2007
Paper lodged: 16 September 2007

General Skilled Migration visas: Class VC subclass 485 only
E-lodged: 29 September 2007
Paper lodged: 16 September 2007

If a visa application was made more than two weeks before the relevant date shown above and you have not been contacted by a case officer please contact the Adelaide Skilled Processing Centre from the web page which can be viewed by Clicking Here

Popularity: 9% [?]

Electronic Travel Authority System (ETAS) – changes from 21 April 2008

If your thinking of going out to Australia on a Rekkie or similar prior to getting your Australian Perminant residency visa, then it may be useful for you to know about some changes that are going to be implemented to the ETA System from the 21st of April 2008.

An ETA is effectively a temporary visa, however the ETA’s are issued electronically so there is no stamp or label in your passport and there is no need for you to visit an Australian diplomatic office to submit an application.

The Australian Immigration department is going to continue to process most ETA applications instantly; however (and this is the important bit) in a small number of cases, some additional processing will be required.

If your ETA cannot be issued immediately you are requested to check back in 12 hours to confirm whether your application has been successful.

As an ETA is valid for three months, I’d suggest that you allow plenty of time before visiting Australia to allow sufficient time for your application to be processed.

You can apply for your ETA from the official Aussie Immigration site by Clicking Here

Popularity: 6% [?]

Contributory Parent Visa Applications - The Need for a Settled Sponsor

I came across a great article written by Alan Collett at Go Matilda which covers the Contributing Parent Visa Application and the need for a Settled Sponsor.

Certain visa applications; most notably applications for parent visas and remaining relative visas,  require applicants to have what is called a “settled sponsor” at the time the application is lodged.  The big question is, what does “settled” mean?

Australia’s migration legislation provides that “in relation to an Australian citizen, an Australian permanent resident or an eligible New Zealand citizen, (settled) means lawfully resident in Australia for a reasonable period.”

Unfortunately, “reasonable period” is not also defined within legislation. Rather within Department of Immigration policy we find that:

” … it can be said that in normal circumstances, two years is considered to be a reasonable period but there may be exceptions and the facts of each case must be considered on a reasonable basis.

For Australian citizen sponsors a lesser eligibility period may be considered when assessing the “settled” criterion, where there are compassionate or compelling circumstances.

As a matter of policy, the eligibility period for Australian citizen sponsors may be regarded as at least three months residence.

The eligibility period for the “settled” requirement must be lawful residence.

This means that legal temporary residence as well as permanent residence may be counted, if necessary, towards making up the period.”

Note: Periods of residence in Australia as a lawful temporary residency visaholder can be included in a consideration of whether the sponsor is “settled”. This allows the period of time an individual has been living in Australia as a holder of - say - a Skilled Independent Regional (Provisional) visa, or a 457 employer sponsored visa to be factored into the question of whether the individual is a “settled sponsor.”

A question we are often asked is whether an individual who holds a permanent residency visa can sponsor his or her parent/s for the grant of a Contributory Parent visa within 2 years of the intending sponsor first living in Australia. As is perhaps apparent from the above, the real question to be answered is whether the intending sponsor has been lawfully residing in Australia for a reasonable period.

Perhaps unsurprisingly there have been a few appeal cases in this area, where a Department of Immigration case officer has initially considered the sponsor was not “settled.” For example, see:

- Sampson, Lynne Jones [2004] MRTA 7298
and
- W0506207 [2007] MRTA 500

In the first case the applicant (from South Africa) was applying for a subclass 143 Contributory Parent visa. The sponsoring child was the holder of a subclass 136 Skilled Independent visa, who had validated her new 136 visa on a brief holiday to Australia in May/June 2002 prior to moving to live in Australia in March 2003.

Her parents applied for the grant of permanent subclass 143 Contributory Parent visas in November 2003, some 8 months later.

The finer details of the sponsor’s background are shown in the above link, but the key point to note is that the review tribunal found that:

” …if a person has established the centre of his or her family life or his or her interests and affairs in Australia that person may be said to be settled here. The more ties the person has with Australia, the more that conclusion will be supported. What is a reasonable period for the purpose of the definition of settled will thus depend on the evidence relating to the steps the person in question has taken to establish his or her home in Australia. A relatively short period may be sufficient if those steps are unequivocal. On the other hand, a person might spend a fairly lengthy period travelling around Australia but always with a home elsewhere and no intention of adopting Australia as his or her home. Such a person would not be regarded as settled even though his or her period of residence might exceed the two year period suggested by policy.”

The second case discusses an application for the grant of a Contributory Aged Parent visa, subclass 864 by a husband and wife from the UK who were in Australia as the holders of long stay tourist visas at the time their subclass 864 application was lodged.

The sponsor was the daughter of the applicants and had been residing in Australia as the holder of a permanent residency visa for some 6 to 7 months at the time her parents’ 864 visa application was lodged with the Department of Immigration. She had been considered by the assessing Department of Immigration case officer to have failed to meet the requirement to be a “settled sponsor.” The daughter had become an Australian citizen some time later.

In this case it was found that:

- while the sponsor at the time of application was not an Australian citizen, it was reasonable that this development should be expected to be taken as a relevant consideration now that she and all her family members are Australia citizens

- having regard to the circumstances of the sponsor and the evidence she had provided as well as the benefit of the passage of time, the Tribunal was satisfied that the sponsor had established the centre of her family life and her affairs in Australia

- the evidence cited supported the sponsor’s claim that when she travelled to Australia as the holder of a permanent visa accompanied by her parents, she and her family were settling permanently in Australia

- the evidence by the sponsor of the purchase of two homes, all her family members having applied for (and been granted) Australian citizenship as well as her ongoing full-time employment confirmed that she had established her life permanently in Australia

- it was found that the correct and preferable decision in this case was that the sponsor was a settled Australian permanent resident at the time of application

- as such the visa applicants at the time of application were aged parents of a person who was a settled Australian permanent resident

So what can parents and their children who intend to act as sponsors take from the above?

First, that although the two year “rule” for acting as a sponsor exists as a matter of Department of Immigration policy, it is not set in stone. Sponsors may have established a new life in Australia with a quality of permanence that gives both sponsor and their parents comfort that the sponsor is indeed now settled or usually resident in Australia.

Each case would need to be looked at on its own merits.

Second, that parents who are contemplating applying within 2 years of a sponsoring child’s arrival in Australia should ensure their child’s attachments to Australia are reasonably significant and established. These might include:

- entering into the purchase or long term rental of property in which one will reside in Australia

- personal goods and effects in Australia

- purchase of a motor vehicle

- children enrolled in school

- employment in Australia

- registration with the Australian Taxation Office and paying one’s taxes in Australia as a tax resident

The risk nevertheless exists that a Department of Immigration case officer could challenge the settled status of the sponsor - in our view parents who apply for a Contributory Parent visa within a fairly short period of their sponsor’s arrival in Australia (ie within 2 years) should reconcile themselves to this possibility, and ensure there is sufficient documented evidence available should the need arise. Indeed, we suggest that such documentation might be included with the visa application to head off any concerns the Department of Immigration case officer might have as to the sponsor’s settled status.

 

Popularity: 5% [?]

Australia’s new language requirements - An easy ride for Brits?

During the run up to the recent changes which were made to the Australian Skilled Migration system, it seems that some of the stories circulating in the media were a little misleading.

We’ve already written about the International English Language Testing System IELTS and the points you get for speaking and writing English at a high level.

We’ve also written about the fact that the English Language Threshold had been raised making it harder for those who don’t hold English as a first language to gain the necessary points.

However, does this mean (as announced in some media outlets) that the the English language requirements for English speaking applicants have been ‘relaxed’, therefore making it easier for Brits to score more points towards their application? Read more

Popularity: 72% [?]

Front loading your Medicals and Police Checks

Quite interesting to see that the ASPC are now promoting the front loading of Meds and Police Checks as part of the visa application process stating that Offshore Applicants can now initiate Health and Character Checks (Police Checks) before being allocated a case officer.

The inclusion of health forms on the department’s of immigrations website means that applicants can reduce the time taken to finalise the application by commencing health and character checking before their application is allocated to a case officer, however, applicants and migration agents should be aware that:

• Applicants are responsible for all costs associated with medical examinations and providing police clearances;
• Health examinations and police clearances have limited validity periods, generally for a period of 12 months;
• If clearances expire before the application is finalised they may be requested again, and must be provided at the applicant’s cost;
• The ASPC may need to undertake other checking in respect of the application that can delay a decision; and
• Undertaking health examinations and providing police clearances does not guarantee an application will be successful.

Before deciding when to undertake Health and Police Checks, applicants and Agents can monitor which applications are currently being allocated for assessing by utilising the aspc.processing@immi.gov.au e-mail service. Sending a blank email to this address will result in an auto response being issued by the ASPC detailing the current processing timelines in a similar format to that detailed here Read more

Popularity: 55% [?]

Current Australian Immigration processing lead time as of January 2008

Well, we’re into 2008 so let’s look at the current Processing timelines for January.

To discuss this post, please use the appropriate thread in our forums here

The Australia Immigration Department put into operation major reforms to the General Skilled Migration (GSM) programme with effect from 1 September 2007.

Prior to the introduction of these changes there was a significant increase in the volume of applications received by the department.

The surge in applications resulted in delays in getting all of these applications receipted and acknowledged.

All applications lodged prior to 1 September 2007 have now been processed and receipted. While every effort is being made to acknowledge these applications as quickly as possible there will be
a delay before a full acknowledgement is made.

As of 1st January 2008 the ASPC Admin Section is processing applications as follows: Read more

Popularity: 65% [?]

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