Australian Immigration Daily News

Administrative Appeals Tribunal - Migration & Refugee Division fee increase from 1 July 2017 for review of a migration or refugee decision

From 1 July 2017, the fee will increase to $1,731 for all new applications for a review of a migration or refugee decision by the Migration & Refugee Division where a fee is payable.

The fee payable after an unfavourable review decision is made by the Migration & Refugee Division in relation to a protection visa will also be $1,731.

There has been another extremely important decision from the Full Court on the issue of visa cancellation on character grounds.

This decision was handed down by the Full Court yesterday, 13 June 2017, and just appeared on Austlii this morning: BCR16 v Minister for Immigration and Border Protection (2017) FCAFC 96 (13 June 2017).

The case defines a new possible basis for challenging a decision made personally by the Minister or Assistant Minister to refuse to revoke the mandatory cancellation of a visa on character grounds.

In case you may have missed it, we are providing links to some news stories that appeared over the Queen's Birthday long weekend in the Australian media concerning further proposed changes to Australia's citizenship that are likely to be introduced into Parliament in the near future.

Here's a link to a story describing the changes, and here is another link to an article that provides some critical comments on the proposal.

These changes go beyond  the proposed changes to the Australian Citizenship Act that were announced by the government in late April. Those changes would increase the required period that an applicant for citizenship must be a permanent resident of Australia from the current 12 months to 4 years; would require applicants to demonstrate a "competent" level of proficiency in English; would change or, in the government's words, "strengthen" the citizenship test to require applicants to demonstrate understanding and acceptance of "Australian values"; and would require applicants to provide evidence that they have become "integrated" into the Australian community.

Migration Alliance has been contacted by Associate Professor Rebekah Doley of Bond University for assistance in notifying RMAS about a very important study that she is undertaking to assess the stresses that RMAs may experience when working with trauma-affected client populations.

Professor Doley describes the purpose of the study as follows:

"Of the approximately 6021 Migration Agents (RMAs) registered nationally, many will have worked at some time with trauma-exposed clients. I am looking for your support to understand how to build resilience in RMAs working in these difficult settings.

At AusSkill, we are committed in assisting you and your clients to fulfil the training benchmark requirements.

With the new changes being made to the 457 visa, we can anticipate a much stricter criteria and requirements.

As such, we strongly advise migration agents and lawyers to draw attention to their clients to fulfil their Training Benchmark requirements in anticipation of the upcoming changes.