Australian Immigration Daily News

Indian police have arrested at least 5 people and charged them with various offenses relating to defrauding hundreds of people by promising them visas to Australia and New Zealand, according to media reports from India.

Police have seized some 400 passports held by Royal Education Consultants in Jalandhar, a city in the northwest of Punjab, India. The passports belonged to people from various districts across Punjab and Chandigarh who paid thousands of dollars on the promise of receiving ‘work permits’ and student visas for Australia and New Zealand.

Media reports estimate the fraud committed by the firm could amount to ‘crores of rupees’ (a ‘crore’ which is 10,000,000 rupees is equivalent to about AU$210,000.)

One of our latest cases regarding the topic of licensing, registration and membership involved an individual who was in the process of applying for his Temporary Residence Transition (TRT) stream under the ENS (subclass 186 scheme).

The applicant duly fulfilled his obligatory two (2) years of employment with the employer and was eligible for the ENS TRT permanent residence visa. However the process was not as straightforward as it should have been.

The applicant was sponsored by a telecommunications company under the subclass 457 visa in 2013 under the nominated occupation of a Construction Project Manager (ANZSCO 133111). However in actual fact, the applicant should have chosen the ICT Project Manager position (ANZSCO 135112) as it would have suited the applicant better and on top of the fact the an ICT Manager is not required to show registration, licensing or membership.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from all of us at Expert Finance Group. We wish everyone a wonderful break from all the stresses of life and hope to have some delightful relations in the new year!

The United Nations has named the countries with the gold standard, for quality of life in its United Nations Human Development Index report.

Out of the 188 countries ranked by the annual study, Norway and Australia, have once again emerged as the gold standards for measuring quality of life.

Taking into account life-expectancy, education and standard of living, Australia has maintained its spot as the best in the world for three years now, after Norway. Australia, with a population almost five times the top ranked European city, was ahead on life-expectancy and education but lost points for income levels and the comparatively lower level of participation by women in the workforce.

An appeal to the Full Federal Court has resulted in the judgement that the Tribunal has jurisdiction to review an sc457 application whilst reviews are pending for the nomination. The court accepted that “it is sufficient at the time of the making of the application for review of the visa decision there is pending an application for review in respect of an adverse nomination decision.”

In its judgement released on 16 December 2015, in the appealed case of Ahmad v DIBP*, the court considered the meaning of the words “sponsored by an approved sponsor” in s 338(2)(d)(i) of the Migration Regulations.

The court found that at the time Mr Ahmad was refused an sc457 visa, he was “sponsored by an approved sponsor” in that his approved sponsor had nominated him in its nomination application; although that nomination application had been refused, his sponsor had applied to review that decision and the decision was pending.