If you or your clients are waiting on a sc 189 decision, this financial year, then it looks like the wait will be a little longer. DIBP’s case officers are apparently informing applicants who call up their helpline that DIBP has stopped granting sc189 visa for this financial year because the quota for that visa subclass has been reached.

A reader of this blogsite wrote to us recently on the matter: “I'm a 189 visa applicant and I have a question. It's apparent that you're organization is the only place I can get accurate information on my question other than DIBP.

“Due to the lack (low number to none) of 189 visa grants in the past weeks there have been speculations that the overall visa grant limit for the 189 visa has been reached. On one of the expat forums where the Australian Skilled Migration Program is mainly discussed, a forum member posted that he had spoken to a DIBP official (probably a CO) and was told that "Visa issuance has stopped and no more grants are to be issued" and that "this period is just assessment of applications. If applications meet the acceptance criteria, finalization and Grants shall be issued in July" noted the writer.

Unfortunately there is nothing on DIBP’s website to indicate if the quota has been reached. The fact however is that visa numbers are capped and grants cease at some point around now as DIBP does distribute grants over the year.

It would undoubtedly make it easier for one and all if DIBP puts out a notice on its website when the quotas have been reached rather than leaving everyone guessing and jamming the helplines with connected queries.

Australia’s most populated state has become the first one to sign up ‘in-principle’ to the Safe Haven Enterprise Scheme (SHEV) which will give asylum seekers an alternative to the Temporary Protection Visa, with a five-year option to live and work in regional NSW, according to a media statement by NSW Premier Mike Bard.

Currently there are an estimated 32,000 asylum seekers in Australia eligible for refugee assessment and waiting for final determination, most of whom are living in communities on bridging visa. About a quarter of that number live in NSW, mostly in Sydney’s west and south-west.

Under the Safe Haven Enterprise Visa (SHEV) scheme announced by the Premier, eligible asylum seekers will be able to apply to reside in NSW — excluding Sydney, Newcastle and Wollongong — for five years, on the condition that they live and work in a country area.

 “This is good news for regional NSW as it will help provide labour in our regions while providing longer term security for these asylum seekers,” Baird said.

While there is no promise of permanent residency, asylum seekers will be able to apply for onshore visas granted they stay off welfare for a minimum of three-and-a-half years.

Those choosing to live in the city will give up to right to apply for an onshore visa and apply for a three-year Temporary Protection Visa instead

Another country has been added to the Work and Holiday visa program (sc462) which will enable up to 200 young Australians and 200 young Slovaks to experience each other's culture through the exchange programme.

Young Aussies and Slovaks can now explore and work in each other's countries under a reciprocal work and holiday visa arrangement announced recently by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, the Hon Julie Bishop and Assistant Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, Senator the Hon Michaelia Cash.

Minister Bishop, who met and signed the agreement with Slovak Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Miroslav Lajčák during his three-day visit, said the new arrangement demonstrated the constructive and positive relationship between our two countries.

"This agreement will provide the opportunity for a culturally rich experience for the young adults of Australia and Slovakia and strengthen our already warm people-to-people links," Minister Bishop said.

"The new arrangement will allow up to 200 young people from both countries to enjoy a holiday in each other's country each year, during which they may undertake short term work and study," Minister Cash said adding,"Both countries will be working closely over the coming months to implement these changes and to complete all necessary legal and administrative processes to bring this visa into effect."

The date the change to the Work and Holiday (Subclass 462) visa comes into effect will be made available on the Department's website atwww.immi.gov.au.

Contempt in the face of the court is an act which has the tendency to interfere with or undermine the authority, performance or dignity of the courts or those who participate in their proceedings: Witham v Holloway (1995) 183 CLR 525 per McHugh J at 538-539. Disobeying a court order is a contempt of court: O’Shane v Channel Seven Sydney Pty Ltd [2005] NSWSC 1358. It's an offense punishable by imprisonment or a fine or both.

Two lawyers from the law firm Maurice Blackburn, Elizabeth O'Shea and Min Guo, were denied access by immigration officials to the high security "White" compound for three days in April to complete an inspection of its conditions, despite having obtained court orders, according to a report in The Sydney Morning Herald today.

The lawyers were pursuing a class action on behalf of people who have been injured or pregnant while in detention on Christmas Island during the past three years and suffered physical or psychological injury.

The department of immigration had demanded that the lawyers have a court order to inspect the whole centre. But when the lawyers arrived at the White compound, the regional manager for Christmas Island, Rebecca O'Reilly, refused to let them inspect the premises for “privacy’ and ‘security’ reasons - clearly clueless about DIBPs jurisdictional limits.

According to the report, while the lawyers from Maurice Blackburn remained on the island, their representatives returned to the Supreme Court in Melbourne to seek an urgent application for access to the compound.

Regardless of whether a crime is proven, the minister for immigration will be allowed to strip the Australian citizenship of dual-nationals, under proposed amendments to the Citizenship Act.

The intended changes are reportedly aimed at people with links to terrorist groups. The government has started a broad review of Australian citizenship and is looking to tighten that grant criteria as part of its measure to counter radicalisation and safeguard the nation’s social cohesion, according to a report in The Australian.

“Under the legislation that we intend to introduce in the next few weeks, if the minister is satisfied …, he may, subject ultimately to judicial review, strip the Australian citizenship from those individuals and obviously they will then no longer have an entitlement to return to Australia,” announced Prime Minister Tony Abbot.

Dual-nationals stripped of their Australian citizenship by the Immigration Minister would be allowed to seek review of the decision to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal and Federal Court.

The immigration minister will rely on the advice of intelligence agencies in the decision. Mr Peter Dutton, admitted that it will be “very difficult of course to gather sufficient evidence to satisfy an Australian court beyond reasonable doubt that that person committed that offence in that part of the world.”

Former attorney general and immigration minister, Mr Philip Ruddock has been appointed as a special envoy for citizenship and community engagement in the broader review of Australian citizenship. Mr Ruddock said: “We offer people respect for their race, their country of origin, their religion, their cultures, but we do have expectations that all who make a commitment to this nation and its future, will observe the laws of Australia. There is nothing new in that.”