Australia has steadily shifted away from being a country that wanted immigrants and their families and subsequent generations to stay and become part of nation building to a country that prefers temporary migrants.

I wrote on the this forum last year that the OECD’s report on global migration confirmed this trend. The report states that  Australian immigration in the past two decades strongly suggest that Australia can no longer be regarded as a settler immigration nation. 2012-13 immigration data shows that 190,000 arrived under the permanent immigration program (or 192,599 when Trans-Tasman migrants are included).

In the same year, 725,043 – or 766,273 including Trans-Tasman migrants – migrants arrived on temporary immigration visas. This included 258,248 on working holiday visas, 259,278 on international student visas and 126,350 on temporary work (skilled) visas.

With permanent migration quotas amounting to about a quarter of the temporary migrant visa grants (excluding tourists), the figures roughly translate to mean that for every 4 hopeful temporary entrants, only 1 will have a chance of getting permanent residency.

The government has a clear preference for temporary migration over permanent migration. This forces tough competition in the capped permanent visa program as the government’s stated objective is to only let through the ‘best and the brightest’.

The DIBP structure chart is now available:

portfolio-structure-chart-09032015.pdf

From 1 July 2015, the Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP) and the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service (ACBPS) will become one Department.

This is a general notice to all RMAs who are looking to have their points reported for CPD activities by providers.

It has not been possible for CPD providers to report points to the OMARA as the website has been down.

The website is now back online but this means there may be a delay in reporting.

Section 316 sets out the functions of the OMARA. 

In a confusing email being sent out by an OMARA delegate, which may lead agents to believe that they are compelled to respond, the wording wrongly states "The OMARA is authorised under section 316 (b) of the Act X (NO!!! the Act does not state the word 'authorised') to “… monitor the conduct of registered migration agents in their provision of immigration assistance and of lawyers in their provision of immigration legal assistance” and section 316 (g) of the Act to “… monitor the adequacy of any Code of Conduct”." 

Here is the real wording for that part of the Act:

MIGRATION ACT 1958 - SECT 316

Functions of Migration Agents Registration Authority

             (1)  The functions of the Migration Agents Registration Authority are:

                     (a)  to deal with registration applications in accordance with this Part; and

Senate Estimates

On Monday, 23 February 2015 the tribunals' Executive and I attended Senate Estimates and appeared before the Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitution Affairs. I provided the committee with an update on matters of significance since our last appearance in October 2014, including a caseload update and an indicator of this year’s caseload strategy. The tribunals were questioned on the current caseload, in particular those related to unauthorised maritime arrivals, processing times and improvements and efficiencies implemented by the tribunals.  Read more>

Caseload report to 28 February 2015