The Western Australian state government has made further amendments to its decision to charge a $4,000 public school fee for families on 457 visas, after community backlash resulted in multiple delays. Under the new provisions to the school fees, families on 457 visas who are earning $75,000 or less per year will not have to pay the $4,000 per annum fee for their children who are enrolled in a public school, according a report in the ABC.

The report states that the exemptions were revealed as the State Government announced its long-awaited hardship provisions for the more than 3,300 families affected by the new charges from next year. Under the hardship arrangements, families earning less than $75,000 a year will not have to pay.

More than 2,600 families are expected to pay the new fee, delivering about $10 million into the Government's coffers.Education Minister Peter Collier said, "There are around 3,305 families at this stage that will be captured by the school fees. Of that, around 750 will be exempt."

Families can also seek relief from the fees due to exceptional circumstances, such as illness or unemployment. They will be required to approach the Department of Training and Workforce Development to seek an exemption.

According to a parliamentary guide, states and territories may charge fees for the children of workers on subclass 457 visas to attend public schools. New South Wales (NSW) charges $4,500 for kindergarten, $4,500 for junior high schooling and $5,500 for senior high schooling of subclass 457 visa holders. The Australian Capital Territory charges $9,320, $12,500 and $13,900 respectively, although subclass 457 visa holders can apply for an education fee waiver if they are involved in a job that appears on the Skilled Occupation Lists. In 2013, Western Australia announced a $4,000 per year public school tuition fee for children of subclass 457 visa holders but reports suggest this has been revised down to $2,000 for each additional child from the same family, with implementation postponed until 2015. Subclass 457 visa holders in other states and the Northern Territory are exempt from international student fees, but may contribute minor administrative fees as do domestic students.

Working as a Registered Migration Agent can mean assisting clients in making one of the most important decisions of their lives: helping them migrate to Australia.

Do I really need Professional Indemnity Cover?

Taking out Professional Indemnity cover is not only the most sensible professional decision you can make, it’s also a legal requirement. Migration agents are required under the Migration Act to hold a Professional Indemnity policy which features at least $250,000 in coverage. Why? Because it protects you against claims from clients who allege you or your business did something wrong or failed to do what it said it would. You might have made a genuine mistake or you might have done nothing at all, but either way you could be facing a big bill. You will have to hire lawyers and your business might be forced to pay your client compensation and its legal fees if you lose or settle the case.

A lawsuit is incredibly stressful and very time consuming to deal with. The future of a small Migration Agency accused of negligence can hang in the balance. If its reputation is badly damaged by a lawsuit then clients may not want to do business with it again. That’s where Professional Indemnity Insurance can be a real lifesaver for a small business. If your business is sued then your insurer would step in and effectively act like your company’s in-house legal team to help you deal with the situation.

What is 'complete' and what is an 'incomplete' application for the 457 in the eyes of the case officer?

Even though RMAs can think that they are submitting a 'complete' application, any DIBP case officer can ask questions about the 'genuineness' of any part (nomination, 457 visa) of an application. This is despite the application/s being lodged in complete form, online. 

Migration Agents (registered ones) report repeatedly receiving requests for further information, which  have already been attached to the online application.  Case officers often don't look at or read the information which has been submitted by an agent.  If a case officer neglects or forgets to look at what has been lodged, and then requests further information that is already available to them, does this trigger a 'incomplete application' in the DIBP system and go towards the 60% of 'incomplete' applications?

Has the DIBP considered auditing the accuracy and performance levels of its own staff first, by creating statistics on the rate at which DIBP officers make 'requests for information already on file'?

The checklists for 457 visa applications on the DIBP website are incomplete if one considers what a complete application 'might be' in practical reality.

Message in from the DIBP today:

Dear Registered Migration Agent

I am writing to you in my capacity of Director Program Delivery, Temporary Business Entry. In this role I have responsibility for the subclass 457 processing network.

The AFR report which sent shock waves amongst overseas accounting students in particular has forced DIBP to come out and categorically declare that Accounting will remain on the skills list. If it wasn’t for the AFR article which declared that DIBP had dropped accounting from the list, the question of the tenability of the occupation as a migration pathway would have remained fodder for the rumour mill.

The Australian Financial Review is perhaps one of Australia's most prestigious and respected newspapers with incisive reports grounded on credible sources - most of the time, at least. It remains unclear what went wrong in its story earlier this week that Accounting has been dropped from the skills list. The paper has now removed the story, and replaced it with an article entitled, ‘Accounting to remain on skilled migration list”. No explanation was provided for the earlier article, the reason for its publication and subsequent removal.

The articled however has forced the government, which has been reticent on the issue despite constant talk in the industry of the tenability of the occupation remaining on the list to finally deliver a strong statement as follows:

“Some of our blog readers may have seen today’s Australian Financial Review, which has incorrectly reported that the department has dropped accounting from its list of skilled occupations in demand for 2015.

“There are no plans to remove this occupation from the Skilled Occupation List (SOL) for the 2015 programme year. The Office of the Chief Economist in the Department of Industry conducts analysis each year on the composition of the SOL. The next advice is expected in March 2015 after the completion of extensive labour market analysis and a public consultation process.

“This year, the Australian Workforce and Productivity Agency (whose functions have been incorporated into the Department of Industry) released a detailed analysis of accountants and concluded that they should continue to be included on the SOL.”