This is what I got back (as did other RMAs).  All are replica replies:

Our references: FA 14/08/00981; ADF2014/30042 

Dear Liana Allan 

"DO NOT lodge any saved applications that were ready to be lodged (and just waiting for the VAC - or any other reason).

The message being sent by This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to RMAs at present is as follows:

"We appreciate your patience and apologise for the inconvenience caused. Our developers are still trying to resolve the issue. During this time Please provide your client’s full bio data (name, DOB, and passport number) and My Health Declaration/visa application TRN to enable our further assistance."

The working holiday visa has been a popular stepping stone to the 457 visa and subsequently a permanent residence visa. Many skilled working holiday visa holders with carefully prepared and planned migration pathways have successfully made the transition. Australia has been promising to expand the program and has already added Greece and Poland to the list. Now, another European country is set to join their ranks.

The Spanish Ambassador has revealed that Australia and Spain are set to sign an agreement under the working holiday visa program to allow youth aged 18 to 31 to live, work and study for 12 months in each other’s countries.

Under the Australian-Spanish deal, the visa holders are expected to be able to work full time as long as they don't clock up more than six months with a single employer. They can also study for up to four months in the same course.

The news reported by the Spanish newspaper El Mundo states that Australian youth will also have the same the privileges under “the agreement expected to be finalized shortly”.

“The visa scheme will be up and running within 12 to 18 months although provisional arrangements could be in place by as early as the end of the year,” Spain's ambassador to Australia Enrique Viguera told El Mundo.

Youth unemployment in Spain is reportedly currently running at over 50 percent compared to the 13 percent in Australia.

Reuters has reported that the graft crackdown in China is driving wealthy Chinese out of China. “President Xi Jinping's 18-month-old drive against the pervasive graft that he says threatens the Communist Party's survival, is a fear that is even causing some officials to take their own lives,” according to the report.

Ordinary Chinese citizens can legally transfer only $50,000 overseas each year, but vast sums leak out of China using a variety of loopholes, such as funnelling money through the Chinese territory of Hong Kong, according to Reuters.

"The restrictions in China are becoming more onerous…That's triggered an increase in the amount of money that's looking to move out of China or probably is already outside of China and is looking to be spent” notes the report.

Where is the money going? The United States is the main target destination. However due to the surge in applications for the US investor visa known as the EB-5, the program has reached its yearly quota of 10,000 for the first time in its 24- year history with wait times for future applicants expected to stretch out to as long as five years or more, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Canada, which had granted visas to those who lent 800,000 Canadian dollars (US$734,245) interest-free to one of the country’s provincial governments, canned the program earlier this year but is however looking to replace it. There will be no surprise if one similar to Australia’s $5million SIV program is launched.

As such, Australia, Europe and the Caribbean are emerging as alternative destinations for China’s rich. At the end of July,  88% of the 343 such visas granted under Australia’s SIV program were to mainland Chinese, representing over A$1.7 billion worth of committed investments.