Australian Immigration Daily News

The following email has been received today from the Western Australian State Government:

A quick email to let the Migration Alliance know that the 2013-2014 WASMOL will be released and implemented next Monday 28 October.  The news item is now on our website:

http://www.migration.wa.gov.au/skilledmigration/Pages/SkilledMigrationWA.aspx

Please let me know if you need any additional information at this stage.

The ACS Head of Policy and External Affairs Adam Redman has expressed his concern regarding employers abusing the 457 scheme.  Migration Alliance supports the statements made by Mr Redman. 

There are now ongoing daily reports of more and more victims  (read comments) associated with Eddy Kang and Singapore Oil's alleged  "fake 457 scam".   International students in Australia report here their first-hand experience of been tricked into parting with large sums of money for a lucrative position sponsored by an Australian company and obtaining a 457 visa.  

An action group was established last night in Sydney with the first 20 victim members discussing a plan of action to fix their status problems, get their money back and seek justice.  It is reported that migration agents and solicitors may be part of the victims group.  The Office of the MARA's Helen Sun has already received one warning regarding investigation techniques used in relation to one alleged migration agent victim, Mr Ali.  The Office of the MARA has also been accused of sitting on it's hands and doing nothing when reports were made.  A full investigation will determine whether the Office of the MARA even picked up a phone to report the problem to DIAC. 

Given the DIAC and the Office of the MARA are one and the same organisation there really can be no excuse from the Office of the MARA if they indeed, did nothing.  We would like to think that our regulator took reasonable steps to protect consumers and agents when reports were made.  And those reports were definitely made.

If you are a victim and would like to report your story please email us on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .  Details of the next 'Victims of Eddy Kang' meeting will be published shortly.

The Migration Policy Institute (MPI) has recently published the following paper:

Skills-Deficit---Immigrant-Workforce.pdf

The paper delves into the post-global economic crisis era, where employment and growth of national economies remain at the forefont of policy agendas in countries, including Australia.

The following information was sent to me today as it was probably sent to other Migration Alliance members.  For those of you who have not seen it I thought it might be a good idea to share it here, with permission from the author:

Dear Migration Specialist,

The following migration industry snapshot is useful to analyse at this time of the year, being one-quarter past midyear DIAC changes.

Industry Snapshot

The September quarter 2013 has seen lower activity within both skilled and business migration industry when compared to the same period last year. This is primarily due to the more stringent criteria in making migrants eligible for any given visa subclass.

The graph below provides an illustration of year to date figures on individual visa streams. Employer sponsored visas are currently leading in the number of application outcomes followed by partner and skilled independent.

Graph: 2012-13 skill stream by visa category, onshore versus offshore

Unregistered Practice has to stop.....seriously.

Australia invests a lot of time and money regulating Australian Citizens and Permanent Residents who are RMAs.  And yet the DIBP accept visa applications from organisations like this one who make these kinds of shonky assessments for Australian visas  (see below).

This was received annonymously in the post yesterday, marked for my attention.  I guess the sender was hoping that I would write a news article about this and expose it.  They were right.  Here we have an 'technical evaluation report' being provided to a person from India who is seeking to migrate to Australia.  He is listed on the form as being a 'salesman cum driver' and eligible for the 'SIM' visa as a 'Dairy Cattle Caretaker' and passing the points test. (see below)

I cannot believe that DIBP's system is being clogged up with these type of applications.  What a drain on our resources and what a waste of hopes, dreams and money for the intending migrant.