Australian Immigration Daily News

Due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the Department is delivering online citizenship ceremonies via secure video-link to enable those applicants who are already approved to continue to become Australian citizens.

Online ceremonies will be with the presiding officer and generally a single conferee, or a household group if they reside at the same location, and are shorter than traditional in-person ceremonies while still ensuring legal requirements are met. Ceremonies performed online continue to include integrity measures, such as identity checks.

Following the easing of COVID-19 restrictions across a number of jurisdictions, small in-person citizenship ceremonies are also being reintroduced from June 2020. These ceremonies must comply with current state or territory directives on the limits on small gatherings, and meet COVIDSafe requirements.

The Department of Home Affairs has issued an interim allocation of subclass 491, 190, 188 and 132 visa nomination places to states and territories. These allocations will be updated after the 2020-21 Federal Budget is handed down in October 2020

The Department of Home Affairs has directed that until this time, all nominations must be justifiable in relation to their likely contribution to Australia’s economic recovery, and follow three priorities:

1.            High quality subclass 188 and 132 (Business Innovation and Investment Program) nomination applications.

The agreement struck today paves the way for the resumption of recruitments under the Seasonal Worker Programme (SWP) and Pacific Labour Scheme (PLS), which connect Pacific and Timorese workers with Australian businesses and fill rural and regional workforce shortages when Australian workers are not available.

The arrival of new workers under these programmes had to be paused in March because of necessary COVID-19 travel restrictions, which are protecting the health of Australians, Pacific Islanders and Timorese.

The Morrison Government is focused on ensuring Australian growers and other critical industries have access to the labour force they need. Filling these positions will not come at the expense of getting Australians into jobs. Approved Employers can recruit through the Pacific labour mobility programs only if they can demonstrate they cannot find suitable Australian workers.

Source: Seasonal-and-Pacific-workers-to-help-fill-labour-gaps.pdf

As many would be aware, due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the Department is delivering online citizenship ceremonies via secure video-link to enable those applicants who are already approved to continue to become Australian citizens.

Online ceremonies will be with the presiding officer and generally a single conferee, or a household group if they reside at the same location, and are shorter than traditional in-person ceremonies while still ensuring legal requirements are met. Ceremonies performed online continue to include integrity measures, such as identity checks.

Following the easing of COVID-19 restrictions across a number of jurisdictions, small in-person citizenship ceremonies are also being reintroduced from June 2020. These ceremonies must comply with current state or territory directives on the limits on small gatherings, and meet COVIDSafe requirements.

Further welcome updates were made to the critical skills sector list this includes providing crucial skills in religious or theology fields. 

The Commissioner of the Australian Border Force may grant an individual exemption if you are a non-citizen:

• travelling at the invitation of the Australian Government or a state or territory government authority for the purpose of assisting in the COVID-19 response
• providing critical or specialist medical services, including air ambulance, medical evacuations and delivering critical medical supplies
• with critical skills required to maintain the supply of essential goods and services (such as in medical technology, critical infrastructure, telecommunications, engineering and mining, supply chain logistics, agriculture, primary industry, food production, and the maritime industry)
• delivering services in sectors critical to Australia’s economic recovery (such as financial technology, large scale manufacturing, film, media and television production and emerging technology), where no Australian worker is available
• providing critical skills in religious or theology fields
• whose entry would otherwise be in Australia's national interest, supported by the Australian Government or a state or territory government authority.

An individual can submit a request for a travel exemption under this category or a business can submit a request on their behalf. The applications of multiple travellers within the same group/business can be linked, so that the requests are considered together.