Australian Immigration Daily News

Let’s say a Spanish passport holder wants to travel to Australia on an Electronic Travel Authority e601. This traveller thinks he will find accurate information in the Home Affairs website but when he tries to lodge an online application, he will soon discover that his passport is not one of the eight eligible to apply online. The ETA e601 is available for thirty-three nationalities, however, an online application is only possible for eight of them. Then, what is the avenue to do a valid application for the other twenty-five nationalities?

Item 1208A(1) submits that an application must be made in a way set out in regulation 2.07AB. Then, Reg. 2.07AB(3) states if a person makes an application for an ETA to a diplomatic or consular office, or an office of an agent approved in writing by the Minister, by telephone, in writing, by electronic transmission, the person is taken to have made the application at that office.

In this direction, item 1208A(3)(d) affirms that an application made in Australia must be made at a diplomatic, consular office, or an office of an agent approved in writing by the Minister.

The OMARA provides practice guides to assist registered migration agents (RMAs) in meeting their obligations under the ‘Code of Conduct for registered migration agents’ (the Code). 

In consultation with the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (the Tribunal), the OMARA has recently developed a practice guide to assist RMAs to better understand their role when representing clients at the Tribunal, and to comply with their obligations under the Code and the practice directions of the Tribunal. 

Please find the new guide attached for your information.  OMARA practice guides can be found on the OMARA  website https://www.mara.gov.au/news-and-publications/publications/practice-guides/

Migration Alliance is in receipt of an email from the Administrative Appeals Tribunal's Deputy President, Migration & Refugee Division Head, regarding the new Practitioner guide to virtual hearings using Microsoft Teams.  The Practitioner Guide is available on the AAT's website.

To assist practitioners, the Practitioner Guide has been developed to provide information on virtual hearings and the Tribunal’s expectations of participants.

The guide provides a list of technical requirements for a video hearing, and incorporates a visual guide for connecting to the virtual hearing through a variety of platforms.

The Department of Home Affairs updated their website in relation regarding travellers transiting through Australia.  As readers will be well aware, Australia is currently under international lockdown.

It has been confirmed that individuals who are transiting through Australia do not need to apply for a travel exemption in order to board their ongoing flight. An exemption to this rule applies if you are planning to leave the airport. https://covid19.homeaffairs.gov.au/transiting-australia

Individuals who are not listed in the table below will need to apply for a transit visa subclass 771 in order to board their connecting flight:

Business Skilled Migration Queensland (BSMQ) in partnership with Legal Training Australia hosted a webinar for immigration professionals to discuss the outlook of business as well as skilled migration for the new financial year.

Migration Alliance brings you the following exclusive summary of the seminar for those who were unable to attend:

• Allocations for the 190 State Nominated permanent visas are exhausted for the current financial year
• Provisional subclass 491 visa remains upon
• BSMQ may open skilled migration in the new year however the quota is yet to be confirmed as the final numbers have not yet been given the approval
• It is likely that the FYI 20/21 program will commence in October 2020.  There are a number of factors causing this delay, the main one being the COVID19 which has directly impact State Migration across most states
• Both occupation lists (190 and 491) are being reviewed, no further comments can be provided at this point in time

Particular points to note on the 491 Visa