Australian Immigration Daily News

The Migration Agents Declaration is made under subsection 51A(1) of the Legislation Act. Under that subsection, the Attorney-General can align the sunsetting days of two or more legislative instruments to 1 April or 1 October of a year that is up to five years later than the earliest sunsetting day.

The instruments specified in the declaration will then be repealed on the day specified in the declaration instead of the scheduled sunsetting day. The instruments specified in the Migration Agents Declaration are:

- Migration Agents Regulations 1998
- Migration Agents Registration Application Charge Regulations 1998
- Migration Agents (IMMI 17/047: CPD Activities, Approval of CPD Providers and CPD Provider Standards) Instrument 2017, and
- Migration (IMMI 18/003: Specified courses and exams for registration as a migration agent) Instrument 2018.

The Migration Agents Declaration aligns the sunsetting dates of the instruments to be 1 April 2024.

The Migration Amendment (Working Holiday Maker) Regulations 2019 (the Regulations) amend the Migrations Regulations 1994 (the Principal Regulations) to assist in addressing labour shortages in regional Australia, particularly in the agricultural sector.

In particular, the Regulations increase the maximum number of ‘working holiday maker’ visas that a person may hold in Australia from two to three if they meet additional work requirements.

The applicant is required to complete 6 months specified work in specified circumstances in order to be eligible for a third ‘working holiday maker’ visa.

The Australian Citizenship Amendment (Concession Codes and Payment of Fees) Regulations 2019 (the Regulations) will amend the Australian Citizenship Regulation 2016 (the Citizenship Regulation) to allow citizenship application fees, and refunds of citizenship application fees where appropriate, to be paid in foreign currencies and in foreign countries, and to align the concession codes in Schedule 3 with the concession codes currently employed by the Department of Human Services (DHS).

In particular, the Regulations amend the Citizenship Regulation to:

 Incorporate, by reference, instruments made under the Migration Regulations 1994 (the Migration Regulations) that relate to the payment of fees in foreign currencies and in foreign countries.

The following information appears on the TRA website dated 22 Feb 2019:

Commencing on 1 March 2019, applicants for Trades Recognition Australia’s (TRA) TSS Skills Assessment Program (TSS program), Offshore Skills Assessment Program (OSAP) and Trades Recognition Service (TRS) will pay fees for their skills assessment directly to TRA through the TRA Online Portal.

Before a payment can be made, applicants must select a TRA approved registered training organisation (TRA approved RTO) to conduct their skills assessment from RTO Finder.

ABF Field Operations officers in Victoria, New South Wales & Queensland continue to see results through Operation Battenrun

In one particularly concerning case, a 16-year-old boy, found living on a mattress in a garage, was located as a result of four search warrants executed under s251 of the Migration Act 1958 on residences in the regional Victorian town of Robinvale last Wednesday (13 February 2018).

He was among five people found to be sleeping on mattresses in the garage of a residential property which had up to 12 more people living inside the house.

ABF Commander of Field Operations, James Copeman, said the exploitation of foreign workers was never acceptable, but this case involving the 16-year-old was particularly disturbing and the ABF had taken every step to ensure his safety.

Source: Foreign-worker-exploitation.pdf