Editor's Blog

After over a year of considering the lengthy multiple-entry tourist visa for Chinese visitors, the Australian Prime Minister has finally announced that a trial for the 10-year visa will start soon but neither the PM, the DIBP or DFAT have provided any details except that the trial will for the first time allow for tourist visa applications to be lodged in Mandarin.

The trial is expected to boost tourist numbers particularly those of return visitors to Australia. For years now the industry has complained of the inordinate visa demands, such as bank records and other documentation, all of which they say have made travel to Australia less attractive even to those have been here and inclined to return.

The Australian trial lags well behind the US, Canada and Britain which have already moved to permanent 10-year, repeat-entry tourist visas for the Chinese.

Responding to an enquiry from the Migration Alliance, the Australian High Commission in India has indicated that the PSEB Class 12 result has never been recognised as equivalent to the Australian Year 12 qualification but the DIBP is only now enforcing this requirement because of concerns that ‘some results have been found to be non-genuine or not reflective of a client’s academic ability.’

Here is the response in full:

Dear Mr. Gomez

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Just as immigration minister Peter Dutton announced that there are no more children being held in immigration detention centres, latest DIBP figures indicate that over 28,000 refugees are yet to have their cases even processed while the promise to resettle Syrian and Iraqi refugees wavers.

Mr Dutton recently announced that the last group of children held in mainland immigration detention has been released into the community boasting it had been a significant accomplishment of the Government.

The announcement was followed by the release of DIBP statistics which revealed that protection visa processing has virtually come to a standstill.

A Melbourne based businessman and his two companies have been penalised for the deliberate exploitation of vulnerable overseas workers after the Federal Circuit Court found that they had underpaid two overseas workers who had a limited understanding of employment laws and their entitlements.

Pradeep Gaur and his two North Melbourne-based IT companies - Konsulteq Pty Ltd and Konsulteq Upskilling & Training Services Pty Ltd were penalised $160,000 for various breaches of the employment law in connection with the two overseas workers.

Each of the workers paid Gaur up-front “training fees” of more than $2000 that they understood would lead to jobs with Gaur’s companies - but the workers were not provided with accredited training and were not provided with properly paid employment.

In what some agents say is something completely new, the department of immigration has apparently started refusing student visa applications of Indian students who have completed Class XII from schools affiliated to the Punjab School Education Board.

According to a report in the Times of India, in a rejection letter sent to an Indian student who had applied for a "vocational education and training sector (subclass 572) visa", the department’s refusal letter stated that "education and examinations conducted through the PSEB are not listed as equivalent to an Australian Grade 12 qualification under the Australian Education International - National Office of Overseas Skills Recognition Guidelines (AEI-NOOSR)".

Speaking to the newspaper, an education agent said that "Citing this reason is completely new…There have been several rejections on this ground in the last couple of days."

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