The number of 457 applications surged 15.3% in the year ending March 2015 but the number of actual grants slipped by over 4.1% according to the latest statistics released by the department of immigration.

There were 40,870 subclass 457 primary visa applications lodged in that time, an increase of 15.3 per cent from 35,440 lodged in the same period in the previous year.

Developer Programmers represented the largest occupation of total primary visa grants (4.9 per cent), a 39.5 per cent increase from the same period in the previous year. Cooks recorded the second largest primary visa grants (4.5 per cent), followed by Café or Restaurant Managers (3.9 per cent), a respective decrease of 18.9 per cent and 11.8 per cent when compared to the same period.

The top three sponsor industries for primary applications granted were accommodation and food services (37%), IT (31%), and professional, scientific and technical services (27%).

India was the top country of origin for sc457 workers. Almost half the number of grants were to applicants from India (24.3 per cent), the United Kingdom (17.5 per cent) and the People’s Republic of China (6.7 per cent). According to the figures around 25% of 457 visa holders are foreign students and travellers.

Given that unemployment rate in Australia is sitting above 6%, the unions have led a campaign against foreign labour despite industry groups saying that the sc457 visa is used to fill actual skill gaps in Australia. The DIBP has however been steadily increasing its scrutiny of sc457 applications in recent times.

The AAT president has warned of delays and backlogs in the migration review decision due to the lack of members while an opinion piece in The Australian suggests that the purge of members may have been due to the tribunals overturning far too many of DIBPs decisions on appeal.

The amalgamation of the Migration Review Tribunal (MRT) - Refugee Review Tribunal (RRT) and Social Security Appeals Tribunal (SSAT) with the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT), is a move that has been described as the biggest shake-up of Australian administrative law in 40 years.

Under the new system, the AAT will hear challenges to government decisions on visa applications and social security benefits, in addition to its existing jurisdiction over workers compensation, disability support, freedom of information requests and veterans’ entitlements.

It is estimated that the new AAT will adjudicate 40,000 applications every year and yet save $7.2 million over four years in “shared back-office functions and property holdings”.

AAT president and Federal Court judge Duncan Kerr will retain leadership of the AAT

The department of immigration's (DIBP's) website states that the processing period for the non-contributory parent visa is now 30 years. The previous indication was 13 years. Has the quota dropped for this parent visa category or have more people desperately joined the queue in light the of the shock from the government’s attempt to repeal the visa class?

Thirty or 13 years, the wait is too long. Unless families can contribute some $100,000 and get on the contributory parent visa class which has a processing period of under 2 years, family reunions involving parents look virtually impossible.

This issue together with the difficulties faced by migrants in obtaining permanent residency were among the reasons cited for the fall in Australia’s score in the latest assessment of Australia’s performance in resettling migrants according to a report by the global ranking index, MIPEX.

The Migrant Integration Policy Index (MIPEX) is a unique tool which measures policies to integrate migrants in all EU Member States, Australia, Canada, Iceland, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, Turkey and the USA.

Developers of the index, use 167 policy indicators to “create a rich, multi-dimensional picture of migrants’ opportunities to participate in society. The index is a tool to evaluate and compare what governments are doing to promote the integration of migrants in all the countries analysed.

A new legislative instrument has been rushed through to correct an omission in the Consolidated Skills Occupation list specified by the legislative instrument IMMI15/092.

In the original instrument, the occupation 241213: Primary School Teacher was inadvertently left out.

The department of immigration issued a new legislative instrument (IMMI 15/108) yesterday and backdated it to 1 July 2015 putting Primary School Teachers back on the CSOL. In an email alert the DIBP confirmed that IMMI 15/108 has the effect of Primary School Teacher (ANZSCO 241213) being an eligible occupation for nomination for the following visa programmes from 1 July 2015:

• Skilled Nominated visa (Subclass 190)
• Direct entry stream of Employer Nomination Scheme (Subclass 186)
• Temporary Work (Skilled) visa (Subclass 457)
• Training and Research Visa (Subclass 402)

A further instrument was also issued to correct an error in the instrument IMMI 15/083. The new instrument IMMI 15/109 has the effect of eligible Special Category visa (Subclass 444) and New Zealand Family Relationship (Temporary) visa (Subclass 461) holders being exempt from meeting the skill requirement for the Direct Entry stream of the Employer Nomination Scheme (Subclass 186 visa).

IMMI 15/109 also has the effect of Child Care Group Leader (Aus) (Skill level 2) (ANZSCO 421111) being an eligible occupation for nomination under the Direct Entry stream of the Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme (Subclass 187 visa) from 1 July 2015.

Young Australians seem to have lost their love affair with technology with the number of graduates with ICT qualifications steadily falling since early 2000s, says a new report by the Australian Computer Society and Deloitte Access Economics. Should the trend continue, the next six years could see a record demand for overseas ICT workers given the steady growth of the technology sector and business demand for ICT workers.

Australia’s ICT industry employs around 600,000 workers. Interestingly enough, one of the biggest employers of ICT workers in Australia is the department of immigration (DIBP) with an estimated 1,600 ICT employees. However, the report notes even the DIBP finds it difficult to get the ICT staff it needs stating, ‘there are still a number of gaps in relation to the technical skills required within the organisation’.

With the government absorbing large numbers of ICT workers and the Silicon Valley companies drawing the best local graduates, private enterprise have been left to rely on ICT workers from overseas to fill the gap for over a decade now.

The ACS has noted that Australia is just not creating enough graduates to meet business demand, and it’s becoming a massive problem forcing companies to turn to overseas skilled workers to meet business needs. There could well be an acute shortage of workers in the next few years.

The reports states that consultations with the business community suggest that there are shortages in skills such as programming and coding, computer science theory and computational thinking with businesses relying on overseas workers for key technical capabilities such as software development and programming.

The report notes that Visa grants for temporary skilled migration of ICT workers have historically accounted for around 10–15% of total 457 visa grants. In the 2013–14 financial year, almost 12,000 ICT workers were granted 457 visas, representing 12% of total visas granted. This year it is expected to increase with the occupational ceilings raised for several ICT related occupations.