Some 85% of those surveyed by the Scanlon Foundation say they believe that multiculturalism has been good for Australia, according to a recent report on the SBS.

Data referred to in the Scanlon Foundation's Multiculturalism Discussion Paper shows Australians are generally very accepting of cultural diversity and immigration, but the level of support varies across generations, geographical locations and demographic groups.

Research Professor at Monash University Andrew Markus says this report looks in detail at research that's been going on over the past 30 years.

An agreement has been signed between Australia and Hungary to enable the countries' youth to experience each other's culture through the Work and Holiday (sc 462) program.

Under the arrangement, 200 people who are at least 18 but not yet 31 years of age will be able to travel to each other’s country for one year and undertake short-term work and study under the Work and Holiday subclass 462 visa.

Similar agreements already exist with Argentina, Bangladesh, Chile, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Poland, Portugal, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, the United States, and Uruguay. At present, only passports holder from the USA can apply online.

At the signing ceremony earlier this week, the immigration minister, Mr Peter Dutton said that Australia will be working closely with our Hungarian counterparts to establish a mutually agreed start date for this arrangement as soon as possible. Similar agreements signed with Vietnam, Greece, Israel, and Papua New Guinea have stalled and not yet commenced.

...

DIBP has warned that sc457 applications including sponsorship, nomination and the visa application must be decision-ready or risk refusal.

Responding to Migration Alliance enquiries, a spokesperson for the Department of Immigration has stated that because the lodgement of incomplete applications has been an ongoing issue for the 457 processing network, the department has ‘adopted the approach of making decisions on incomplete applications at time of initial assessment.’

This means an application could be refused the very next working day, after lodgement.

Migration Alliance enquired with the DIBP upon seeing a report that an applicant who lodged their visa late on Friday was refused the Sponsorship application on midday Monday as the required evidence was not uploaded with the application.

The latest response from the DIBP to the Migration Alliance is contrary to a report which said that “The MIA [who also enquired on the matter]…was advised that [the sponsorship application refusal] may have occurred as new staff were working on SBS applications.”

Not many read the fine print setting out the terms and conditions of use for the Immiaccount. Know it or not, given most visa applications are lodged online, users actually don’t have much of a choice but to click and agree whatever those terms and conditions may be.

Responding to Migration Alliance enquiries, the DIBP recently informed the Migration Alliance that the Immiccount T&Cs have been amended to impose additional requirements at clauses 7.2(c) and 7.6. Now, third-party users, namely agents, are required to get permission from their clients before making any Immiaccount enquiries on their clients. These clauses specifically require agents to explain to their clients that these enquiries may be used by the DIBP to locate that person and determine if that person is complying with their visa conditions.

There are an estimated 100,000 undocumented workers in Australia at the moment. RMAs should be aware and importanly make their clients aware that enquiries about their status or entitlements could well lead to the DIBP using the information obtained from such enquiries to locate that person, detain and deport them.

Education and Travel Agents using the Education Agent Visa Lodgement Service and Travel Agent Visa Lodgement Service have several clauses (Clauses 17-20) setting out their obligations and restrictions. Education Agents – including RMAs who are acting as Education Agents – have the following restrictions:

19.5 An Agency must not accept a person as a client if the Agency or any Employee of the Agency would have any of the following conflicts of interest:

Do well in your studies and a visa could well be waiting for you in South Australia. In a drive to draw and keep the best brains in the state after graduation, the South Australian government has announced that it will be making it easier for talented international graduates of South Australian public universities to qualify for state nomination through the ‘high performing graduate’ category.

High performing graduates from other South Australian higher education institutes may also be considered on a case-by-case basis according to Immigration SA, the South Australian state department which manages state nomination policies and processes state nomination applications.

As at 30 June 2015, there were 374,566 student visa holders in Australia with over 40% studying in the Higher Education Sector.  Over one third of students were from China (22.0 per cent) or India (13.0 per cent). Less than 10% of the total foreign student population in Australia, study in South Australia’s 3 public universities namely University of South Australia, University of Adelaide and Flinders University.

That could change with this policy which is set to make the state more attractive to international students, particularly the high-achievers. Immigration SA, has announced that graduates must meet all of the following requirements to be eligible for the program: