The occupational ceilings for the skilled migration programme for the 2014-15 financial year were announced earlier this month with the quota for several occupations notably teachers, accountants and construction trades falling whilst the quotas for registered nurses, engineers and IT professionals increasing.

Registered nurses remain the most wanted occupation in the Australian workforce if you go by the occupational ceiling numbers. The occupational ceiling for registered nurses was increased to 15,042 places in the latest skilled migration programme. This is more than double the quota of any other occupation group.

IT Professionals and Engineers would be particularly pleased to note the increase in the number of places as the quotas for these professions almost reached their limit last year.

Occupational ceilings limit how many invitations to apply are issued by the Department of Immigration each year for general skilled migration for a particular occupation. This is to ensure that the migration program is not dominated by a small number of occupations. Generally, applicants with an Expression of Interest in occupational groups which have reached their ceiling will not be invited to apply for a visa but however will remain in the EOI pool for two years from the date of submission, or until they are selected to apply when a fresh quota is issued.

Occupational ceilings do not apply to Employer Sponsored or Business Innovation and Investment visa subclasses and have now also been removed for State or Territory Nominated, visa subclasses. Effectively this means that states can nominate occupations for Skilled Nominated Subclass 190 and Skilled Regional Subclass 489 visas even if the ceiling has been reached.

Since its inception, the Migration Alliance (MA) has sought to promote and protect the interests of Registered Migration Agents (RMAs). A key aim of the MA has been to reduce and ultimately stop unregistered practice in any form including the unfortunate and often disastrous practice by Human Resources Managers and Education Agents.

However, getting rid of unregistered practice requires legislative change which the MA has been lobbying on for many years. MA has written to the Assistant Minister for Immigration, Senator Michaelia Cash last month providing a comprehensive suite of documents including submissions, briefing papers and draft legislative instruments designed to shut down unregistered practice.

The aim of all this is to provide comprehensive protection to vulnerable consumers by eliminating once and for all unregistered practice.

“While policy-makers and legislators consider the issue, the MA is of the view that migration advisory industry should band together against unregistered practice. At the simplest level, the suggestion is that RMAs and CPD providers should not encourage unregistered practice and in fact work to discourage it” says Liana Allan.

The MA notes that a new entrant to the migration CPD landscape, namely Legalwise Seminars has marked its entry as an accredited provider of continuing professional development by offering a “comprehensive half day program [that] provide….the most accurate, authoritative and current content to help you understand the process of migration law (both legislation and case law)” to “Employers, Agents and Lawyers”.

The MA objects to this bundling of RMAs with unregistered practitioners. “The seminar insults the professionalism of RMAs as it groups them with unregistered onshore practitioners. It begs the question: do seminars like these promote onshore unregistered practice?” says Liana Allan.

Overseas student enrolments in Australian educational institutions have surged 10%  year-to-date May 2014. This growth rate is over twice the average growth rate in the last ten years with there now being 404,909 enrolments by full-fee paying international students in Australia on a student visa, according to the Monthly Summary of International Student Enrolment Data from the Department of Education.

Notably, the VET sector saw a year-to-date 13% increase in commencements after a 5.9% increase in enrollments.

The report notes that the Vocational Education and Training (VET) accounted for 23.6% of total enrolments and 27.0% of total commencements. Enrolments and commencements in VET increased by 5.9% and 18.0% respectively on YTD May 2013. India had the largest share of total enrolments (18.6%) and of total commencements (16.2%). China accounted for the next largest share of enrolments with 9.9%, followed by the Republic of Korea (7.8%) and Thailand (7.0%).

“The boost spells good news for the sector considering a recent Students and Courses report released by the state-owned National Centre for Vocational Education Research revealed that overseas visa holders studying onshore in 2013 dropped 1.7% year-on-year at TAFE and government providers, multi-sector HE institutions, community providers and private providers,” states a report by Professionals in International Education

Overseas visa students studying onshore in VET fell from 208,300 in 2009 to just 135,200 in 2013 despite continuing to represent one-quarter of all student visa holders in Australia.

Fund managers are making more trips to China to drum up the SIV program to Chinese multi-millionaires, with some reports stating that at least 30 fund managers have jumped into the business of luring China's wealthy to Australia using a SIV program.

The Associated Press reports that the flow of money into Australia could reach as much A$10 billion a year. “More than 1,000 people, almost all from China, have applied so far, and more are expected after Canada cancelled a similar program in February amid a flood of applications. The number also may be boosted by a government review to hasten approvals. More than 60 funds have been started to capture the money, including by the largest banks in Australia” the report notes.

"These are not your usual equity or private-equity type of investors," said Bill Fuggle, a partner at Baker & McKenzie in Sydney who advises immigrants on the process and asset managers on compliance with visa rules. "Fund managers need to visit China and convince them of investing not just for a visa, but in turn to preserve their wealth and improve their lifestyle."

The pace of visa approvals has stepped up since the Liberal-National coalition government was elected in September, with 282 granted in the 12 months through June, compared with just four in the program's first seven months.

The report notes that the investment inflows from people with approved visas as well as those expected from 610 people on the waiting list totaled A$4.5 billion as of the end of June. About 39 percent of that money went into managed funds as of March, according to data from the office of Michaelia Cash, assistant minister for immigration and border protection.

Amidst complaints and media criticism on the dumping of the non-contributory visas for aged relatives namely the aged parent, aged dependent relative, remaining relative and carer visas, Immigration Minister Scott Morrison has said that the visa had to go for now but indicated he could reinstate applications in future, according to a report in the Herald Sun.

Speaking to the Herald Sun, the Minister said that he recognised the decision was disappointing but the categories had to go because the waiting lists had blown out to as long as 16 years for some of the categories.

“Given the queues that had developed, it would be inappropriate to accept further ­applications and give people the false expectation that visas could be granted soon,” Mr Morrison said, speaking to The Herald Sun.

He said it was his “sincere hope” he could reinstate applications once the backlog was under control. Until then, visas would only be issued for previous applicants. The Ministers has however provided no further details.

One of the major complaints, as noted in the news report is that, families were caught off-guard: “Families are being forced to pay almost $50,000 to bring an elderly parent to Australia and care for them in their twilight years after a much cheaper $5000 visa closed, catching some off-guard…people were given just hours’ notice on a government website on May 30 of the closure of the applicants that day” reports the Herald Sun.

According to the Herald Sun, Theresa Webster, an only child, brought her British mother, Helen, 86, to Melbourne from South Africa last month to care for her, rather than send her to an aged care home in a country where she has no family to visit her. But applications closed ­before they touched down and Ms Webster said she would have to send her mother back, as she was unable to pay the ­increase from $5000 to $50,000.