Australian Immigration Daily News

The concept of parent visas has become to an extent somewhat redundant in Australian Immigration.  Broadly speaking there are two visa categories available for parents wishing to join or visit their children:

1. Contributory Parent Visas
2. Non-Contributory Parent Visas

Both visas carry major flaws and impracticalities.  The average wait time for non-contributory parent visa is now in excess of 30 years whereas other family visas carry a wait time of in excess of 50 years.

The contributory parent visa requires a payment of approximately $45,000 per applicant to be made payable to Home Affairs for the visa to be granted.  For two parents, the cost is in excess of $90,000.

Australia has long been one of the top-ranking countries in the world when it comes to the lucrative export dollar generated by the provision of an internationally recognised qualification. Whilst education providers have experienced a significant decline in overseas student numbers from 2009 to 2012, Australia still sits as one of the leaders when it comes to this type of export sector.  However, competition from neightbouring countries including the UK and Canada may once again see a decline in a number of students travelling to Australia to study.

Prior to and for some time after the completion of the Knight Review in 2011, when some significant changes were made to the program as a result of the recommendations of that review, Australia had been losing ground against its competitor nations like Canada, New Zealand, the USA and the UK.

The increasing costs of international tuition, the costs associated with applying for the visa itself, the relatively high value of the Australian dollar in comparison to many international currencies, and the fact that there is only a limited number of qualifying students who, on completion of their Australian qualifications, have the prospect of applying for permanent residency, means Australia’s educational industry has felt the pinch of these various factors. Having said that, enrolment numbers across all education sectors have, for the most part, been steadily increasing again.

Home Affairs is currently in the process of reviewing and revising evidentiary requirements for student visa applicants from certain countries.

In the meantime, major change is announced in relation to applicants from Nepal wishing to lodge their student visa application from 1 May 2019 and study in VET sector will  be required to provide evidence of English as well as financial capacity (irrespective of whether the application will be processed under streamlined arrangements).

As this is a new arrangement, the existing document check tool may not necessarily reflect this new arrangement until the system is fully updated.

In a press statement this Sunday 28 April 2019, PM Scott Morrison Announced that Coalition will cap Australia’s annual refugee intake to 18,750 places (down from current figure of 20,000 places).

Further, the Government plans to review the number of number of arrivals with greater focus on settlement to regional Australia by increasing the target from 30% to 40%.

Though the UNHCR recommends or refers people for resettlement, the ultimate decision to grant a visa rests with Australia’s Immigration Department. Australia has four offshore refugee category visas: Refugee (visa subclass 200); In‐Country Special Humanitarian (visa subclass 201); Emergency Rescue (visa subclass 203); and Woman at Risk (visa subclass 204).

Home Affairs published latest invitation round for subclass 189 Skilled Independent as well as Subclass 489 Regional Provisional Visas.

By comparison to March 2019 invitation rounds where a total of 1500 Invitations were issued, Home Affairs issued a mere 100 invitations for subclass 189 visa and 10 for the 489 visas.  The lowest invitation score was 80 points.

Full details pertaining occupations that received invitations as well as minimum points score are available here: https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/working-in-australia/skillselect/invitation-rounds