Australian Immigration Daily News

Over the weekend, Borderforce updated their categories to confirm instances an automatic or an invidiaul exemption is required to facilitate travel.

Exempt categories

You are automatically exempt from the travel restrictions and can enter Australia (without obtaining an individual exemption) if you are:

Last week, Legal Training Australia together with ANMAC hosted a webinar for Registered Migration Agents.  Migration Alliance brings you the following summary from the webinar:

Registration:

• Programs of study that have been accredited by ANMAC and approved by the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia will lead to registration in Australia as a nurse or midwife under the approved qualification pathway of the Health Practitioner Regulation Act (2009) 53a.
• Programs that have been accredited by ANMAC and approved by the NMBA appear on the Approved Programs of Study list
• The registration process was due to change in 2020, however due to COVID19 this is more likely to be in 2021 (tbc)

               What does this means for your clients?

The government will recommence granting student visas, allowing travel to Australia as soon as borders reopen. International students will be able to lodge an additional student visa application free if Covid-19 prevented them completing study under their original visa.

The response is to aid Australia’s economic recovery as the number of applications for student visa dropped by third.

There are also ongoing concerns regarding students who are wishing to transition to skilled graduate subclass 485 visa.  This visa requires an applicant at the time of application to demonstrate that they have completed an English language test (unless exempt).  This is proving to be next to impossible for certain students given the current lockdown in many parts across Australia including Victoria.

Due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the Department is delivering online citizenship ceremonies via secure video-link to enable those applicants who are already approved to continue to become Australian citizens.

Online ceremonies will be with the presiding officer and generally a single conferee, or a household group if they reside at the same location, and are shorter than traditional in-person ceremonies while still ensuring legal requirements are met. Ceremonies performed online continue to include integrity measures, such as identity checks.

Following the easing of COVID-19 restrictions across a number of jurisdictions, small in-person citizenship ceremonies are also being reintroduced from June 2020. These ceremonies must comply with current state or territory directives on the limits on small gatherings, and meet COVIDSafe requirements.

The Department of Home Affairs has issued an interim allocation of subclass 491, 190, 188 and 132 visa nomination places to states and territories. These allocations will be updated after the 2020-21 Federal Budget is handed down in October 2020

The Department of Home Affairs has directed that until this time, all nominations must be justifiable in relation to their likely contribution to Australia’s economic recovery, and follow three priorities:

1.            High quality subclass 188 and 132 (Business Innovation and Investment Program) nomination applications.