Australian Immigration Daily News

As many would be aware, 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.

Further welcome updates were made to the critical skills sector list this includes providing crucial skills in religious or theology fields. 

The Commissioner of the Australian Border Force may grant an individual exemption if you are a non-citizen:

• travelling at the invitation of the Australian Government or a state or territory government authority for the purpose of assisting in the COVID-19 response
• providing critical or specialist medical services, including air ambulance, medical evacuations and delivering critical medical supplies
• with critical skills required to maintain the supply of essential goods and services (such as in medical technology, critical infrastructure, telecommunications, engineering and mining, supply chain logistics, agriculture, primary industry, food production, and the maritime industry)
• delivering services in sectors critical to Australia’s economic recovery (such as financial technology, large scale manufacturing, film, media and television production and emerging technology), where no Australian worker is available
• providing critical skills in religious or theology fields
• whose entry would otherwise be in Australia's national interest, supported by the Australian Government or a state or territory government authority.

An individual can submit a request for a travel exemption under this category or a business can submit a request on their behalf. The applications of multiple travellers within the same group/business can be linked, so that the requests are considered together.

The following information has been released by the ACT in relation to the latest round of invitations issued for the ACT.

26 Invitations issued to 457 / 482 visa holders

145 invitations issued to Matrix nominating Critical occupations.  

State Goverment of South Australia has released the following information in relation to State Migration intake.

The Commonwealth Department of Home Affairs has provided a limited number of skilled and business visa nomination places to the Government of South Australia up until the Federal Budget is delivered on 6 October 2020.

Skilled migration

The Migration Amendment (Hong Kong Passport Holders) Regulations 2020 (the Hong Kong Passport Holders Regulations) amend the Migration Regulations 1994 (the Migration Regulations) to implement policy changes relating to visas for Hong Kong passport holders, as jointly announced by the Prime Minister and the Acting Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs on 9 July 2020.

The amendments extend temporary skilled and temporary graduate visas, for five years from 9 July 2020, to provide a new end date of 8 July 2025, if the primary visa holder held a Hong Kong passport when the visa was granted. Hong Kong passport is defined to mean a Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China passport. These passports are available to citizens of the People’s Republic of China who are permanently resident in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. The visas of family members, who satisfied the secondary visa criteria, are also extended to 8 July 2025, regardless of the passport they hold.

Further information can be found here: https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/F2020L01047/Download