Australian Immigration Daily News

The following information has been placed on the Live In Melbourne website:

Victorian nomination for select business and investor visas is currently paused – with the intention to resume accepting nomination applications in February 2019.

The current pause on applications for Visa Nomination is temporary to manage demand and to maintain high service levels.

The Australian Business and Innovation and Investment programme

With applications for NSW nomination now being open under the Federal Government's Business and Innovation programme, lets take a closer look at this programme.

The purpose of the Australian Business and Innovation and Investment programme is to increase the entrepreneurial talent and diversify business expertise in Australia.

Lewis & Bollard have released their Migration Newsletter 710 which makes interesting reading:

Lewis & Bollard Migration_Newsletter_710.pdf

Taken from the doorstop interview in Melbourne today this is part of the transcript, authorised by Greg Hunt MP, Liberal Party of Australia, Somerville, Victoria:

JOURNALIST: Would Australia consider giving the young Saudi Arabian girl in Bangkok a visa? 

GREG HUNT: Look, I spoke with Minister Coleman last night. He worked very, very hard to ensure that the United Nations High Commission for Refugees began an expedited assessment process for Miss Alqunun. He has been successful in securing that process. So I want to thank and acknowledge the work of David Coleman on that front. We’ll await the findings in terms of refugee status but he has indicated that he is very, very, very focused on this process, on ensuring that it proceeds rapidly, and if it is found that she is a refugee then he’ll consider it with a very, very open mind.

The Department of Home Affairs (including its independent operational arm, the Australian Border Force, referred to in this notice together as ‘the Department’) will exchange data with the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) to identify whether business sponsors are complying with their sponsorship obligations (eg, paying visa holders correctly) and whether temporary skilled visa holders are complying with their visa conditions (eg, to work only for an approved employer, and to work only in the approved occupation). Where non-compliance is identified further compliance action may be taken (eg consideration given to cancellation of a visa or the approval of a sponsor).

In this data exchange program the Department is the source and primary user agency whilst the ATO is the matching agency. The Department will provide to the ATO

• biographical details, including name, address and date of birth of clients who are, or were in the three most recently completed financial years, holders of Temporary Work (Skilled) (subclass 457) or Temporary Skills Shortage (subclass 482) primary visas; and
• details of the these clients’ business sponsors

These details will be electronically matched against ATO data holdings. Where there is a match, the ATO will return income and employment data for the relevant individual(s) to the Department. Data will be exchanged on a periodic basis. It is estimated that the total number of records shared will be around 680,000 which represents around 280,000 individuals.