Australian Immigration Daily News

The Migration and Refugee Division (MRD) of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal will be hosting a series of Community Liaison events throughout November and December 2018.

The meetings are an opportunity for the MRD and its stakeholders to address matters that arise from the conduct of reviews or relate to the MRD’s operations in general. We will also provide you with update on the MRD’s caseload as well as legislative and corporate developments.

A representative from the Immigration Assessment Authority (IAA) will also be in attendance to provide an update and answer any questions regarding the IAA.

This is the annual report from the Secretary of the Department of Home Affairs and the Commissioner of the Australian Border Force (ABF) to the Minister for Home Affairs for the financial year ended 30 June 2018.

It is the first annual report published since the Department’s establishment on 20 December 2017.

The report covers the performance of the Department of Home Affairs and the ABF, which is established within the Department of Home Affairs for budgetary, employment and administrative purposes, but is operationally independent.

Migration Agents might want to be aware of this first reading which was put to the Senate yesterday by Senator Anning.  I am not sure if this has hit main stream media yet, but to me this seems nothing short of a xenophobic, racist, bigoted move!  Here it is and below is the extract from Hansard:

BILLS Plebiscite (Restricting Non-European Migration) Bill 2018

First Reading

The TOEFL iBT® test score requirements for those who must provide an approved English-language test result to achieve Migration Agent registration have been revised. 

The revision, which took effect 1 January 2018, brings the TOEFL® test requirements for migration agents into line with score equivalences used across the Department of Home Affairs.

The new TOEFL iBT requirements are an overall score of 94 and minimum section scores of:

1.            Processing Times 

Home Affairs published latest processing times for subclass 482 visas.   Based on the October 2018 processing times frames, 75% of all 482 applications are processed in: 

• 49 days – Short Term Stream
• 38 days – Medium Term Stream
• 22 days – Labour Agreement Stream
• 38 days – Sponsorship
• Nominations – 35 days 

Processing times are updated regularly and are published on Department of Home Affairs website.