Australian Immigration Daily News

Since the publication of the blog concerning the Law Council of Australia submission to the JSCM, the Founder of Migration Alliance, Liana Allan received an email from and also spoke to David Prince, the Chair of the LCA's Migration Law Committee.  The email and phone conversations between them took place yesterday.  David Prince told Ms Allan that the Law Council submission has a drafting error in it.

That error was said to apparently lie in the Law Council of Australia's submission which suggested that RMAs not be permitted to act for clients at the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT). 

What was apparently intended was a recommendation to the effect that RMAs not be permitted to appear in adversarial proceedings at the AAT.  Accordingly the Law Council submission is being amended to continue to permit Registered Migration Agents (RMAs) to appear in the Migration Review division of the AAT.  

Migration (IMMI 18/015

Commenced  6 June 2018 

This instrument repeals the prior IMMI 16/019 and specifies the required levels of English language proficiency applicants must have to meet the criteria for the Subclass 500 (Student) visa. 
This item commenced on 6/06/2018

The TOEFL® program provides a paper testing alternative to the TOEFL iBT® test in areas of the world where internet access is unreliable. A very small number of candidates—less than 3%—take the paper version of the TOEFL test.

In 2017, the TOEFL Paper-based Test (PBT) was replaced with a new paper test called the revised TOEFL Paper-delivered Test, which was first administered on 14 October 2017. The new test has three sections – reading, listening and writing – with the same types of questions as the TOEFL iBT test, and the same score scale of 0-30 for each section.

TOEFL PBT scores remain a valid option for student visa applicants until 2 years from the test date. The last valid scores will expire in 2019.

Immigration SA have announced the re-opening of their nomination application system for the 188 and 132 business stream visas.

What's needed

• Valid for applications made from 3pm on June 7 2018
• The applicant must have evidence they previously visited SA
• The applicant must lodge the application online

Important points

Application positions will be confirmed when the application is lodged. Places are limited, so if payment is requested, the ‘processing place’ for the application is secured.  If not applicants need to wait until the new processing round in July.

TOEFL-PBT no longer accepted as evidence of English Student Visa Applicants

The ‘Test of English as a Foreign Language Paper-Based test’ (TOEFL-PBT) previously accepted by the Department of Home Affairs (the Department) for Subclass 500 (Student) visa applications, for establishing an applicant’s English language proficiency has been removed by a legislative instrument released on 5 June 2018. 

On 14 October 2017, the TOEFL-PBT was revised by an external agency and the TOEFL-PBT no longer includes a measurement of speaking. Testing of English language speaking skills is a requirement for assessment of an applicant to establish they have the required English language proficiency. The Testing of English language speaking skills is designed to ensure applicants can communicate effectively in face–to–face situations within Australia.  As a result of the change to the TOEFL-PBT, the instrument IMMI 18/015 does not specify TOEFL-PBT as an accepted English language test due to its inability to measure the English language speaking skills of an applicant.  Therefore, the purpose of the revised instrument is to remove the TOEFL-PBT as one of the specified tests for establishing an applicant’s English language proficiency accepted by the Department for Subclass 500 (Student) visa applications.