Australian Immigration Daily News

by Michael Jeremy - Registered Migration Agent and Migration Lecturer

Last month, February, I attended the Watermelon Festival in Chinchilla in Southern Queensland. My mate Terry has a watermelon farm and my interest in melons over the decades made Melonfest Chinchilla impossible to resist.

My professional interest in agriculture and horticulture in Australia also made this part of Queensland a must visit. Despite issues with oversupply making previous seasons tough for watermelon growers, Melonfest 2015 was reported a great success, with commercial Sydney and Melbourne television stations covering the event live.

MIGRATION ALLIANCE VIDEO RELEASE

The new Migration Alliance video is now live and will soon be uploaded to the homepage.  Watch it here:

Michael Jeremy (on the left in the picture) will be presenting two separate, full-day 10-point CPD blitzes in Perth on 13 March and 14 March 2015.   Here is what the super-guru of Australian immigration has to say:

"I really enjoy delivering training workshops as these OFFER a much more interactive and interesting learning environment.

I always learn new things and see things from different perspectives as a result of the broad range of experiences held in the workshop. It also gives PARTICIPANTS a greater ability to get to know each other and find out what their colleagues are interested in, specialise in and how to create networks in an often isolating industry.

The topics we'll be discussing in Perth:

•     The ever-changing General Skilled Migration, 'this is not an application' - Expression Of Interest (EOI). Not to be outdone, the states, territories and regions of Australia also have their own Skilled Occupation Lists, skill and English criteria and systems of invitation to the party. The Immigration Department also has interesting and growing cancellation powers over permanent visas.

•     Ministerial Intervention, which is an interesting, complex and explosive area of immigration in which to practice. Migration professionals must always remember that this is about the 'Minister' NOT the 'Department'.

•     The notorious 457 Visa is, in my opinion, one of the most complicated programs within skilled migration. It really is about Australian employers and their ability to abide by the sponsorship obligations. This is a really interesting area of Immigration law in which to practice.

•     ENS (Employer Nomination Scheme). This is widely misunderstood to be 'permanent sponsorship'. It's nothing of the sort. We'll go through some interesting aspects of the regs and how to best advise clients on pathways and streams.

•     The Health Criteria is my favourite seminar. The Health Crtieria apply to every person who seeks entry to Australia and to remain in Australia, it's the standards of evidence that differ across individuals and how those standards of evidence are best determined. In this seminar we'll look at HIV, Ebola and medical conditions such as Schizophrenia. We'll also discuss how best to manage an application for a health waiver.

I invite all attendants to come armed with questions and issues to raise within the group."

Migration Alliance members have been in contact and have expressed the view that Migration Alliance should defend and protect it's name against ME Alliance Pty Ltd otherwise named Migration and Education Alliance, owned and operated by RMA Praveen Goyal.

If any RMAs, who are also solicitors are familiar with this area of law and would be able to advise us, we would be pleased to hear from you.  We would like to keep the work within the profession and amongst our members where possible.

As ME Alliance Pty Ltd is a small business, Migration Alliance has lodged an application with the Small Business Commissioner for mediation with ME Alliance Pty Ltd to try and request that Mr Goyal refrain from using 'Migration and Education Alliance' as his trading name.