Australian Immigration Daily News

Overview of the Disallowable Legislative Instrument

The purpose of the Migration Amendment (Visa Application Charges) Regulations 2021 (the Regulations) is to amend the Migration Regulations 1994 (the Migration Regulations) to make changes to visa application charges (VACs) for certain visas as a consequence of the 2017-18 Budget Measure Indexation of visa application charges, and 2020-21 Budget Measure Migration Program – changes to the Business Innovation and Investment Program.

In particular, the Regulations amend the Migration Regulations to increase VACs for a number of visas by the forecast consumer price index (CPI), consistent with the 2017-18 Budget Measure Indexation of visa application charges. From 2017-18, annual indexation of the VAC has been in accordance with the forecast CPI published annually in the Budget papers.

In effect, this means that the affected VACs are increased from their 2020-21 baseline amounts by the 2021-22 forecast CPI as published in the 2021-22 Budget Paper No.1, rounded to the nearest $5. It is intended that these indexation amendments will continue to be made on an annual basis.

In addition, consistent with the 2020-21 Budget Measure Migration Program – changes to Business Innovation and Investment Program, visa application charges for most Business Innovation and Investment Program (BIIP) visas are also increased by 11.345 percent (cumulatively with VAC indexation). This coincides with the closure of three streams of visas with effect from 1 July 2021: the Subclass 132 (Business Talent) permanent visa (with two streams) is being repealed, and the Premium Investor stream of the Subclass 188 (Business Innovation and Investment (Provisional)) visa is being closed to new applications from 1 July 2021.

Source: Migration-Amendment-Visa-Application-Charges-Regulations-2021.pdf and 

Migration-Amendment-Visa-Application-Charges-2021-Explanatory-Statement.pdf

LIN 21/043 is being made to accompany changes to applications for the WHM visas made to the Regulations by the Home Affairs Legislation Amendment (2021 Measures No. 1) Regulation 2021 (the Amendment Regulations). 6

The Amendment Regulations insert new regulation 1.15P. The purpose of regulation 1.15P is to describe the visas that are COVID-19 affected visas.

A WHM visa is a COVID-19 affected visa if all of the following requirements are met under subregulation 1.15P(1):

Citizenship application fee changes take effect from 1 July 2021. Fees are increasing to more accurately reflect the cost of application processing.

Applicants will be charged the relevant fee based on when the Department receives their application. The new fees apply if the Department receives the application and payment on or after 1 July 2021.

Source: The new fee amounts - Citizenship-Fees-1-July-2021.pdf

Programmers and ICT security specialists will get prioritised visa processing to enter Australia and bypass travel restrictions under an expansion of the skilled migration program.

Immigration minister Alex Hawke on Tuesday announced that 22 new occupations would be added to the Priority Migration Skilled Occupation List, which was launched in September last year offering prioritised visas and exemptions from travel restrictions for the jobs listed.

The new occupations include electrical engineers, analyst programmers, software and application programmers, ICT security specialists and multimedia specialists.

Overview of the Bill

The Australian Government decided, as part of the 2021–22 Budget, to implement an updated cost recovery model for registration on the Commonwealth Register of Institutions and Courses for Overseas Students(CRICOS) and associated regulation costs. These changes will be achieved through amendments in four separate bills:

- the Education Services for Overseas Students (Registration Charges) Amendment Bill 2021 (Bill) will amend the Education Services for Overseas Students (Registration Charges) Act 1997 (Registration Charges Act)

- the ESOS Amendment (Cost Recovery and Other Measures) Bill 2021 will amend the Education Services for Overseas Students Act 2000 (ESOS Act)

- the Education Services for Overseas Students (TPS Levies) Amendment Bill 2021 will amend the Education Services for Overseas Students (TPS Levies) Act 2012

- the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (Charges) Amendment Bill 2021 will amend the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (Charges) Act 2021. 

The purpose of the Bill is to amend the Registration Charges Act to update the registration charges to recover the costs for certain regulatory activities under the ESOS Act. The Bill establishes new registration charges that are consistent with the Australian Government Charging Framework(available from www.finance.gov.au).

The Bill will enable ESOS agencies to implement their own cost recovery arrangements to support the regulation of education providers registered under the ESOS Act. The Tertiary Education Quality Standards Agency (TEQSA), the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA) and the Secretary of the department are the ESOS agencies for providers registered under the ESOS Act.

The Bill sets out the annual charges payable by providers who are registered on CRICOS, as well as the charges related to ESOS Agency functions for applications by schools for initial registration and renewal of registration on CRICOS.

Source: Education-Services-for-Overseas-Students-Bill-2021.pdf and Education-Services-for-Overseas-Students-Bill-2021-explanatory-memorandum.pdf