Australian Immigration Daily News

In a press statement this Sunday 28 April 2019, PM Scott Morrison Announced that Coalition will cap Australia’s annual refugee intake to 18,750 places (down from current figure of 20,000 places).

Further, the Government plans to review the number of number of arrivals with greater focus on settlement to regional Australia by increasing the target from 30% to 40%.

Though the UNHCR recommends or refers people for resettlement, the ultimate decision to grant a visa rests with Australia’s Immigration Department. Australia has four offshore refugee category visas: Refugee (visa subclass 200); In‐Country Special Humanitarian (visa subclass 201); Emergency Rescue (visa subclass 203); and Woman at Risk (visa subclass 204).

Home Affairs published latest invitation round for subclass 189 Skilled Independent as well as Subclass 489 Regional Provisional Visas.

By comparison to March 2019 invitation rounds where a total of 1500 Invitations were issued, Home Affairs issued a mere 100 invitations for subclass 189 visa and 10 for the 489 visas.  The lowest invitation score was 80 points.

Full details pertaining occupations that received invitations as well as minimum points score are available here: https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/working-in-australia/skillselect/invitation-rounds

The AAT Bulletin for the 23 April 2019 is below.  Citizenship decisions can be found on page 3.  Migration decisions can be found on page 4.

AAT-Bulletin-23-April-2019.pdf

Since the introduction in 2012, Subclass 132 Visa grants are on the rise.  For example, at the inception of the program, State of Victoria issued a mere 34 invitations.  By comparison, 934 invitations were issued in 2017.

The purpose of Subclass 132 visa is to allow an applicant to establish a new or develop an existing business in Australia.

Business Talent Visa has two streams:

The designated area migration agreement (DAMA) programme has been developed to supplement the workforce strategies of states, territories and regions, to support economic performance and help them adjust to changing economic conditions.

The DAMA is a two-tier agreement: the first tier consists of an overarching five-year deed of agreement with a designated area representative setting out occupations, ceilings and concessions; and the second tier comprising individual labour agreements with direct employers.

DAMAs establish collaborative arrangements, with shared roles and responsibilities, between the Australian Government and regional or state and territory authorities.