Australian Immigration Daily News

Immi account issues

Users of Immi account are advised that there are ongoing technical issues affecting the system. Certain visas applications are showing the following items as outstanding regardless of whether these were provided:

• Health Assessment
• Character Assessment
• Biometrics
• Additional payment requirement

Home Affairs advised that the above issues are being investigated by the technical team and will be fixed in due course.  In the meantime, if applicants or agents should disregard notice for outstanding documents if the documents or information has already been provided to immigration.

A comprehensive review of the international student industry is urgently needed to assess the true costs and benefits to Australia, according to Conservative Party WA Senate Candidate Jonathan Crabtree.

Mr Crabtree also called for an overhaul of student visa rules, citing a recent report showing that the explosion in international student numbers was contributing to Australia’s extremely high levels of net overseas migration (NOM). In 2017-18, net overseas migration to Australia was 236,733 – one of the highest per capita immigration rates in the world.

The report by the Australian Population Research Institute states that the universities’ growing reliance on full-fee paying overseas students as a source of revenue has eroded education standards.

It is still a requirement for sponsors of 457 holders to comply with Training Benchmarks A and B.

Please find a basic presentation on this from NSW TAFE, below:

TAFE-NSW-Flyer.pdf

The concept of parent visas has become to an extent somewhat redundant in Australian Immigration.  Broadly speaking there are two visa categories available for parents wishing to join or visit their children:

1. Contributory Parent Visas
2. Non-Contributory Parent Visas

Both visas carry major flaws and impracticalities.  The average wait time for non-contributory parent visa is now in excess of 30 years whereas other family visas carry a wait time of in excess of 50 years.

The contributory parent visa requires a payment of approximately $45,000 per applicant to be made payable to Home Affairs for the visa to be granted.  For two parents, the cost is in excess of $90,000.

The following is the AAT Bulletin dated 29 April 2019: AAT-29-April-2019.pdf