Australian Immigration Daily News

New Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) analysis shows that in 2016 half of the 1.5 million temporary residents in Australia were living in Sydney (27 per cent) and Melbourne (24 per cent) with a further 14 per cent calling Brisbane home.

ABS Director of Migration Statistics, Myles Burleigh, said for the first time detailed social and economic characteristics of temporary residents in Australia have been made available through the 2016 Australian Census and Temporary Entrants Integrated Dataset (ACTEID).

“By combining 2016 Census data and temporary visa information from the Department of Home Affairs, we now have a comprehensive picture of where groups of temporary residents live, the countries they come from, what work they do, what they earn and if they are studying,” he said.

The VETASSESS website is currently showing the following message:

Please note system maintenance activities are planned for Thursday 14th of February 2019, between 05:00pm and 06:00pm (AEDT).  During this period you will not be able to either lodge new applications or check the status of existing applications.  We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused.

Source: https://www1.skillassess.com/Account

The following news is just in from Victoria:

We are pleased to advise that Victoria will begin issuing invitations and assessing nomination applications for affected business and investor visa subclasses from
18 February 2019.

Please note that an Expression of Interest (EOI) process will be introduced for the following visas:

The Bill aims to provide that, when an unlawful non-citizen is in the process of being removed to another country and the removal is aborted, or is completed but the person is not permitted entry into the receiving country, and as a direct result the person is returned to Australia, then that person has a lawful basis to return to Australia without a visa; provide that, when such a person does return to Australia without a visa, the person will be taken to have been continuously in the migration zone for the purposes of certain sections of the Act which bar the person from making a valid application for certain visas; and allow the department to use an online account to provide clients with certain legally required communications; Customs Act 1901 to: allow the department to make a recoverable payment to a person who is entitled to it; and make technical amendments; and Passenger Movement Charge Collection Act 1978 to insert a new head of power so that regulations can prescribe the charging and recovery of fees for, and in relation to, the payment of passenger movement charge or an amount equal to the charge.

The bill was first introduced into parliament on 28 March 2018 and is now awaiting Royal Assent.

The purpose of Schedule 1 to the Bill is to provide that when a non-citizen is removed from Australia under section 198 to another country (the destination country), or an unsuccessful attempt is made to remove that non-citizen under section 198, that non‑citizen can be returned to Australia without needing to hold a visa. Further, the amendments in this Schedule are intended to provide that when the non-citizen is returned to Australia, then despite their temporary absence from Australia, if the non‑citizen was barred from making certain visa applications under section 48 or 48A prior to their departure, they will continue to be barred on their return.

In a report released today, The Business Council of Australia recommends:

 The ‘ceiling’ for the permanent migration intake should remain at 190,000 per annum in 2019-20, with 128,550 places reserved for skilled migrants and the remainder for the family stream.

 Consider setting the ceiling of 190,000 per annum for the next three years – 2019-20, 2020-21 and 2021-22 – to provide business, governments and the community with greater certainty about the future intake and to support better long term planning for growth