Australian Immigration Daily News

Currently VETASSESS considers paid doctoral research level studies as valid employment for skills assessment purposes.
 
Please be advised that as of 15 December 2018, VETASSESS will not accept paid doctoral studies for skills assessment purposes, consistent with the Department of Home Affairs requirements. 

For skilled employment to be considered ‘remunerated’, applicants must be engaged in the occupation on a paid basis, generally at the award or market rate of the occupation. A person receiving minimal living allowances or scholarships designed to cover study expenses would not be considered to be 'remunerated'.
 
VETASSESS will continue to ensure that impact on its clients is minimised during the transition leading up to the implementation date. Applications received prior to 15 December 2018 will be processed according to the criteria at the time of applying.

For further information please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The case of Pham at the Federal Court on an appeal from the FCC, has cleared some of the weeds away from the Legislative instrument which, in my opinion, unnecessarily complicated the already complex "family Violence" exception.

See: Pham V Minister for Immigration and Border Protection [2018] FCA 1946.

http://www.judgments.fedcourt.gov.au/judgments/Judgments/fca/single/2018/2018fca1946

Australian Border Force (ABF) officers have detained eight individuals as part of a national operation targeting unscrupulous labour hire intermediaries and foreign worker exploitation.

Five Malaysian nationals were located and detained for either being in Australia illegally or working in breach of their visa conditions.

Two of those detained are suspected of higher level involvement in worker exploitation. All five are being held in immigration detention ahead of their removal from Australia.

Check out the discussion in the Senate yesterday regarding 'Strengthening the Character Test'

Warning....interesting, but legislation-heavy reading...

Application of amendments

I am writing to make readers of the MA site aware that there has been a significant decision from Judge Riley of the Federal Circuit Court in Melbourne concerning the genuine temporary entrant requirement which relates to Direction No. 53, now superseded by Direction No. 69.. 

The decision was in a case called Singh v Minister for Immigration and Border Protection (2018) FCCA 3423 (23 November 2018)  which can be accessed by clicking on this link.

In brief, Judge Riley held that if the Tribunal fails to take into account a "mandatory consideration" that is listed in Direction No. 53 (which binds all decision-makers in their assessment of whether an applicant satisfies the GTE), then jurisdictional error may have occurred.