Australian Immigration Daily News

More overseas nationals are enjoying the expansion of the working holiday visa programme.  Over the last month a number of changes took place to allow more individuals to migrate to Australia under the working holiday visa scheme as well as increase of cut off age for certain nationals.

Subclass 417 Woking Holiday and Subclass 462 Work and Holiday Visas are designed to allow people 18 to 30 years old (inclusive) - except for Canadian and Irish citizens up to 35 (inclusive) - have their first extended holiday in Australia and work here to help fund their trip.

As the programme continues to expand, several legislative instruments were introduced to streamline the process.

Welcome to our Brave new World..

The Migration Amendment (Family Violence and Other Measures) Bill 2016 was passed yesterday and is awaiting Royal Assent.

That ACT when assented to, paves the way for regulations to require, amongst other things, a prior approval of a Sponsor BEFORE a valid application is lodged.

The NARWP aims to ensure that migrants make provision to support themselves and their families when they first settle in Australia.

The Social Services Legislation Amendment (Encouraging Self-Sufficiency for Newly Arrived Migrants) Bill 2018 (bill) seeks to increase the existing newly arrived resident's waiting period (NARWP) from 104 weeks to 156 weeks (two years to three years) for various social security payments, concession cards and farm household support allowances. 

In addition, the bill seeks to introduce a NARWP of 156 weeks for family tax benefit, paid parental leave, dad and partner pay, parenting payment, carer allowance, bereavement allowance and widow allowance. 

In a Third Reading yesterday:

Senator REYNOLDS (Western Australia—Assistant Minister for Home Affairs) (09:50):

I move: That this bill be now read a third time. Question agreed to.

The Migration Amendment (Streamlining Visa Processing) Bill 2018 (the Bill) amends the Migration Act 1958 (the Act) to enable the Minister to specify groups of visa applicants who are required to provide one or more personal identifiers to make a valid application.

A biometric (termed ‘personal identifier’ in the Act), is a unique identifier that is based on individual physical characteristics, such as a facial image or a set of fingerprints, which can be digitised into a biometric template for automated storage and checking. Once ‘anchored‘ to a person’s biographic information, such as name, nationality and date of birth, a biometric adds significantly to verifying that a person is who they claim to be, and to linking an individual to security, law enforcement, and immigration information.

The Department’s biometric program has been progressively introduced over time. It commenced in 2006 with collecting facial images and fingerprints of illegal foreign fishers, and was extended in 2010, when the Department commenced collecting facial images and fingerprints from offshore visa applicants in specified higher risk locations and onshore protection claimants.

Source:

Migration-Amendment-Streamlining-Visa-Processing-Bill-2018.pdf