Australian Immigration Daily News

The Joint Standing Committee on Migration will discuss education agents at a public hearing on 19 September 2018 in Canberra.  This will be part of its inquiry into the efficacy of current regulation of Australian migration agents.  

The inquiry is examining issues including:

• examining the registration and regulation of migration agents in Australia including: education, English proficiency, payment, fee-scheduling as well as the suitability and stringency of the accreditation process and evidence of deficiencies.

• the nature and prevalence of fraud, professional misconduct and other breaches by registered migration agents, the current review mechanisms for migration agents and the adequacy of penalties.

• deficiencies and barriers to relevant authorities' investigation of fraudulent behaviour by registered migration agents in visa applications, including the adequacy of information and evidence sharing between such authorities.

Source: Committee-to-discuss-education-agents-19-Sept.pdf

Over the course of this week, the Department has released a number of legislative updates applicable to variety of visa subclasses.    These updates include the following.

1.         Eligible Passports

Instrument Immi 18/002: Eligible Passports commenced operating this week.  The instrument specifies that under section 175A of the Act, the Government is able to specify that a kind of passport is an “eligible passport” for the purposes of Division 5 of Part 2 of the Act. Division 5 of Part 2 of the Act regulates the immigration clearance of persons entering Australia. The determination specifies that all valid passports are “eligible passports” with the exceptions of travel documents with certain characteristics.  Specifically this instrument is substantively the same as the instrument it repeals (IMMI 14/079) except for the following two changes:

Subclass 407 visa aims to promote international goodwill by allowing Australian organisations to sponsor persons to travel to Australia to participate in occupational training activities, including classroom-based professional development activities. Whilst the visa is not designed to fill labour shortages and is, therefore, not an appropriate visa for persons whose sole intention is to undertake work. However, it does allow the visa holder to undertake occupational training with a sponsoring organisation that is consistent with the purpose of the visa granted.

This visa allows persons who want to improve their occupational skills through participation in training in Australia with an Australian organisation, government agency or foreign government agency, including:

• training in the workplace that is required to obtain registration to be employed in the occupation of the visa applicant - Nomination type 1
• a structured workplace training programme tailored to enhance the existing skills of the visa applicant in an eligible occupation - Nomination type 2
• a training programme that promotes capacity building overseas – Nomination type 3 which includes the following subcategories:
  • overseas qualification (subcategory a) 
  • government support (subcategory b)
  • professional development (subcategory c) 

Subclass visa applicants must be sponsored by an organisation who is either an approved temporary activity sponsor or has applied to be a temporary activities sponsor; or for applications lodged on or before 18 May 2017, a training and research sponsor or a professional development sponsor

The ever-growing anxiety over imminent changes to the Australian Citizenship laws is forcing migrants to investigate alternative ways of becoming an Australian Citizen.  Most migrants become eligible for Australian Citizenship by way of conferral, there are however other ways of becoming an Australian citizen as outlined below. 

Citizenship by descent

To acquire Australian citizenship by descent under the current Citizenship Act a person must satisfy one of the two sets of eligibility requirements set out in s16 of the Act, if born outside Australia on or after 26 January 1949 (the day that the old Act came into effect), the person is required to satisfy section 16 (2) which states that a person born outside Australia on or after 26 January 1949 is eligible to become an Australian citizen if:

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