Australian Immigration Daily News

On 18 September 2018 the Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs, the Hon David Coleman MP announced the opening of the Fostering Integration Grants.

These grants will help local community organisations to deliver programs & activities that give migrants best chance of succeeding assisting them to integrate into Australian economic, social & civil life.

An integrated and cohesive multicultural Australia includes migrants who:

South Australia 

South Australian Government published an updated state occupation list with certain occupations now being subject to special conditions.  Examples include the following occupations: 

135112 – ICT Project Manager – special conditions for this occupation were updated on 14 September 2018 including the requirement for an applicant to have a proficient English as well as minimum score of at least 70 points 

How can you know whether the Tribunal has committed jurisdictional error in carrying out its review of the refusal of a Partner visa?

Is this task as difficult and challenging as figuring out how many angels can dance on the head of a pin?

Or counting how many jelly beans are in a jar on the counter of a candy store?

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: