Australian Immigration Daily News

Last night the Coalition Government delivered the Budget.  This has provided some interesting insight in relation to Australia’s immigration programme for the year ahead.  Below is key point summary of the Budget:

Job Cuts at the Department of Immigration and Border Protection:

Evident restructure within Government departments was seen across all sectors. Around 245 positions will go from Immigration and Border Protection, explained through "net movements in measures and operational pressures".  This could mean further delay in visa application processing times.  Current 457 visas take around 59 days to be processed with approximately 90% of cases processed in 6 months.

Some welcome news at a State level for subclass 457 visa holders impacted by recent legislative changes! South Australian Government is accepting nominations for 457 visa holders currently working in South Australia for a 190 or 489 General Skilled Migration visa allowing these individuals to remain in South Australia. The added bonus the fact that these visa pathways place no requirements on the employer.  Where a subclass 457 visa holder has worked in South Australia for 12 months or more, they will have access to more than 400 occupations.  This is welcomed news by those visa holders who are no longer eligible for another 457 visa or subclass 186 as a result of the changes last month.  The changes are summarised here:  http://migrationalliance.com.au/immigration-daily-news/entry/2017-04-key-dates-introduction-of-temporary-skill-shortage-visa-tss-and-phasing-out-of-temporary-work-skilled-subclass-457-visa-457-visa.html

In addition to having more occupations available to choose from, South Australia is offering further concessions on English language requirements. Applicants securing a state nomination can get up to 10 extra points for DIBP’s points test. Five will be awarded for state nomination relating to subclass 190 visa and ten relating to a state nomination for subclass 489 visa.

Securing a subclass 489 or 190 visa will also allow visa holders access to local school fees.

Does the Department have the authority to confiscate mobile phones from people who are being held in immigration detention?

This question is prompted by a change in the government’s policies that were announced in late May 2016, and which began to be implemented in February of this year. 

Prior to this policy change, a “two-tiered” approach to the possession and use of mobile phones by persons in detention had been in place since 2010.  Under that two-tiered approach,  persons  who were being held in detention because they were “illegal maritime arrivals” were not allowed to have or use mobile phones, but otherwise, persons who were in detention because their visa had been cancelled on character grounds were allowed to have and use mobiles.

Bupa is proud to announce the launch of its official WeChat account!

This social media platform is extremely popular amongst the Mandarin speaking community here in Australia so as part of their on-going multicultural communication strategies they have decided to join the WeChat community and become the first health insurance company in Australia to open an official account.

This account will enable access to information on Bupa’s product range and health services, the ability to communicate with Bupa consultants, and receive weekly articles on topics ranging from promotions and campaign information to health and care articles all in Mandarin.

Operation "Sovereign Borders" has been a primary focus of the government to deal with 'people smuggling'.

On April 23, days after announcing changes to Subclass 457 Visa and Citizenship, Minister for Immigration Peter Dutton released the following statistics for comparison.

Under Labor, Australia saw: