The Australian government understands that people need to be close to their loved ones and that they are going to be healthier and happier if they have the support of their loved ones around them.  It is because of these reasons that the family migration scheme allows those who are eligible to sponsor their family members too come and live with them in the country on either a temporary or permanent visa.

In order for this to be done, both the sponsor and the applicant need to fulfil the eligibility requirements which are different for each separate category in the family migration scheme. The sponsor has to support their relatives who come to the country till a period of two years from their arrival is and the applicant needs to fulfil all the eligibility requirements for the visa category they are applying for including the requirements of character and health.

The following are allowed to get family visas according to Australia’s immigration policy:

Recent statistics indicate that of 35,000 who are eligible for this visa only about 15 per cent actually bothered to apply for the visa which grants full work rights in Australia.

Data from the Immigration Department indicates that, of the 35,127 graduates who held a 573 visa on March 15 last year, just 5836 pursued the 485 visa — known as post-study work rights visa — on December 31, according to a report in The Australian.

Of those, just 4685 were still in Australia, the rest overseas. Are students unware of their rights, or are the job prospects here so poor that they have to return home. There are even suggestions that the $1470 visa application charge has become concern for some students.

Complaining that an increased population would not spread out across the Australian continent but instead concentrate in the narrow fertile strip along the east coast, former NSW Premier and Foreign Minister under the Labor government has made a plea to drastically cut Australia’s migration program.

Media reports did not indicate what type of research or economic modelling Mr Bob Carr based his notions on when he took a swipe at current policies which take in about 190,000 permanent migrants a year.

Mr Carr said the country's population was far greater than "what we need and what we can absorb, environmentally and economically…And it's based on a flawed economic model — that is, we need to build up a domestic population.” Mr Carr's comments came after Australia's population officially hit 24 million shortly after midnight on Tuesday.

Speaking to the media in Sydney, Mr Carr chose to compare Australia to Indonesia stating that, "Our rate of population growth is higher than that of Indonesia, which has got developing-world status.” He made no mention that the median age in Indonesia is about 28 years with life expectancy of 71 years and a fertility rate of 2.47. In Australia the median age about 38 years with life expectancy at 82 years and a fertility rate well under replacement levels and at its lowest levels in 10 years.

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The mountain just got a whole lot higher for anyone who may be seeking to challenge a decision by the Minister to cancel a visa on character grounds. 

As I have discussed on this blog, there have been very few cases where a visa holder has been successful in persuading the Federal Court to set aside a cancellation decision.  

And now, just yesterday, the Full Court of the Federal Court has reversed a Federal Court decision in favour of the visa holder: Minister for Immigration and Border Protection v Stretton (2016) FCAFC 11 (15 February 2016). 

The number of undocumented workers in Australia is estimated to be in excess of 100,000. The potential pool of visa holders with no or limited work rights is huge, including millions of visitors and students. Their circumstances, leave many of them thinking that they are without rights to the wages and conditions enjoyed by the rest of the workforce, and allow them to be exploited by unscrupulous employers, according to an article in The Conversation.

This is a growing phenomenon, but not a new one. The Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP) reports a 10% increase in visa overstayers in the two years to 2013, to 62,700. 

In 2011, the federal government-commissioned Howells review described non-citizens working without permission as, “in simple numerical terms … the most significant problem facing Australian immigration authorities”.

A recent landmark study on overseas workers has revealed that almost four out five Chinese student visa workers in Sydney are paid below the minimum wage, with two out of five paid just $12 an hour or less. The study found that all those working as waiters were underpaid.

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