Australian Immigration Daily News

Are you ready with important support services ready to go when the borders open?

With all the news about borders opening its timely to think about some of the important services available to you as a Migration Alliance Member. As a reminder we have partnered with Allianz Care to bring you and your customers access to their range of visa compliant OSHC and OVHC.

Who is Allianz Care Australia?

The following message has been sent to Migration Alliance from the Office of the MARA

A systems outage to ImmiAccount is planned from Friday 12 November 8:45pm until 12 noon Saturday 13 November 2021 AEDT to perform system maintenance. 

During the outage time period you will not be able access the following online services via ImmiAccount: 

Purpose
4 Section 140GBA of the Act sets out a condition for labour market testing that needs to be met by approved work sponsors who wish to apply for work-related visas on behalf of a visa applicant in certain circumstances (see subsection 140GB(2) of the Act). Subsection 140GBA(1) provides that the labour market testing condition applies to a nomination by a person if:
- the person is or has applied to be, in a class of approved work sponsors (paragraph 140GBA(1)(a)); and
- the person nominates a proposed occupation and a particular position, associated with the nominated occupation, that is to be filled by a visa applicant (including proposed applicants) or a visa holder identified in the nomination (paragraph 140GBA(1)(b)); and
- it would not be inconsistent with any international trade obligation of Australia determined in a legislative instrument made under subsection 140GBA(2) to require the person to satisfy the labour market testing condition, in relation to the nominated position (paragraph 140GBA(1)(c)).

Source:  LIN21075.pdf and LIN21075-Explanatory-Statement.pdf

Overview of the Disallowable Legislative Instrument

The Prospective Marriage (Subclass 300) visa provides a pathway for prospective spouses of Australian citizens, permanent residents or eligible New Zealand citizens to enter and stay in Australia for a period of between nine to fifteen months and marry their partner, prior to lodgement of a permanent Partner visa application.

COVID-19 related travel restrictions and practical limitations have meant that many Prospective Marriage visa holders have been unable to travel to Australia within their visa validity period to marry their partner and apply for a permanent Partner visa.

On 10 December 2020, the Migration Amendment (Prospective Marriage Visas) Regulations 2020 extended the visa validity period to 31 March 2022, for Prospective Marriage visa holders or former visa holders who were outside Australia on 10 December 2020, and who held a Prospective Marriage visa at any time between 6 October 2020 and 10 December 2020.

On 18 August 2021, the Government announced a change to travel exemption settings for travel to Australia, to allow Prospective Marriage (Subclass 300) visa holders to obtain a travel exemption when at least 12 months has passed since the visa holder first lodged their Prospective Marriage visa application.

While this change to the travel exemptions settings will assist some Prospective Marriage visa holders, as the COVID-19 pandemic continues into 2021-22, many visa holders remain outside Australia and continue to face difficulties in arriving in Australia within their visa validity period. This may be for example, due to limited quarantine places, flight availability and other practical limitations.

The Migration Amendment (Prospective Marriage Visas) Regulations 2021 amend the Migration Regulations 1994 to address the impact of COVID-19 related travel difficulties by extending the duration of Subclass 300 (Prospective Marriage) visas to 31 December 2022, for those outside Australia who held that type of visa on 15 September 2021. An extension until 31 December 2022 will provide Prospective Marriage visa holders who are outside Australia, including those eligible for a discretionary travel exemption and those whose visas were extended to 31 March 2022, with additional time to secure a flight to Australia and marry their partner within their visa validity period.

Source: Migration-Amendment-Prospective-Marriage-visas-regs-2021.pdf and

Migration-Amendment-Prospective-Marriage-visas-regs-2021-Explanatory-statement.pdf

The Migration Legislation Amendment (Hong Kong) Regulations 2021 (the Hong Kong Regulations) amend the Migration Regulations 1994 (the Migration Regulations) and the Migration Amendment (New Skilled Visas) Regulations 2019 to complete the implementation of concessions for certain visa holders from Hong Kong that were jointly announced by the Prime Minister and the Acting Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs on 9 July 2020.

Source: MLA-HK-Reg-2021.pdf and 

MLA-HK-Reg-2021-explanatory-statement.pdf