Australian Immigration Daily News

Rocio Trapag-Saul provided the client service update this morning at DIBP's Client Reference Group meeting which was held at Level 5, Tower C, 300 Elizabeth Street, Sydney in the DIBP's Conference Room.

Rocio is the Global Manager, Client Services and her role includes counters, telephones and T.I.S but her role is not responsible for offshore and there is no central position looking after offshore at the moment.

There are a few big things on the development agenda:

1/ Digital Agenda   - The previous government had a plan to get 80% of the DIBP including applications online by 2017.  The new government has asked DIBP to bring this forward and to focus on getting digitally based visa applications ready and completed asap.

2/ Change to client expectations - There is an expectation from clients that it is the norm to have online accounts.

3/ Budget - Pressures and financial constraints are getting worse.  Visa growth has gone up 6-10% and in certain countries this growth has been even bigger, for example out of China.  Over the next 2 years we are set to see 1 million visa applications made out of China alone, so the DIBP have to do things a little bit differently.  With this growth, there has been a 6-10% growth in inquiries.  With growth increasing the DIBP are trying to manage within the current resources.  A lot of information goes on the DIBP website.  They want as much information online as possible and they can put the little money that they do have towards the 'OPA test'.  (NB we were not told what the OPA test was but we were told it was like a grandparent).

Since Novermber 2012 when the government introduced the visa evidence charge a lot of people have stopped getting visa labels.  There has been a 75% reduction and now only about 25% of all visa holders still need a label.  most obtain the label after they have arrived onshore on an electronic visa.  These are mainly people who need one as the authorities in their home country won't accept travel without the label.  An example country was China.

'Client Liaison Officers' are now at the DIBP and their role is to triage people in the queue at DIBP when they arrive.  The question that is asked by DIBP's Client Liaison Officers is 'What are you here for today?' rather than 'how can I help you?'.

Clients are then sent to a bank of kiosks where they can access phones, DIBP's website and look it all up themselves whilst inside the DIBP.

Note briefly  - no comment was made that clients are told they can use a RMA or where to find a RMA.

Ipads will be coming soon and these will be locked down so that clients can only access the DIBP website, kiosks and VEVO. 

The DIBP enable clients to do electronic lodgements from in the office.

Drop boxes - are labelled and allow DIBP's back-office to process visas faster.  DIBP are not processing visa applications on the spot.  The cheapest channel to manage visa applications is online.  The most expensive is face-to-face.  An example is that a BVB takes 6-10 mins to process at the back-of-house, but it takes 20 minutes if done face-to-face.

Bridging Visa As (BVAs) and travel rights are being looked at presently.  The aim will be to grant BVAs with travel rights soon and collapse BVB into BVA to give travel rights without the need to apply for a BVB.

The DIBP are encouraging people to apply for visas online themselves.  For onshore visitor visas, 85% of people apply for their visa online.

The only reason DIBP need to see a client is for:

a) an appointment

b) biometrics

c) an emergency