Australian Immigration Daily News

Migration Alliance was represented by Michael Jeremy, Maryanne Young and me at the NSW Client Reference Group meeting this morning.  This was held at DIBP, Level 5, Tower C, 300 Elizabeth Street, Sydney.

This presentation was called 'Online Account' and CR10 Update and it was provided by Adrian Motherway and Mark McGuire.  Adrian is the Global Manager for e-business and Mark is the Director of e-business support.  Adrian has just taken a new role in the private sector and is soon to be leaving the DIBP.  An announcement will be made shortly regarding Adrian's replacement.  The presentation was made by video-conference from Canberra.

Adrian Motherway - presentation

ImmiAccount was launched last Saturday.  The aim of ImmiAccount is that there is a single entry-point for DIBP's online system.  The aim is that there will no longer be multiple online passwords.  There will be a single interface with a single password.  The DIBP are in Phase 1 of a larger programme to come.

From a business readiness perspective the DIBP were prepared, measures were in place and so far there has been positive feedback.  The DIBP says that clients using the system is important and they need to help clients understand and do this by providing interactive guides, online help and support.  There is a central support unit that runs during normal business hours only at the moment.

The accessing of the account is via the new website which was launched a couple of months ago.  The aim of the new DIBP website is that it is more accessible, easier to understand and has a more responsive design.  It can work on mobile devices and tablets.  The majority of the functions will be for visa applications.  The ImmiAccount is designed so that clients can track and manage visa applications themselves.  They can also change their own password without having to call the DIBP.

Mark McGuire Presentation

The ImmiAccount is just another place you can see the correspondence.  There have been a number of issues with ImmiAccount post-release as follows.  Most of the issues that Mark went through were the issues raised by Migration Alliance and it's members in writing prior to the meeting.

1. Invalid foreign characters on evisa forms which people were able to resolve by removing the characters.  This mainly impacted clients from Europe who used umlauts (eg Germany).

2. Using the '&' character instead of the word 'and'.

3. Importing older applications in-flight or -in-progress - this cannot be done.  It is not an online account or a data store.

4. DIBP realise that they are missing dates and that some 8000+ applications are missing.  These are set to be fixed asap.

5. The DIBP imported 2 years of applications and 5 years of applications for skilled migration.  They are importing older ones now from March 2008 as these have not been able to be imported.

6. The system only allowed credit cards with expiry dates 5 years into the future.  They have changed this to make it 15 years into the future.

7. Email addresses with hypens after the @ sign have not been working in the ImmiAccount and this will be resolved by next Wednesday.

8. Registered Agents have been trying to accss the ImmiAccount with VEVO and the old account login.  These aren't working.  Agents have to go on and register accounts.  All accounts are checked manually and verified.

There have been a spike in registrations and DIBP are currently running two days behind.  The DIBP are working on these issues as a priority.

Nearly 50,000 accounts have been created so far.  RMAs registrations have been coming through. 

Parent visas are set to come online in the not too distant future. 

Only if the email address matches the email on the application will agents be able to open the grant letter.

The online account doesn't repolace the notification process.

There are two ways to create an account:

1/ Self-enrolled user; or

2/ Registered user (this gives additional capability and agents can collaborate and link all together within an organisation.

Registered accounts are really for organisational capability.  The approval process for a Registered user is not quite automatic.  There are steps to approving registration.

Jonathan Granger of the MIA said to Mark McGuire 'I think we are all happy to come on your journey'. 

Mark McGuire said that if the ImmiAccount is showing the wrong status then please send an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or you can call the number 0262643664.  Please be sure to put the TRN for the case you believe is showing the incorrect status.  DIBP will look at each email and problem on a case-by-case basis.  They are aware that there might be a large caseload.