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Immigration Daily News Urgent review of partner visa wait times needed, as the recent fee hike is labelled ‘unfair and discriminatory’
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Urgent review of partner visa wait times needed, as the recent fee hike is labelled ‘unfair and discriminatory’
There are now some 60,000 Australian’s anxiously awaiting the immigration department’s approval to bring their spouses in to the country. The wait on average is between 12 and 15 months.
Added to this the government recently increased the visa application charges for spouse visas to almost $7000 with no assurance that it intends to shorten the wait. Instead, Assistant Immigration Minister Michaelia Cash said the fee ¬increases were needed to “repair the budget and fund whole-of-government policy priorities”.
Why target the partner visa? The Australian reports that migration agents it interviewed recently warned that the new government fees are unfair and discriminatory.
The report states that one of the country’s leading demographers says the family migration system is in urgent need of review, with up to 60,000 Australians waiting for departmental approval to bring spouses in to the country. The average length of time for ¬approval is now between 12 and 15 months.
From January 1, the cost for someone wanting to migrate to Australia to marry their partner rose to $4627, up 50 per cent from last year’s fee of $3085.The cost for onshore permanent partner visas has risen from $4575 to $6865. The price increases announced in December’s mid-year budget review will reap $373.6 million for the government’s budget repair mission over the next four years.
Crawford School of Public Policy professor of demography Peter McDonald told The Australian that visas were more difficult to obtain for partners of Australian citizens than partners of other skilled migrants.
“That is a major problem — we are discriminating against Australian citizens,” Professor McDonald told The Australian.
Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows 55 per cent of marriages in 2013 were between partners born in Australia, with 31 per cent of marriages between partners born in different countries.
The number of family and partner visas granted by the Department of Immigration is restricted based on the number of other ¬migrants allowed into the country.
Professor McDonald said this quota system needed to be ¬reviewed.
Migration agents said the fees were going up despite the service getting worse.
“It is a lot of money and the vast majority of clients are not wealthy,” he said.
Comments
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Friday, 03 July 2015Stop extorting our Hearts!!
Petition to reduce Partner visa Fees
https://www.change.org/p/the-abbott-government-reduce-the-australian-partner-visa-fees?recruiter=334594859&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink -
Thursday, 08 October 2015
My husband was refused his visa. I need ti find others who are in this situation.
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Tuesday, 11 October 2016
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Regard,s -
Tuesday, 29 November 2016
thats very bad reduces the fees now
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Sunday, 23 July 2017
Australia sucks. $7000 and then 15 months waiting. The whole government is just one big fraudulent ponzi scheme and your only value as a human being is based upon how much money you can funnel to the government in fees & taxes.
Immigration blog
So good to read this blog that speaks to my sentiments. I had no idea that marrying a man from overseas would create such pain, loss of finances, hardship and discrimination. In order to meet some of the requirements of the visa I have taken six months to live in his country which is not where I want to be. He has been refused a tourist visa because he, "is married to an Australia and will overstay his visa." I suspect this was more about getting more money because he is married to an Australian.
I would like to know if there are any groups partitioning the government in regard to this issue. It seems to a very silent problem.
I have also heard many stories about corruption at the embassies; bribes etc. Even in Vienna they are taking money under the table to effect a result.
I visited the embassy when I was in my husband's country and told them about what I have learned and of course they denied it. But there is a lot of anecdotal evidence about discrimination from this particular embassy.
I am happy to put my hand up to be part of getting something done to address the partner visa issue.