Australian Immigration Daily News

A few years back, DIBP has made a major announcement to overhaul Australian visa framework to align this framework to our international counterparts.  The goal was to make certain visa requirements redundant for example, the requirement for an applicant to be in or outside Australia on lodgement or grant of the visa, the need for original documents and of course, paper based applications.

Since the announcement, we have seen visa subclasses collapsed and condensed into different categories.  We now have visas with different streams such as the 400 visa which and the 402 visa (rather than separate subclasses for each activity), we have seen the removal of the onshore/offshore requirement for ENS applications and so forth.  This process has in turn benefited both agents as well as visa applicants as it has become much easier to understand and more importantly meet requirements for a particular visa.

Public consultations were instrumental in this simplification process and the consultation process concluded last week on the 15^th September.

What exactly is being done?

The consultation process and visa simplification framework will consider the following:

·         A reduction in the number of visa subclasses from 99 to approximately ten

·         Delineation between temporary entry and long term or permanent residence

·         Provisional residence and how this could ease burden on the taxpayers

·      Ensuring that the visa system in Australia continues to remain competitive and attractive for temporary and permanent residence

Why the change?

There are a number of reasons to push for simplification of Australia's visa framework.  As explanatory statement on DIBP’s website states, the current visa framework has been in place without major significant reforms for almost 30 years.  As we all know during this time, significant growth of the global economy, rise in global mobility and ease of movement has changed Australian and international landscape dramatically.  Accordingly, it makes sense to align the visa framework to keep up with this trend. 

We could also look at this from a simplistic point of view and ask the question:

“Why do we need 99 visa subclasses?”

Fewer visa subclasses would ease the burden of having to implement major changes in order to respond to any future global trends.  It should hopefully result in quicker processing times by the Department of Immigration.

What to expect in the near future:

Given the significant level of reform, this implementation will take some time.  It is unlikely that major changes will take place in the coming months (I say this with somewhat of a doubt!).  The implementation is expected to take place as soon as the government is able to review recommendations and consultations from relevant stakeholders.

The information is publicly available on DIBP’s website and I encourage visa applicants as well as agents to regularly check for updates: http://www.border.gov.au/Trav/visa-reform/general-q-a

Processing times:

Department of Immigration will also be looking at streamlining their visa processing scheme from an administrative point of view in order to improve processing times.  This process also includes accepting tenders from external market providers: http://www.border.gov.au/Trav/visa-reform/consultation-paper

As always, I am happy to hear your thoughts and comments: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.