Australian Immigration Daily News

Home Affairs is currently in the process of reviewing and revising evidentiary requirements for student visa applicants from certain countries.

In the meantime, major change is announced in relation to applicants from Nepal wishing to lodge their student visa application from 1 May 2019 and study in VET sector will  be required to provide evidence of English as well as financial capacity (irrespective of whether the application will be processed under streamlined arrangements).

As this is a new arrangement, the existing document check tool may not necessarily reflect this new arrangement until the system is fully updated.

As some readers may recall, student visa framework was reviewed in 2016 whereby the combined country and education provider evidence framework became based on immigration outcomes, and guides whether a visa applicant is required to provide evidence of English language proficiency and financial capability at the time of the student visa application.

There is no connection between the evidence framework and the quality of an education provider.

Under the simplified student visa framework (SSVF) each country and each Commonwealth Register of Institutions and Courses for Overseas Students (CRICOS)-registered education provider is allocated an evidence level. Education provider and country evidence levels are then combined to guide financial and English evidence requirements for student visa applicants.

All education providers have access to the benefits of streamlined evidence requirements. Education providers that obtain the lowest evidence level have streamlined evidence requirements for all countries, while education providers with the highest evidence level only receive these benefits for students from the lowest evidence level countries.

Where streamlined evidence requirements apply, the student visa applicant will generally be able to satisfy the department of their financial capacity by declaration and they will not generally need to provide evidence their English proficiency. However, we can request further evidence where appropriate.

Where regular evidence requirements apply the student will generally be required to provide evidence of their financial and English language capacity.

Increased number of 500 and 485 visa applications

Home Affairs recently experienced an increase in the number of subclass 500 and 485 visa applications and is therefore requesting that all applications are lodged as “decision ready”.

A decision ready application means that all documents are provided at the time of application in order to allow a case officer to make a decision based on the information provided without the need to issue a request for further information.

For example:

• Submitting complete and correct visa application forms with all questions answered correctly, paying attention to questions relating to previous visa refusals and cancellations
• Providing all supporting documents on lodgement – a document checklist tool is available on Home Affairs website which will assist students in determining which documents they should be submitting
• Completing health and character checks prior to lodgement of the application

Please note that evidence levels were updated in March 2019, accordingly applicants as well as their agents should check the new evidence levels prior to lodgement of subclass 500 visa application.

TRA Processing times

Trades Recognition Australia advised that due to high volume of applications currently in the pipeline, the average processing time of provisional skills assessments is approximately 90 days.  To reduce the processing times, students should provide supporting documents in relation to any of the following:

• The applicant’s qualification or work experience claim,
• Ensure qualifications include the formal transcript and,
• Employment information includes supervisor or employer contact details that can be clearly associated with the business

Again, the aim is to ensure that applications are lodged as decision ready and can therefore be finalised without the need to request any additional documents or information.