Australian Immigration Daily News

Overview of the Disallowable Legislative Instrument

The purpose of this Disallowable Legislative Instrument is to amend the Migration Regulations 1994 (the Migration Regulations) and the Immigration (Education) Regulations 2018 (the Immigration (Education) Regulations) to update references and provisions consequential to amendments made to the Immigration (Education) Act 1971 (the IE Act) by the Immigration (Education) Amendment (Expanding Access to English Tuition) Act 2020 (the IE Amendment Act).The IE Act relates to the provision of certain courses of instruction for migrants and certain other persons.  This includes the provision of English courses.  The IE Act sets out who is eligible and ineligible for English courses, as well as time limits for registration, commencement and completion.  The IE Act also establishes the Minister’s obligation to provide or arrange the provision of tuition in an approved English course to certain eligible persons. The IE Amendment Act, which received the Royal Assent on 17 December 2020, makes the following amendments to the IE Act: 

• changing the upper limit for eligibility to access English tuition from ‘functional English’ to a new level of ‘vocational English’;

• removing the 510 hour statutory limit on an eligible person’s entitlement to English tuition;

• removing the statutory time limits of up to 12 months for registering for, commencing and completing English tuition for certain people who held a visa and were in Australia on or before 1 October 2020; and

• allowing for the provision of English tuition to certain visa holders or visa applicants outside Australia, to support their English language learning in preparation for their migration to Australia.

Source: Migration-Legislation-Amendment---English.pdf and 

Migration-Legislation-Amendment---English---Explanatory-Statement.pdf