Australian Immigration Daily News

This week, the Department of Home Affairs released its Annual Report for recent financial year.  Migration Alliance brings you a summary of Report. 

The detailed 288-page report discusses the main functions of Home Affairs which is made up of six branches employing just under 15,000 staff:

• The Australian Border Force
• The Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre
• The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation
• The Australian Federal Police
• The Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission

The report indicates the following interesting statics relating to immigration. Of the 32,414 illegal maritime arrivals that were in Australia with unresolved status after the implementation of Operation Sovereign Borders in September 2013, 65 per cent of applications (21,076 cases) had been decided as at the end of 2017-18 financial year.

The Department delivered Australia’s migration program within the Government ceiling of 190,000 places. In 2017-18, 162,417 permanent visas were granted, approximately 28,000 places short of the original target.  Further, the Department of Home Affairs delivered the Australian Humanitarian Program with 16,250 permanent resettlement places offered to refugees this year. Australia remained among the world’s top permanent resettlement countries, with as few as 30 countries offering planned annual programs.

Specifically, permanent places were allocated to the following visa categories:

• 111,009 Skilled Visas
• 47,732 Family Visas
• 3,350 Child Visas
• 236 Special Eligibility Visas

Temporary places can be broken down to the following categories:

• 8,600,000 temporary places
• 351,516 maritime crew and transit
• 1,856,614 NZ special category visas
• 378,292 student visas
• 5,639,167 visitor visas

During 2017–18, the Department granted 8,694,048 temporary visas (up 3 per cent from 2016–17) and 162,417 permanent visas within the Migration Program. The 2017–18 Migration Program ceiling (not a target) set by Government was 190,000 places.  According to the report, the volume of visa applications is forecast to continue to increase from approximately nine million to 13 million per annum by 2026–27. In an increasingly competitive global market for tourists, students and highly skilled workers, innovative approaches and new digital technologies were applied to manage demand.

A new Temporary Skill Shortage visa was introduced during 2017-18. The new visa is designed to ensure Australian workers have priority but enables businesses to access critical skills where they are not otherwise available locally. Processing times for the new TSS visa are considerably shorter than earlier visa types, with processing times over 28 per cent quicker according to the report. The Department continued to make it easier for clients to lodge and transact with the Department. Online visa lodgement is now available to applicants from Australia’s two largest cohorts 1. China and 2. India—including for visitors and student visas. In 2017-18, this focus saw 90 per cent of all visa applications lodged electronically (up 8 per cent from 2016–17) and 71 per cent of applications for citizenship by conferral were lodged electronically (up 15 per cent from 2016–17).  

The new Temporary Skills Shortage (TSS) (subclass 482) visa, which replaced the temporary work (skilled) (subclass 457) visa, provides the main source of temporary skilled overseas workers to fill identified skill shortages in the Australian labour market. In 2017–18, the number of visa applications lodged for subclass 457/TSS decreased by 28 per cent compared with 2016–17.

Over the course of 12 months Home Affairs processed:

• 80,562 citizenship applications
• 8,700,000 temporary visa applications
• 57,440 visa cancellations

Approximately 16250 humanitarian places were allocated to refugees.  Combined figures indicate that approximately 28% of Australians were born overseas.

In the compliance sector, Home Affairs removed 7,083 people removed from onshore immigration detention centres in Australia. In addition, Home Affairs issued 310 illegal working warning notices to employers and business sponsors. 

The Department also improved and aligned processes through a digital services strategy, launching online applications for Permanent Protection (subclass 866), Temporary Protection (subclass 785) and Safe Haven Enterprise (subclass 790) visas in the 2017–18 financial year. This provides improved accessibility to application information, allows for more targeted application forms and introduces a streamlined form for reassessment processes, which reduces burden on clients. The change resulted in 46 per cent of total applications for Permanent Protection, Temporary Protection and Safe Haven Enterprise visas being made online in 2017–18. The Department is also progressively transforming its online channels to allow clients to self-serve for most of information and services.

Online lodgement provides applicants with a convenient, 24/7 way of applying for an Australian visa or Australian citizenship electronically, rather than using paper forms. Since December 2013 for visas, and 2015 for citizenship by conferral, applicants have been able to create, submit, pay for and manage their applications in one place by opening an ImmiAccount from the Department’s website. In 2017–18, 90 per cent of all visa applications were lodged electronically (up 8 per cent from 2016–17) and 71 per cent of applications for citizenship by conferral were lodged electronically (up 15 per cent from 2016–17).

In terms of bogus, misleading documents, in 2017–18, air travellers holding counterfeit or fraudulently altered passports, imposters and those holding bogus or fraudulently obtained visas continued to actively target Australia. During 2017–18, 205 imposters or improperly documented persons entering Australia, up from 174 (17.8 per cent) in 2016–17, representing an estimated saving of $15 million to the Australian community in avoided processing costs. In addition to preventions, a further 555 travellers were offloaded from flights to Australia. On arrival in Australia, and prior to border clearance, international travellers are subject to a further layer of assessment. In 2017–18, this led to 4,584 travellers being refused immigration clearance compared with 4,132 in 2016–17.

Full report can be accessed here: https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/about/reports-publications/reports/annual