Australian Immigration Daily News

Jason Watt of The Immigration Magazine in Melbourne has been contacted by a concerned student regarding the possible closure of, and warning letters to international students from Focus Learning in Melbourne.

Jason has contacted the CEO who has uncategorically stated that Focus Learning is not closing, and further advised that students receiving messages should speak to Focus Learning because they may be coming from competitors or bad agents.

Following this phone call Jason received further email correspondence from his source (international student) that students are sitting in the administrative area waiting to speak to someone from Focus Learning. 

Labour agreements enable approved businesses to sponsor skilled overseas workers when there is a demonstrated need that cannot be met in the Australian labour market and standard temporary or permanent visa programs are not available.

Labour agreements are developed between the Australian Government (represented by the Department) and employers. They are generally in effect for five years and provide for visas to be granted under one or both of the following visa programs:

• Temporary Skill Shortage (TSS) visa (subclass 482)
• Employer Nomination Scheme visa (subclass 186).

It is formal arrangement negotiated between an Australian employer and the Australian Government.  Applying for a visa under a labour agreement is the only migration pathway for employers seeking to recruit overseas workers for semi-skilled positions, or skilled positions where concessions to mainstream visa requirements are sought.

The following newsletter for November 2018 has been released by Lewis and Bollard, and makes excellent reading. 

Migration_Newsletter_702.01.pdf

The purpose of the instrument is to specify additional areas of Australia represented by their postcodes for the purposes of the definition of specified Subclass 462 work.

Additional areas of Australia represented by their postcodes for New South Wales, Norfolk Island, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria, Western Australia and Tasmania have been included in the instrument. Work carried out in these additional areas must only be for the additional kinds of work specified in Schedule 4 of the instrument.

The additional kinds of work specified in Schedule 4 of the instrument are for plant and animal cultivation.

This legislative instrument amends the Migration Regulations 1994 (Migration Regulations) to create greater efficiencies in border processing at international ports in line with the digital transformation agenda.

In particular, the amendments will reduce the processing burden for travellers at some international ports using a SmartGate (or other authorised system) by removing the requirement to present a physical passport if details of their passport are already held electronically and can be used to establish identity.

Prior to the amendments, an image of the traveller’s head and shoulders had to be compared with the image and details in the physical passport to establish identity, citizenship and visa status, as applicable. Under these amendments, in certain circumstances, the image of the person’s head and shoulders can instead be compared with electronic passport details already held, saving the inefficient burden of presenting the physical document and more quickly clearing travellers in increasingly busy ports.

The electronic passport details will be obtained either the first time a person travels on that passport or, for Australian citizens, they may also be able to be obtained from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. This is colloquially referred to as ‘Contactless Processing’ as little contact is made with clearance authorities other than presenting to a SmartGate for the purpose of having a facial image taken and compared with existing data.

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