Australian Immigration Daily News

There is no doubt that Australia has seen a massive year in many aspects relating to immigration.

Swooping changes last April resulted in the Government announcing the abolition of the Subclass 457 visa, a visa programme which allowed businesses to bring skilled workers for the past 24 years. The same month saw the Government halt processing of citizenship applications in hope of passing legislation to existing toughen eligibility criteria including stricter English language as well as residency requirements.

This year, a more restrictive TSS visa was introduced in March.  Further changes included increasing the pool pass mark for General Skilled Migration as well as removal of 230 occupations from the previous skilled occupation list.  Finally, this year Australian population has surpassed the 25 million.  This is a significant milestone for a country which is still fairly young, yet very modern and advanced in many aspects.

Migration Alliance is very pleased to announce that we have entered into a heads of agreement with BW Capital to provide strategic consulting services to clients of Migration Alliance members.  

BW Capital is the first “non-product” aligned professional financial partner that we have worked with and we are very excited about the innovative financial ideas and solutions that BW Capital brings to Migration Alliance members operating in the Investor Visa space.   

BW Capital is an independent asset consultant, providing specialist asset management services, research, advice and consulting to Institutional and Professional Investors, Ultra High Net Worth individuals and Family Offices. The firm was formed nearly 20 years ago as part of one of the then big four accounting firms - Arthur Andersen, after the global dissolution of Arthur Andersen in 2002 the senior team formed BW Capital. The result being one of the highest calibre, independent strategic financial management firm in the Asia-pacific, with deep skill sets spanning banking, capital markets and accounting.   

An additional Graduate Skilled Migration List will be introduced to attract the best global talent with the advanced qualifications, skills and experience and help grow Western Australia's share of the international education market.

The McGowan Government will give high achieving education graduates - PhD, Masters, Honours and other higher degree graduates - a pathway to skilled migration.

It is expected the changes will attract an increased number of high-quality international students to the State and help grow our share of the international education market.

How can you tell whether the Tribunal has committed a jurisdictional error (and therefore know whether to recommend to your client that she/he pursue an application for judicial review in the Federal Circuit Court after the Tribunal has made a decision to affirm the refusal of a visa application)?

Perhaps this may seem to be a confounding, existential or metaphysical question, one that can cause you to run screaming down the hallways of your office, tear your hair out, have nightmares, set yourself on fire, jump off the Harbour Bridge, or resort to other “self-help” remedies to avoid having to think about the issue!

Well, if you feel this way, you can take comfort in knowing that you are not alone, and that the question of what is and what is not jurisdictional error is something that is capable of confounding the brightest legal minds in Australia.

Do you agree that Public Interest Criterion 4020, as interpreted by the Full Court in the famous Trivedi case, can sometimes operate to have (brutally) harsh results?

If you have any doubt, consider the case of Ashiq v Minister for Immigration& Anor (2018) FCCA 544 (7 March 2018), most recently updated on Austlii 31 July 2018.

The circumstances in this case were that the applicant, a citizen of Pakistan, originally applied for a student visa in February 2012.