Australian Immigration Daily News

Applicants who submitted an expression of interest to apply for Skilled Independent (Subclass 189) or the Skilled Regional (Provisional Subclass 489) may be receiving an invitation from the Department of Home Affairs as early as today.  

The first round of invitations for the new migration year is expected to run between 11^th and 12^th July.  Historically speaking, the first invitation round in the new migration year generally results in a large volume of invitations.  It is expected that somewhere between 1000 to 2000 invitations will be sent for the Skilled Independent and around 100 invitations for the Skilled Regional visas. 

Skilled Migration programme has been significantly impacted by 1 July changes as a resulted of large number of expression of interest (EOI’s) lodged through Skill Select.  Skill Select initiative was launched by the Australian Government on 1 July 2012 which is an online service that enables skilled persons who are interested in obtaining an Australian visa to submit an Expression of Interest (EOI) that includes information about their skills and other attributes. Skill Select issues invitations to apply to migrate based upon a ranking of the attributes of nominees and subject to ceilings on occupation numbers. Skill Select also enables staff of certain State/Territory government agencies and Australian employers to view relevant information in an intending migrant’s Expression of Interest (EoI). Due to the large volume of invitations currently in the system, the cut-off score for subsequent (post 1 July) invitation round increased to 65 points. 

The Andrews Labor Government is protecting hundreds of temporary visa workers across regional Victoria from exploitation.

Source: Standing-up-for-Victorias-Temporary-Visa-Workers.pdf

How harsh is Australia’s system of visa cancellation under the Migration Act?

Very? Too? Not enough? Does it depend on your point of view?

Take for example the case of Maioha v Minister for Immigration and Border Protection (2018) FCA 1015, decided very recently (9 July 2018) by Justice Perry of the Federal Court.

• Macro Business and Hello Care report on the Australian government’s proposal to offer ‘boutique’ visas to the country’s regions to boost skills shortages.
• The Daily Mail reports Australia has moved up one position in the 2018 Henley Passport Index to rank on the sixth tier of the world's best passports.

No relevant coverage today.

Rising immigration and greater amounts of overseas travel have transformed the food and beverage industry over the past two decades, sparking strong growth in the variety of dining options available in Australia.

These factors have resulted in a higher prevalence of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) migrant workers employed within the industry. Over 36% of workers employed in the food and beverage services industry were born outside of Australia, compared with 30.4% of employees generally. Of those born overseas, a large proportion were born in Southern Asia - 6.2% compared with 4.3% for employment
as a whole.

Due to cultural and language barriers, migrant workers often fall into the vulnerable worker category. This is particularly the case in the food and beverage industry, where in the 2016-17 financial year FWO has seen 31.6% of completed disputes from visa holders; notably higher than the 18% for all FWO completed disputes in same year.