Australian Immigration Daily News

Overview of the Disallowable Legislative Instrument

The Prospective Marriage (Subclass 300) visa provides a pathway for prospective spouses of Australian citizens, permanent residents or eligible New Zealand citizens to enter and stay in Australia for a period of between nine to fifteen months and marry their partner, prior to lodgement of a permanent Partner visa application.

COVID-19 related travel restrictions and practical limitations have meant that many Prospective Marriage visa holders have been unable to travel to Australia within their visa validity period to marry their partner and apply for a permanent Partner visa.

On 10 December 2020, the Migration Amendment (Prospective Marriage Visas) Regulations 2020 extended the visa validity period to 31 March 2022, for Prospective Marriage visa holders or former visa holders who were outside Australia on 10 December 2020, and who held a Prospective Marriage visa at any time between 6 October 2020 and 10 December 2020.

On 18 August 2021, the Government announced a change to travel exemption settings for travel to Australia, to allow Prospective Marriage (Subclass 300) visa holders to obtain a travel exemption when at least 12 months has passed since the visa holder first lodged their Prospective Marriage visa application.

While this change to the travel exemptions settings will assist some Prospective Marriage visa holders, as the COVID-19 pandemic continues into 2021-22, many visa holders remain outside Australia and continue to face difficulties in arriving in Australia within their visa validity period. This may be for example, due to limited quarantine places, flight availability and other practical limitations.

The Migration Amendment (Prospective Marriage Visas) Regulations 2021 amend the Migration Regulations 1994 to address the impact of COVID-19 related travel difficulties by extending the duration of Subclass 300 (Prospective Marriage) visas to 31 December 2022, for those outside Australia who held that type of visa on 15 September 2021. An extension until 31 December 2022 will provide Prospective Marriage visa holders who are outside Australia, including those eligible for a discretionary travel exemption and those whose visas were extended to 31 March 2022, with additional time to secure a flight to Australia and marry their partner within their visa validity period.

Source: Migration-Amendment-Prospective-Marriage-visas-regs-2021.pdf and

Migration-Amendment-Prospective-Marriage-visas-regs-2021-Explanatory-statement.pdf

The Migration Legislation Amendment (Hong Kong) Regulations 2021 (the Hong Kong Regulations) amend the Migration Regulations 1994 (the Migration Regulations) and the Migration Amendment (New Skilled Visas) Regulations 2019 to complete the implementation of concessions for certain visa holders from Hong Kong that were jointly announced by the Prime Minister and the Acting Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs on 9 July 2020.

Source: MLA-HK-Reg-2021.pdf and 

MLA-HK-Reg-2021-explanatory-statement.pdf

The purpose of the instrument is to amend LIN 21/007 to specify additional circumstances under these provisions to allow refunds of the first instalment of a VAC. Refunds are being made available to certain persons who continue to be adversely impacted by COVID-19 related travel difficulties and hold, or have held, a Subclass 300 Prospective Marriage (Temporary) visa (Prospective Marriage visa).

The instrument specifies two additional circumstances in which the first instalment VAC for Prospective Marriage visa holders or former holders (visa holders) may be refunded.

The circumstances specified for VAC refunds in LIN 21/007 have not changed.

The Migration Amendment (Regulation of Migration Agents) Act 2020 (the Amendment Act) amended the Migration Act to improve the effectiveness of the scheme that regulates migration agents. The Amendment Act removed unrestricted legal practitioners from the regulatory scheme that governs migration agents to provide that unrestricted legal practitioners cannot register as migration agents and are entirely regulated by their own professional bodies.

The amendments made by the Amendment Act also permit eligible restricted legal practitioners to be both registered migration agents and restricted legal practitioners for a period of up to two years. 5 Subsection 278A(3) of the Migration Act provides that the eligible period is two years from the time the person first held a restricted practising certificate. However, section 333C of the Act provides that the eligible period for a person who was a restricted legal practitioner immediately before the day Division 8 commenced (22 March 2021) is two years after that commencement day.

Source: LIN21020.pdf and LIN21020-Explanatory-Statement.pdf

The following information has been received from the Office of the Migration Agents Registration Authority.

Changes-to-lodgement-arrangements-for-Aus-Citizenship-by-descent-and-Evidence-of-Aus-citizenship.pdf