Australian Immigration Daily News

The following email was received today:

NSW Business and Skilled Migration Skilled is close to filling its interim allocation of nomination positions for the 2020-21 program year provided by the Department of Home Affairs.

Following the Commonwealth Government’s announcement of the annual migration program planning levels, an additional provision of nomination positions for the reminder of the year may become available in the coming weeks.

Further information will be provided on our website once the allocation of nomination positions has been finalised.  

Skilled migration

NSW will continue to operate an expression of interest and invitation model to address NSW’s skill needs.

Under direction from Home Affairs, NSW will continue to priorities applicants with skills to support NSW economic recovery and public health response.

As reported earlier, Department of Home Affairs ceased to issue ETA visas in wake of COVID19.

The Department of Home Affairs has re-commended issuing ETA visas via a mobile app.

To make a new application, an applicant needs to download the Electronic Travel Authority (ETA) mobile app (Australian ETA) for some ETA-eligible passport holders while the travel restrictions are in place.

Below is a discussion in Parliament yesterday which migration agents might find interesting:

Partner-Visas----House-of-Reps-20-Oct-2020.pdf

Below is the 2019-2020 Annual Report for the Department of Home Affairs:

Department-of-Home-Affairs-Annual-Report.pdf

The Department of Home Affairs has released information regarding the circumstances where a visa application charge could be waived or refunded.  Below is a summary of specific visa subclasses covered by the provisions:

Prospective Marriage visa – Subclass 300

Where an applicant was granted a Prospective Marriage visa but could not enter Australia because of COVID-19 travel restrictions before visa ceased, persons of this cohort may be eligible for a VAC refund.