Australian Immigration Daily News

The Joint Standing Committee on Migration shall inquire into and report on the breadth of migrant settlement strategies and migration settings including for skilled and humanitarian migrants in regional Australia, with reference to:
- national and international best practice strategies to encourage people to settle and stay in regional areas;
- strategies to develop regional skilled migration;
- strategies to develop regional humanitarian migration;
- key local, state and federal initiatives for successful regional settlement outcomes;
- local volunteers, employers and community organisations and their role in facilitating regional settlement;
- relevant migration policy, including administration and state specific migration mechanisms;
- related infrastructure matters; and
- any other related matter.

The Committee shall give particular consideration to how communities and settlement services can best assist migrants to gain successful employment outcomes in regional Australia, including local work experience opportunities, skills certification and training, knowledge of Australian workforce regulations, accommodation and travel to and from the workplace.

Source: Report-of-the-Inquiry-into-Migration-in-Regional-Australia.pdf

The instrument operates to specify foreign currencies for the purposes of paragraph 5.36(1A)(a) of the Regulations, as well as their relevant exchange rate in relation to the Australian Dollar. The currencies’ corresponding International Organization for Standardization (ISO) code has also been noted in the instrument. The instrument assists in working out the amount of a payment of a fee, as defined in subregulation 5.36(4) of the Regulations (other than a visa application charge payment to which subregulation 5.36(3A) of the Regulations applies).

The purpose of the instrument is to undertake a biannual update of the foreign currency exchange rates.

Source:

LIN20003.pdf and LIN20003-Explanatory-Statement.pdf

The following email has been received from NSW Treasury this afternoon:

Skilled Work Regional visa (subclass 491)

NSW Treasury is extending applications to all eligible candidates who are currently residing in a designated regional area in NSW. Please see detailed information below.

With significant slowdown of the processing times relating to TSS visas as well as increased scrutiny of ENS visa applications, migrants are encouraged to investigate other options that may be available to them in order to secure residency in Australia. 

Some of these options include Business Stream visas (which are also limited as they are largely governed by the States) and State Nomination Visas.

What appears to be an underutilised visa framework is the Global Talent (Independent) as well as Global Talent (Employer Sponsored) visas.

With the number of international student enrolments dropping rapidly across the country, ACT has announced a pilot program to reintroduce foreign students back into Australian universities.

As the number of COVID19 infections continues to stabilise across the country, each State and Territory is looking at ways to get the economy back on track.

Since the pandemic the travel ban blocked nearly 120,000 students from entering Australia causing major economic strain on education sector.