Australian Immigration Daily News

Home Affairs is currently in the process of reviewing and revising evidentiary requirements for student visa applicants from certain countries.

In the meantime, major change is announced in relation to applicants from Nepal wishing to lodge their student visa application from 1 May 2019 and study in VET sector will  be required to provide evidence of English as well as financial capacity (irrespective of whether the application will be processed under streamlined arrangements).

As this is a new arrangement, the existing document check tool may not necessarily reflect this new arrangement until the system is fully updated.

Sometimes there is hidden in something that appears to be “ordinary” something which might actually be truly extraordinary.

So it is with a decision that was recently handed down by the Full Court, DFQ17 v Minister for Immigration (2019) FCAFC 64 (18 April 2019).

This case dealt with the seemingly “mundane” or “boring” question of whether a letter that had been sent by the Department informing an applicant for a protection visa of the refusal of that application had properly and correctly notified the applicant concerning the time period or deadline within which an application for review could be made.

As of January 2018, the Migration Agents Registration Authority (MARA) revised its Continuing Professional Development (CPD) requirements for Registered Migration Agents.  

OVERVIEW OF CATEGORY A AND CATEGORY B

Briefly, CPD activities are now classified in the following categories: 

In a press statement this Sunday 28 April 2019, PM Scott Morrison Announced that Coalition will cap Australia’s annual refugee intake to 18,750 places (down from current figure of 20,000 places).

Further, the Government plans to review the number of number of arrivals with greater focus on settlement to regional Australia by increasing the target from 30% to 40%.

Though the UNHCR recommends or refers people for resettlement, the ultimate decision to grant a visa rests with Australia’s Immigration Department. Australia has four offshore refugee category visas: Refugee (visa subclass 200); In‐Country Special Humanitarian (visa subclass 201); Emergency Rescue (visa subclass 203); and Woman at Risk (visa subclass 204).

Home Affairs published latest invitation round for subclass 189 Skilled Independent as well as Subclass 489 Regional Provisional Visas.

By comparison to March 2019 invitation rounds where a total of 1500 Invitations were issued, Home Affairs issued a mere 100 invitations for subclass 189 visa and 10 for the 489 visas.  The lowest invitation score was 80 points.

Full details pertaining occupations that received invitations as well as minimum points score are available here: https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/working-in-australia/skillselect/invitation-rounds