Australian Immigration Daily News

There are upcoming changes to the skilled visa programs for the second half of 2018.

This includes the 1 July 2018 implementation of:

A new Australian Government service centre within Datacom's customer care and IT Hub in Modbury, South Australia, was officially opened today by the Federal Minister for Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs Alan Tudge and South Australia’s Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment David Ridgway.

The service centre opening is part of today's launch of global IT Services company Datacom’s facility in Adelaide’s northern suburbs. The Australian Government service will service local and overseas callers about visa, citizenship and travel or trade enquiries.

This transition will enable Home Affairs staff to focus on high-value, complex decision-making across immigration, citizenship and trade facilitation programs.

Does a person who has been taken into immigration detention have any right to demand that he/she be held at a particular place of detention pending the resolution of a request that the cancellation of his or her visa be revoked?

For example, if a person has been living in Tasmania, does that person have a right to be held in detention in Tasmania, in order to be closer to the person’s family and legal representatives?

Or can the person be detained elsewhere?

Can the manner in which the Australian government wields the power of visa cancellation be fairly described as being harsh, cruel, disproportionate, unforgiving and indeed mindless?

You be the judge after you consider a case that was decided late last week by Justice Markovic of the Federal Court, Kemp v Minister for Immigration and Border Protection (2018) FCA 1109 (27 July 2018).

Perhaps at first blush you might consider that this visa holder, a New Zealand citizen in Australia as the holder of a Special Category Subclass 444 visa, “deserved” to have his visa cancelled.

 How much time do you have to respond to a “section 359A” letter from the Administrative  Appeals Tribunal?

Recall that section 359A of the Migration Act  requires the Tribunal to give a visa applicant clear particulars of any information that it considers would be the reason, or part of the reason, for affirming the refusal of a visa application and to invite the applicant to comment on or respond to the information.

Recall further that section 359C provides that if an applicant is invited to comment on or respond to information under section 359A and does not do so within the time given to do so, then the Tribunal may proceed to make a decision on the review.