Migration Alliance will have special guest, Mahboba Rawi attend our Sydney Migration 2014 conference on 17th and 18th October.  In celebration of her Australian Aid work in Afghanistan, Migration Alliance and Sydney TAFE will be hosting an Afghani BBQ lunch.

So who is Mahboba?

Mahboba Rawi came to Australia as a refugee from Afghanistan and is now an Australian citizen. After facing many hardships in her own life, she founded Mahboba's Promise in 1998 to raise funds and awareness among the Australian community as a way to create a sustainable, self-sufficient future for Afghani women and children.

It is important for the general public to understand the Australian Immigration System and how the decision making process works.  For those clients who have had their visa applications refused or cancelled at the DIBP level, don't despair.  The DIBP is only the first stage of the process.  The higher in the decision-making tree you go, the higher the skill level of the decision maker and the more likely you are to obtain a proper decision on your application.  Registered Migration Agents are present at all levels to assist visa applicants exercise their rights.  As can be seen, the DIBP are at the bottom of the skill and decision making tree.

Travellers entering Australia will soon be checked to see if they have undeclared criminal convictions against a biometrics database before being allowed into Australia, Federal Minister for Immigration and Border Protection Scott Morrison announced this at the Biometrics Institute Asia Pacific conference in Sydney yesterday. Morrison told delegates that the government is investing $700 million over the next six years to modernise Australia’s border management system with specific vigilance on weeding out ex-convicts and people with links to terrorist groups.

It is expected that most travellers will sail through the immigration gates as the system aims at making processing quicker and easier for legitimate travellers. The aim is to have such travellers move through the automated immigration system in ‘less than a minute”.

The future traveller, Morrison said, would provide "border clearance information" as part of the check in process, before commencing their journey.

"The data will then be passed on to Australian agencies for assessment prior to arrival, and this data will be evaluated against security criteria and existing intelligence holdings, so that any risk to Australia's security is identified before arrival,” he said. This means the data will be evaluated against risk criteria such as criminal convictions and links to terrorist groups. A decision is thus made before the traveller arrives.

"The future traveller will then pass through streamlined, automated passport control systems that examine retained biometric data that is contained in the traveller's passport against the traveller upon physical presentation on the border,” said the Minister.

Exploring the good that Australian Registered Migration Agents do.

The Registered Migration Agent profession is an important profession.

It is often asked "Does Australia really need another Registered Migration Agent?" or "Why do we need so many Registered Migration Agents?" or "And why do we have an increase in the number of Registered Migration Agents Annually?"

The picture of Registered Migration Agents (RMAs) as Tribunal and Ministerial Intervention Unit (MIU) gladiators fails to capture the way most RMAs work.

Australia and China have been negotiating a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) for over nine years and are looking close to an agreement by the year’s end. However, the countries need to face-up to resolving the sensitive issues of visas and land purchase rights in order to realise the hope of having a deal in place by the end of the year.

China is particularly keen on Australia’s agricultural sector but remains concerned that labour entry requirements and land purchase rights are too rigid, according to a report by the ABC.

“I think the Australian side can actively examine the existing labour admission system and visa approval procedures and take some necessary reforms. There is no doubt that appropriate adjustment of the admission policy of foreign labour, necessary reform of overseas workers visa approval system, and allowing foreign investors to have more autonomy and to bring some overseas workers will help to introduce more investment especially from China,” Mr Li Mr Li told a conference on food and agriculture organised by the Australia China Business Council.

According to the ABC report, many Australian farmers and the government want foreign investment in agriculture. It says a report commissioned by ANZ Bank last year estimates the sector needs an extra 600 billion dollars by 2050 to bring it up to speed to take advantage of the opportunities

Chinese investors are thought to hold 1 per cent or less of Australian farmland. It's the area that might prove the most difficult for Australians to feel comfortable with.