Australian Immigration Daily News

Migration Alliance is pleased to announce a great new insurance product for 457 and other visa holders offered by our new partner Make a Difference Insurance (MADI).

MADI specialises in personal insurance for 457 and other visa holders and has launched into the Australian immigration marketplace with huge success.

Check out this news item regarding the secret embassies in Sydney's suburbs. 

Anyone keen to turn their home into an embassy?

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/nsw8217s-secret-embassies-uncovered-in-sydney-suburbs/story-fni0cx12-1226699037733

NSW has suspended certain occupations on the subclass 190 and subclass 489 occupations list:

• Software Engineer
• Analyst Programmer
• Developer Programmer
• Biomedical Engineer

To view the updated occupations list for NSW NSW-updated-occ-list-Aug-2013.pdf.

For an update to the South Australia (SA) SNOL please click here (dated 16/08 2013).

I received this email today from the DIAC which I think most Migration Alliance members will find useful:

Dear VEVO User,

We are writing to you to let you know about the changes the Department of Immigration and Citizenship is making to both the Visa Entitlement Verification Online system (VEVO) and the department's web site.

VEVO Account Self-Management

The Department of Immigration and Citizenship is making changes to the Visa Entitlement Verification Online system (VEVO) that will give you the ability to manage your account details and settings including resetting your password and retrieving forgotten user IDs and passwords without needing to call the department.

In order for the department to provide you with these services, after 21 August 2013 (Wednesday morning) you will need to undertake a transition process. This will involve checking and confirming the details we have for your VEVO account and choosing and answering six secret questions and answers. These questions and answers will be used to confirm your identity should you need to update your account online in future. Attached is a transition guide that will help you complete the process.

Part of this process is to create a new password that needs to:

 Be at least nine characters long
Contain at least three of the following:
o Uppercase letters
o Lowercase letters
o Numbers
o Special character (eg @, $, *, /)
These steps will only take a few minutes to complete and then you can then proceed to use VEVO as usual.

For more information on VEVO for organisations, visit www.immi.gov.au/vevo

Yours sincerely

Department of Immigration and Citizenship
VEVO-Transition-Guide.pdf

International Education is “Australia’s Bast*rd Child”: IEAA

Phil Honeywood, Executive Director of International Education Association of Australia (IEAA) said the sector he represents is at the crossroad following the counterproductive 2011 Knight Review recommendations to student visas.

In a strongly worded communiqué, IEAA went so far as to describe the sector as “like the bast*rd child of Australia’s export industry”.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/stop-treating-us-as-a-bastard-child-sector-appeals-to-next-government/story-e6frgcjx-1226696586231

IEAA said Australia is losing ground to Canada, New Zealand, the United States, the United Kingdom and other competing nation.  Australia’s fragmented and unhurried approach to international students has given our competitors the edge.

According to Mr Honeywood, the international education sector employs about 100,000 people directly and is a key driver for the tourism industry through visiting families and employed many hundreds of thousands indirectly.

This call-to-arms follows from a HSBC report that measured Australia to be the most expensive place in the world for a university education if you’re a foreign student. http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/australia-most-expensive-for-overseas-students/2006492.article

Average tuition fees in Australia cost is $38,516 (in US dollars), while in the US it is 35,705; in the UK, $30,325; and Canada, $26,011.

HSBC did not factor into its analysis other variables such as the cost of visa fees, the availability of part-time work and internships, all of which affect Australia’s competitiveness.

Migration Alliance supports the IEAA in its efforts make lost ground in educational industry, including student visa reform and a better alignment of the skilled occupation list with visa categories, like the Temporary Graduate visa.

Since 2009, four Federal Education and four Immigration Ministers made foolish decisions without consideration to either portfolio or the broader implications to one of Australia’s biggest export sectors. 

International education is Victoria’s top export industry; New South Wales it is the second largest and it is in the top five of every other jurisdiction.

Australia cannot afford these kinds of headlines appearing in the India press as it did yesterday in Bangalore’s The New Indian Express. 

http://newindianexpress.com/cities/bangalore/Australia-costliest-in-higher-education/2013/08/14/article1733535.ece