1 July 2015 legislative changes to Employer Nomination Scheme and Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme

There are a number of legislative changes that came into effect on 1 July 2015 affecting the Employer Nomination Scheme (Subclass 186 Visa) and Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme (Subclass 187 Visa).  

 

Ministers of Religion occupation

From 1 July 2015, the occupation of Minister of Religion (ANZSCO 272211) will be ineligible for both the Direct Entry Stream and the Temporary Residence Transition stream of the Subclass 186 Visa and Subclass 187 Visa, or the Temporary Work (Skilled) Subclass 457 Visa.

 

Religious organisations must sign up to the available Minister of Religion Industry Labour Agreement before lodging an employer nomination for Subclass 186 Visa under the Agreement Stream. For the Subclass 457 Visa, religious organisations must also sign up to the Minister of Religion Labour Agreement before a nomination for a temporary worker can be lodged.

 

From 1 July 2015, exemptions will no longer be available for Ministers of Religion for the age, skill and English language requirements under the Direct Entry and the Temporary Residence Transition streams of the Subclass 186 and Subclass 187 Visas. Applicants must meet the requirements as outlined in the Minister of Religion Industry Labour Agreement.

 

If an employer nomination for a Minister of Religion is lodged before 1 July 2015 and is subsequently approved after this date, the corresponding visa application can be lodged for the relevant stream of the Subclass 186 or Subclass 187 Visa. However, the exemptions to age, skill and English language available to Ministers of Religion will no longer apply.

  

Age exemption for eligible medical practitioners in regional Australia

To attract and retain vital health services in rural areas, there is an exemption to the age requirement for eligible medical practitioners who are 50 years of age and over, work in regional Australia and who wish to apply for the Subclass 186 Visa and Subclass 187 Visa.

 

From 1 July 2015, the age exemption available to medical practitioners in regional Australia will no longer require employment with the same employer while holding a Temporary Work (Skilled) Subclass 457 Visa or a Medical Practitioner (Temporary) Subclass 422 Visa.

 

Instead, medical practitioners applying for a Subclass 186 or Subclass 187 Visa must demonstrate at least four years employment in the nominated occupation. These medical practitioners must demonstrate that at least two years of the required four years employment was located in regional Australia and the nominated position will also be located in regional Australia. 

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Amalgamation of key Commonwealth merits review tribunals (migration)

Legislation passed Parliament on 13 May 2015 enabling the amalgamation on 1 July 2015 of key Commonwealth merits review tribunals:  Administrative Appeals Tribunal (‘AAT’); Migration Review Tribunal (‘MRT’);  Refugee Review Tribunal (‘RRT’); and Social Security Appeals Tribunal (‘SSAT’). 

 

The amalgamated tribunal, known as the AAT, will undertake the same functions as the MRT and RRT, with administrative and corporate provisions harmonised where possible.  Provisions specific to management of the migration and refugee caseload, including Codes of Procedure, will remain in the Migration Act 1958.

 

Transitional legislation will enable any unfinalised application before the MRT and the RRT on 30 June 2015 to be deemed an application before the AAT on 1 July 2015.

 

From 1 July 2015, information about the merits review process (including contact details, forms and fees) can be found on the AAT website at www.aat.gov.au

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New $15m 'Premium Investor Visa' (Australia)

Select Legislative Instrument - F2015L00963 - Migration Amendment (Investor Visas) Regulation 2015 amends the Migration Regulations 1994 to create a new Premium Investor stream visa, that:

• Requires an investment of $15,000,000 and provides access to permanent residence after 12 months
• Amends what types of investments are acceptable for the various investment visa streams,
• Specifies additional or changes in investment requirements as Austrade monitors the market
• Also amends the existing Significant Investor, Business Innovation and Investor visa streams.  

The Instrument includes definitions of complying significant and premium investments, switching periods and philanthropic contribution requirements.

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Significant changes to the definition of 'refugee' (Australia)

The new Immigration Assessment Authority (IAA) is expected to shortly start receiving refused protection visa cases for its review and assessment.

The IAA will only be assessing visa refusals made by 'fast track' applicants.  These are applicants that arrived by boat and without a valid visa between 13 August 2013 and 1 January 2014 and have made a protection visa application onshore.  There are also a small number of fast track applicants who arrived on Christmas Island between July 2013 and December 2013. These number around 30,000 applicants.

The IAA was established by the Migration and Maritime Powers Legislation Amendment (Resolving the Asylum Legacy Caseload) Act 2014 (RALC Act).  The IAA is a section within the Refugee Review Tribunal and is independent of the Department. Ms Sevet Haddad has been appointed the Head of the IAA and separate staff have been appointed.

The Department will automatically refer refused fast track applications to the IAA. Only refusals on refugee and complementary protection issues will be referred to the IAA. Refusals based on health and character will be reviewed in the usual manner.

The IAA will review referred decisions only, usually 'on the papers', ie there will not be formal hearings or submissions as in current tribunals process. The IAA does have the ability to contact an applicant to clarify issues within the application, usually by telephone, but will only accept new evidence in very limited circumstances. 

There will be few noticeable changes in the method of primary assessment by the Department. The changes will occur at the refusal stage, when the application will be automatically referred by the Department to the IAA. These refused applicants will not have access to the RRT.

Exclusions from fast track assessment:

Applicants will be exclude from lodging fast track applications if:

• They have access to a safe third country



• They have previously been refused or withdrawn an application for protection visa in Australia



• They have been refused protection by another country or refugee status by the UNHCR 



• Have made manifestly unfounded claims for protection



• Have no reasonable explanation for providing bogus documents 

Excluded applicants may seek judicial review from the Federal Circuit Court or review by the AAT if the application was refused on character grounds.

 

Significant changes to the definition of refugee

The RALC Act makes significant changes and delinks the definition of 'refugee' from the Refugee Convention. This in turn will determine the ability of the applicant to be granted protection by Australia.  

Well founded fear of persecution due to race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion is the basis of the definition.

The new interpretation of the definition provides: 

• That one of the stated bases for persecution must be essential and the significant reason for persecution



• The applicant cannot return to any part of their home country for fear of this persecution



• The persecution involves both 'serious harm' to the person and 'systematic and discriminatory' conduct



• The definition uses the context of what is occurring 'today' in the home country to assess the risk to applicants

For membership of particular social group:

• Can be members of the same family - a member of the family unit is exposed to the persecution



• Each member of the particular social group share the characteristics and it is intrinsic and so fundamental to their identity, that it cannot or should not be forced to be changed.



• Distinguishes the group from the rest of society



• Cannot be a fear of persecution alone.

Serious harm is defined as:

• Threat to life or liberty



• Significant physical harassment or ill-treatment of the person



• Significant economic hardship that threatens ability to subsist



• Denial of access to basic services that threatens ability to subsist



• Denial of capacity to earn a livelihood of any kin and threatens capacity to subsist.

The complementary protection definition of significant harm includes:

• Arbitrary denial of life



• Death penalty to be carried out



• Torture 



• Cruel or inhumane treatment or punishment



• Degrading treatment or punishment

 

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Skills Assessment Changes for Accountants

Changes to the skills requirements for skills assessment of accountants are due to come into effect from 1 July.

All of the Accounting Professional Bodies namely, Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand, CPA Australia, and Institute of Public Accountants, are involved in the changes to how applications will be assessed. It is generally accepted that the changes will make it more difficult to qualify for assessment as an accounting professional.

All of the occupations currently assessed by the accounting professional bodies will be affected by the changes. These occupations are:

• Finance manager,


• Accountant (Gen),


• Management accountant,


• Taxation accountant,


• Corporate treasurer,


• External auditors

In essence, the change in assessing involves the current 12 core accounting areas being reduced to 9. Most applicants will need to show that they meet 7 of these, although some occupations will require applicants to show that they meet 8. There is no change to the English language requirement.

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Accounting authorities - Changes to skills assessments

Minor changes are occurring to the skills assessment requirements for accounting professionals.  The total number of core knowledge areas will be consolidated from the current 12 down to 9 core areas.

Applicants will need to meet at least seven (7) competency areas for all occupations, with the exception of External Auditors and Taxation Accountants, who will need to meet at least eight (8).

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Common English language standards for health professions

From 1 July 2015, new English language standards for registration will come into effect for all health professions, except Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health practice.

The new standards introduce additional pathways for applicants to demonstrate evidence of their English language skills. 

These new standards apply to all applicants for initial registration, regardless of whether they qualified in Australia or overseas, except for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health practitioners. 

The new standards are:

A common standard for 12 professions: Chinese medicine, chiropractic, medical radiation, occupational therapy, optometry, osteopathy, pharmacy, physiotherapy, podiatry and psychology. Dentists and doctors will have these and additional standards.


The standard applies to all applicants for initial registration.

Detailed information about the new requirements can be found on the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) website.

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Australian Citizenship Amendment (Allegiance to Australia) Bill 2015

The Australian Citizenship Amendment (Allegiance to Australia) Bill 2015 (Bill) has been introduced and undergone its first reading today in the House of Representatives.

The Bill includes measures that:

• provide the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection with the power to revoke the citizenship of dual nationals
• allow individuals who have not been convicted of terrorist activities to lose their citizenship
• allow the intelligence services and Government to declare that it is not 'in the public interest' to release the information used to strip an individual of their citizenship
• not allow an individual a forum to dispute the information on which they have been stripped of their citizenship
• not provide merits review of the decision to revoke the citizenship
• allow judicial review only of a decision to revoke citizenship ie review of the judicial process not the facts or merits of the case.

The Prime Minister has also referred the Bill to the Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence and Security to consider whether the amendments can be enforced retrospectively.

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Immigration South Australia - New state occupation list

New State Occupation List 
Immigration SA will be publishing a revised South Australian State Occupation List on 1 July 2015.

Occupations that are not available on the State Occupation List will be listed on the Supplementary Skilled List and are available to applicants who meet additional requirements. The Supplementary Skilled List reflects all occupations available on the Commonwealth’s Consolidated Sponsored Occupations List (CSOL) that are not listed on South Australia’s State Occupation List. 

190/489 application system closing temporarily 
The application system will be closed down at 1 pm on 30 June 2015 and re-opened at 12 pm on 1 July 2015. 

Saved applications and applications submitted but no payment made
If you have a saved 190 or 489 state nomination (GSM) application or an application submitted with no payment made, you will need to submit the application and make the payment before 1 pm (South Australian time) on 30 June or submit a completely new application from 12 pm on 1 July.

All saved applications and applications which have been submitted (but no payment made) will be deleted at 1 pm on 30 June 2015. 

English requirements 

There will be some changes to English requirements for occupations and we would like to give you advance notice of changes to the following occupation groups:

• ICT occupations – Proficient English in each band score (or an overall score of Proficient Plus – i.e. IELTS 7.5 overall). 
• Engineering occupations – Competent Plus English (or an overall score of Proficient i.e. IELTS 7 overall). 

There will be changes to the English requirements for other occupations. Please check the occupation lists on July 1 2015 for details. 

State nomination requirements
All applications from July 1 2015 must meet the new requirements published. 

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U.S. Visa System is Still Experiencing Technical Difficulties, Stranding Thousands of Travelers Around the World

Delays could stretch out over the next week.  Appointment scheduling is also delayed at the beginning of the busy summer travel season.  

http://rt.com/usa/267937-downed-us-visa-thousands-stranded/

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New ten year visitor visa for Chinese visitors announced by Australian government

A new pilot ten year visitor visa for Chinese visitors has been announced by the Australian government. The visa is expected to provide a great boost for the tourism and the economy generally.

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Business and Investment migration visa changes announced

Changes have been announced to the Business Innovation and Investment Programme (BIIP).  

The Premium Investor Visa (PIV)

The PIV will be available from 1 July 2015, with Austrade the sole nominator for this visa.

Significant Investor Visas (SIV)

The Complying Investment Framework was announced on 15 May 2015. Under these arrangements the following investments are required:

• At least $500,000 in eligible Australian venture capital or growth private equity fund(s) investing in start-up and small private companies. The Government expects to increase this to $1 million for new applications within two years as the market responds;
• At least $1.5 million in an eligible managed fund(s) or Listed Investment Companies (LICs) that invest in emerging companies listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX); and
• A ‘balancing investment’ of up to $3 million in managed fund(s) or LICs that invest in a combination of eligible assets that include other ASX listed companies, eligible corporate bonds or notes, annuities and real property (subject to the 10 per cent limit on residential real estate). 

Flexible residency arrangements for SIV

From 1 July 2015, eligibility for the permanent SIV will require either the primary applicant to reside in Australia for 40 days per year OR the secondary applicant (spouse or de facto partner) to reside in Australia for 180 days per year.

This residency requirement will be per year and will be calculated cumulatively over the period of the provisional visa. For example, 160 days over four years for a primary applicant or 720 days over four years for the secondary applicant (spouse or de facto partner).

Austrade nominator from 1 July 2015 for SIV and PIV

Austrade will become an eligible nominator for the SIV from 1 July 2015,  in addition to State and Territory governments.Austrade will also be the sole nominator for the PIV.

Investor and Business Innovation stream changes

Changes have been announced for the Investor and Business Innovation stream visas only :

• Role swapping has been reintroduced, allowing a secondary applicant to apply to fulfil the primary criteria for the permanent visa on behalf of the primary applicant
• Pass mark for the points test has been reduced from 65 to 50 points. 

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Migration Review Tribunal (MRT) Update

From 1 July 2015 the Migration Review Tribunal, Refugee Review Tribunal (MRT- RRT) and Social Securities Appeals Tribunal (SSAT) will amalgamate with the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) and the MRT-RRT will become the Migration and Refugee Division of the AAT.

 

Very little change should be expected in the way the tribunal operates, however, fees payable when lodging an application for review of all visa refusals and cancellations, except protection visas, will increase to $1,673.

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Simplified international student visa framework (SSVF)

A simplified international student visa framework (SSVF) has been announced jointly today by the Assistant Minister for Immigration and Border Protection Senator Cash and the Minister for Education and Training Senator Pyne. The new system will come into place after June 2016.

The SSVF will replace both the Streamlined Visa Processing (SVP) arrangements and the current Assessment Level Framework and will apply to all international students.

It will lay out a student’s financial and English language evidentiary requirements based on two things: the immigration profile of the student’s country of citizenship and of their education provider.

The Department states that the improved approach to the administration of student visas as part of the SSVF will have clear benefits. The Department has further stated that the overall integrity of the student visa programme will be maintained, and the improved regulatory arrangements will avoid placing unnecessary burden or cost on education providers.

A working group with international education sector stakeholders is being formed to guide implementation of the new framework on the expiry of SVP arrangements on 30 June 2016.

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Delays Continue for U.S. Passport and Visas issued Abroad

If you are experiencing delays in getting a new US Passport or Visa this issue is worldwide, read the update below.  The State Department has not given a timeline on when the problem may be fixed.

http://travel.state.gov/content/travel/english/news/technological-systems-issue.html

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Entertainment Visa (Subclass 420) - Australia

Entertainment visa (Subclass 420)

The Temporary Work (Entertainment) (Subclass 420) visa allows you to come to Australia to work in film, television (including documentaries and commercials) or live productions in either a performance or behind-the scenes role, such as, directors, producers or other production personnel.

The Temporary Work (Entertainment) (Subclass 420) visa allow for the inclusion of television or film crew, including actors, production and support staff and still-photographers, who are involved in the production of documentary programs or commercials exclusively for use outside Australia.

Journalists, correspondents or reporters representing overseas news organisations will instead need to apply for the Temporary Work (Skilled) (Subclass 457) visa.

Journalists who are covering a story or television /film crew who are involved in the production of documentary programs or commercials exclusively for use outside for a stay period of less than 6 weeks can apply for Temporary Work (Short Stay Activity) (Subclass 400) visa.

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Changes to filing and other fees in the Federal Court from 1 July 2015

As a result of amendments to the Federal Court and Federal Circuit Court Regulation 2012 made by the Federal Courts Legislation Amendment (Fees) Regulation 2015 some significant changes to filing and other fees in the Federal Court will take effect from 1 July 2015.


Almost all fees have increased by 10% but, other than for some bankruptcy fees, fee categories have been restructured to remove the higher fee tier for publicly listed companies and to reduce fees for public authorities from the corporations rate to that for "in any other case".
 
An additional exemption has been included so that no fee will in future be payable on filing of an application under section 23 of the International Arbitration Act 1974 to issue a subpoena requiring attendance before or production of documents to an arbitral tribunal or both. If an order for the issue of such a subpoena is made the normal fee for issue of that subpoena will still be payable. Otherwise no changes have been made to any of the existing exemptions.


The new filing fees will apply to all documents filed on or after 1 July 2015. The new setting-down, hearing and mediation fees will, however, only apply to hearings and mediations fixed on or after that date. Hearings and mediations which have already been or are fixed up to and including 30 June 2015 will pay the current rates for setting-down, hearing and mediation fees even if the hearing or mediation does not take place until on or after 1 July 2015.

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The Migration Review Tribunal (MRT) - Refugee Review Tribunal (RRT) is amalgamating with the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) on 1 July 2015

On 1 July 2015, the Migration Review Tribunal (MRT) - Refugee Review Tribunal (RRT), along with the Social Security Appeals Tribunal, will be amalgamating with the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT).


It will become known as the Migration and Refugee Division of the AAT.

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