NSW launches 'International Student Welcome Desk' at Sydney Airport

NSW launches International Student Welcome Desk at Sydney Airport

International students in NSW now have support from the moment they arrive at Sydney International Airport. The NSW International Student Airport Welcome Desk commenced operations on 18 July.

The desk is staffed by local and international student volunteers through a formal work integrated learning program with StudyNSW. The volunteers greet students and offer orientation advice and distribute guides with maps and information about accommodation and transport.


Ipads fixed at the desk also offer information and will direct students to StudyNSW’s student facing website once the website goes live next month.

StudyNSW initiated the Welcome Desk in response to recommendations from our stakeholders and feedback from the International Student Barometer 2014. The desk will be staffed during peak arrival periods in July/August and January/February with ongoing staffing primarily at weekends at non-peak periods.

The 12 month pilot project has been co-funded by a consortium including StudyNSW, Destination NSW, Australian Catholic University, Charles Sturt University, Macquarie University, University of Sydney, University of Newcastle, University of New South Wales, University of Technology Sydney, University of Western Sydney, University of Wollongong, TAFE NSW, NSW Department of Education, English Australia and is supported by the Council of International Students Australia (CISA). A steering committee representing all partners will assess its effectiveness after one year and make recommendations for future improvements.

NSW Minister for Trade, Tourism and Major Events Stuart Ayres said the NSW International Student Airport Welcome Desk would help to ensure international students feel welcome. “Recent surveys have highlighted that the first 24 hours is crucial to students forming their perspectives about studying and living in NSW,” Mr Ayres said.

"As the gateway to Australia, Sydney Airport is proud to support StudyNSW’s International Student Airport Welcome Desk at the airport," Sydney Airport Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Kerrie Mather said, "International students are a key visitor market for Sydney Airport and it’s essential that we provide a positive first impression of Sydney by making them feel welcome."

If you are an education provider or education agent, we encourage you to share information about the Welcome Desk to international students making their first journey to NSW.

Desk location: Arrivals Hall A, Terminal 1, Sydney International Airport
Open: 7.00am-11.00am, 6.00pm-10.00pm, 7 days a week during semester intakes and weekends at other periods.

Read More»

Airport disruptions across Australia on Monday 3 August 2015

Employees of the Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP), including the Australian Border Force, who are members of the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) will undertake protected industrial action (PIA) on Monday 3 August 2015 across Australia.

Passengers travelling internationally on Monday morning may experience delays at airports, while visa and citizenship services may also be affected.

Acting Deputy Commissioner Operations, Steve Lancaster, said travellers and DIBP clients should not be alarmed by this action, but allow extra time for processing.

“The CPSU has agreed that a range of functions that maintain safety of life at sea and national security safeguards will be excluded from any PIA,” Mr Lancaster said.

“The health, safety and security of the public and our staff continue to be our priority”.

“We are working closely with our partner agencies to minimise impacts on operations”.

“We recommend that passengers booked on international flights departing on Monday morning to arrive early in accordance with your airline’s guidelines and after check-in, promptly proceed straight to immigration and customs clearance.”

Further information will be published on the Department’s website (www.border.gov.au ) and official Facebook page.

The proposed enterprise agreement has been circulated to employees, and will be put to a vote as soon as possible.

Transitional arrangements that maintain a range of conditions for former Australian Customs and Border Protection Service employees have been put in place from 1 July through determinations made under the Public Service Act 1999.

 

Read More»

Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) Reforms

On 1 July 2015, the Migration Review Tribunal (MRT) and the Refugee Review Tribunal (RRT) were merged with the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT).

Like the MRT, the AAT conducts independent merits review of administrative decision under the laws of the Commonwealth and has the same powers to affirm, vary, set aside or remit decisions.

The AAT has recently issued practice directions which places obligations on representatives and applicants which did not previously exist with respect to MRT/RRT matters and which everyone needs to be aware of if wishing to conduct applications in this jurisdiction. Included in these directions, it is necessary to note following:

1. At the time of lodging the review application applicants are expected to provide all relevant evidence and detailed submission supporting clients,
2. Any additional clients/submissions must be lodged no later than seven days prior to the hearing and must identify clearly any changes to the previous claims and any new or additional claims,
3. There are clear requirements as to how submissions are to be prepared;  claims must be clearly and concisely identified and the issues in a review must be addressed with details of the relevant facts that support the claims made in the submission,
4. Prehearing submissions must be submitted at less seven days prior to the hearing setting out all of the claims and must be accompanied by a declaration from the applicant confirming that the submission has been read and that it accurately and completely presents the claims,
5. Witness statements also need to be prepared and lodged with theTribunal; if for any reason a witness is unable to sign the statement, it is necessary to provide a synopsis of what the witness will say on the hearing date.

The requirements of the AAT means that for most agents the way in which they conduct review applications will need to change significantly. As distinct from the old practice of lodging a review application and then preparing submissions sometime between the lodging date and the date of hearing, and in some cases, not at all, it is now necessary to immediately identify issues and prepare supporting submissions. This will require careful analysis and attention to detail from the outset.

 

Read More»

New online lodgement system for the AAT (Migration and Refugee Division)

Applications for the review of a decision can now be lodged online to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal on the following web address:

 

https://tribunalonline.mrt-rrt.gov.au

 

When lodging an application online, if an application fee is applicable, the full fee must be paid as an online payment using Visa or MasterCard only.

 

Supporting documents can be uploaded online as well at the end of the electronic application. It is important to remember that if lodging on the last day of a time limit, the application must be received by the AAT no later than midnight local time, if you are lodging from a location within Australia, or midnight Australian Capital Territory local time, if lodging from outside Australia.

 

 

Read More»

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.

Read More»

UPDATE: Accountants - General Skilled Migration (Subclass 189 and subclass 489) visa

The number of places for Accountants for the General SKilled Migration program (subclass 189 and subclass 489) has been SLASHED from over 5000 places to just 2525 this program year.

 

The effect of this is that most independent skilled visa applicants (189 and 489-relative sponsored) who apply as Accountants will require 65 points or more. The Department of Immigration & Border Protection (DIBP) have announced that they will stagger their numbers over the program year, and that those applicants on 60 points may find they have a long wait or may miss out altogether.

Read More»

Australia - $5m Significant Investor Visa (SIV) and $15m Premium Investor Visa Changes (PIV)

​On 29 June 2015 and 1 July 2015, the Federal Government released new regulations which made changes to the Significant Investor Visa (SIV) regime and introduced the new Premium Investor Visa (PIV) sub-class.

The key changes in the new regulations include:

• the creation of the new PIV sub-class of investor visas which provides access to permanent residency after 12 months and requires the applicant to make a complying investment of $15 million;
• changes to the types of investments which are acceptable for SIVs and PIVs;
• the granting of additional powers to Austrade to make nominations for the SIV and PIV and to monitor the market; and
• transitional changes which preserves that eligibility of applicants who were granted the sub-class 188 SIV prior to 1 July 2015 who invested under previous complying investment rules.

Recap of the SIV program

The SIV program was introduced in November 2012 and provided a two step pathway to permanent residency for investors who invest a minimum of $5 million over a 4 year period in a complying investment.

The key features of the SIV program which underpinned its success in the 2 ½ years since its initial introduction were:

• unlike other skilled visa or business visa categories, there were no English language requirements or business skills requirements that needed to be satisfied;
• an applicant was not required to operate a business in Australia. Instead, an applicant for the SIV needed to invest in complying investments which included, amongst other things, State or Territory Government bonds, complying managed funds which invested in Australian listed shares, corporate bonds, mortgages, agribusiness, infrastructure or real estate, or private companies which passed sponsorship requirements determined by State or Territory Governments and the Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP); and
• SIV holders only needed to be in Australia for 40 days per year for 4 years to satisfy the residency requirement in order to apply for Australian permanent residency.

The SIV program attracted strong demand from prospective high net worth investor migrants (particularly from China and Asia). As at December 2014, almost 500 SIVs were granted resulting in the injection or the proposed injection of approximately $2.5 billion into the Australian economy.

Key SIV changes

In October 2014, the Federal Government undertook a review of the SIV program with the purpose of re-tasking SIV investments into areas of the economy where the injection of capital would significantly encourage growth and entrepreneurial activity and exploring the possibility of introducing a PIV program. The review, which was administered in conjunction with Austrade, the Minister of Trade and Investment and the DIBP, undertook a number of rounds of consultation before announcing the revamped SIV program.   

Whereas previously, complying investments for SIV purposes provided significant flexibility regarding the choice to invest in government bonds, certain types of managed funds and private companies, from 1 July 2015 complying investments will now include mandatory allocations to certain types of assets including:

• Venture Capital Investments: a minimum of $500,000 investment in an Australian venture capital fund which invests in start-ups and small private companies.  The venture capital component must be invested in an AusIndustry registered Venture Capital Limited Partnership (VCLP), an Early Stage Venture Capital Limited Partnership (ESVCLP) or an Australian Venture Capital Fund of Funds (AFOF). Venture capital funds do not have to be invested immediately. SIV applicants will have a period of 12 months following the grant of the provisional visa to make an investment in an eligible VCLP or ESVCLP. Where investments in venture capital funds are realised before the end of the 4 year term of the provisional SIV (sub-class 188), the realised capital must be reinvested in a complying venture capital investment, Emerging Companies Investment or Balancing Investment which complies (see next two bullet points) with the rules;
• Emerging Companies Investments: a minimum of $1.5 million investment in a complying managed fund which invests in emerging companies (companies which have a market capitalisation of less than $500 million). There is some flexibility for the complying managed fund to invest a certain allocation of its assets in unlisted companies, companies with market capitalisation greater than $500 million and foreign companies and cash and derivatives (for risk management purposes only), however, there are strict valuation limits on those investments. The emerging companies fund is also required to maintain a portfolio of securities issued by no less than 20 different issuers and the fund must not invest more than 10% of its net asset value in any one security issuer;  and
• Balancing Investments: the balance of investment in complying managed funds which invests in listed Australian companies, Australian corporate bonds/notes in listed Australian companies, deferred annuities or non-residential real estate in Australia (there is a 10% limit on residential real estate for the complying fund).

In respect of the balancing investments and the emerging companies funds, a further requirement is that fund managers responsible for managing Emerging Companies Investments must hold at least $100 million firm wide funds under management in order to qualify for SIV compliance.

Other key changes are:

• investors and their associates (e.g. spouse or related companies) must not be involved in the management of the investment structure in which the managed funds invest through;
• investments in Australian private companies and State and Territory Government bonds will no longer qualify for SIV;
• investments in Australian mortgage funds are not complying investments from 1 July 2015 onwards; and
• loan back funds where the interests in the fund is used as collateral for loans will no longer be permitted.

Premium Investor Visa Updates

The Premium Investor Visa will be introduced on 1 July 2015 which requires a $15 million complying investment. PIV holders will be able to apply for an Australian permanent visa 12 months after the investment as opposed to the 48 months required for SIV holders.

PIVs are based on referrals from State/Territory Governments and are designed to attract entrepreneurial skill or talent to Australia. Austrade will assess and nominate the candidate.

PIV investments can either be made directly or through managed funds into Australian listed securities, government bonds/notes, corporate bonds issued by Australian public listed companies, private Australian companies, property in Australia (excluding residential real estate), and annuities issued by Australian life companies.

Read More»