The NSW Department of Industry has provided the following Visa related updates

• Announcement of shorter processing time for Business Talent Subclass 132 Visa from 29 January 2016.
• New NSW migration brochures in Simplified Chinese for Sydney and Regional NSW available to welcome business and investor migrants.
• NSW Industry's migration achievements for 2015.
• NSW Migration myth busters, including, its a myth that SIV migrants must make and hold their investments in NSW.
• Regional NSW had the strongest job growth of any Australian region last year creating 70,000 new jobs and is drawing increased international interest and investment.
• Announcement of an AVCAL special seminar: ‘Focus on Significant Investor Visa’ education program event on Monday 22 February 2016.
• New migrant settlement information for NSW now online.

Nevett Ford Lawyers can assist with all Australian visa types.  Please call us for further information and advice.

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DIBP makes changes to Marketing Specialist occupation nominations

The Department of Immigration appears to have decreased the spectrum of the role of Marketing Specialist (ANZSCO 225113). Applicants should be aware that recent decisions by the DIBP have allowed nominations in the said occupation only in the presence of medium to large as well as complex business organisations and classified it as a high level and senior role. As a result, sponsor applicants with small businesses and visa applicants without the relevant qualification and experience should explore other possible occupations if their circumstances allow.

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Consequences of visa refusal or cancellation

When a person’s application for a visa is refused or his or her visa is cancelled under section 501 of the Migration Act, unless he or she already holds a protection visa, the person becomes an unlawful non-citizen.


Under the Migration Act, as an unlawful non-citizen the person must be placed in immigration detention and detained until he or she is either granted a visa, deported, or removed from Australia.


In addition to being detained and possibly removed from Australia, a person who has a visa refused or cancelled under section 501:

• will be prohibited from applying for another visa (other than a protection visa or a ‘removal pending’ bridging visa) while in Australia
• if removed from Australia following cancellation of their visa, will not be eligible to be granted most types of visas (and therefore to return to Australia) if their visa was cancelled because of a substantial criminal record, past or present criminal conduct, or a combination of past or present criminal and general conduct

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Visa compliance audit uncovers serious flaws in system

Visa compliance audit uncovers serious flaws in system


An audit of how the Federal Government manages visa compliance was able to find weaknesses in almost all of the programs many areas, which leaves Australia in a vulnerable position to the visitors that have committed or are committing serious crimes.


A review was issued by the Australian National Audit Office late last year and it was able to identify major issues in the organisation. This includes missing records as well as ‘extensive shortcomings.


It was stated in the report that the challenges that face the Department of Immigration and Border Protection should not be in any way underestimated, ”given the extent of the reforms and the longstanding nature of the problems.”


”There are weaknesses in almost all the aspects of the DIBP’s arrangements for managing visa holders’ compliance with their visa conditions,” stated the report. “These weaknesses undermine the department’s capacity to effectively manage the risk of visa holders not complying with their visa conditions – from simple overstaying through illegal working to committing serious crimes.”


A spokesperson for Mr Peter Dutton, the Minister for the Department of Immigration and Border Protection, stated that a taskforce was put together last year to deal with fraud and exploitation that involve temporary visa holders.


The changes in the legislative that took place in late 2014 had also seen visas either being cancelled or refused for more than one thousand visitors, they said in a statement to the ABC.


They also stated that ”the Coalition Government has acted to ensure a firm approach to visa compliance, instituting various measures to strengthen Australia’s visa regime.”


”Measures to improve intelligence and data collection will help ensure people in Australia on visas adhere to their visa conditions.”


Calls for the ‘the dob-in phone line’ to be given a boost.


The Immigration Department has accepted the 4 recommendations which were put forward in the audit, and this included giving the number of calls to “the dob-in phone line” a much needed boost.


A spokesperson for the DIBP said in a statement to the ABC said that important work was well under its way to make improvements on analysis, data collection, intelligence, and storage capabilities.


They stated that ”a new framework is also being implemented to centralise the management of strategic policy, procedural instructions and standard operating procedures” and that “a review of current immigration compliance practices is also currently underway.”


The DIBP has granted over 7.5 million visas in the past financial year, with more than 4.3 millions visas being accounted for by visitor visas.


It was also outlined by the review that there was a rise in the number of people who overstayed their visas since the year 2011.


Almost nineteen thousand people overstayed their visas by anywhere from 1 to 5 years, with more than seventeen thousand overstaying by fiften years or perhaps even more.


New reform in the DIBP was the 3 major change in less than a decade, a period which also saw 3 different secretaries in the department.


Auditors however, found that in spite of the restructure and reform that has taken place, there is still little evidence there is overall improvement, not least as a result of the change that has been ongoing, with initiatives that are not often evaluated or fully implemented.


Source: abc.net.au by Stephanie Anderson

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Farmers dealing with labour shortage calling against new tax on visa holders

Right now, there is no tax payable on the 1^st eighteen thousand two hundred dollars ($18,200) the working holiday visa makers are going to earn. However, from the 1^st of July of 2016, these visa holders are going to have to pay tax on every dollar they earn. The farmers who state that up to fifty per cent of their seasonal workforce is made up of a lot of these visa holders are making plans to do a major lobby against this planned tax change.


The peak horticulture lobby groups of Queensland, Growcom, Cotton Australia, and the Queensland Farmers Federation are all planning to launch an ‘intensive lobbying campaign’ so that the severe impact of the measures on the agricultural sector can be highlighted, as they fear it can set an exodus of seasonal farm labour.


”It is very simple,” Mr Pat Hannan, the chief executive officer of Growcom, stated at a recent interview with ABC Rural Radio. ”It will deter backpackers from coming and working on our farms.”


Mr Hannan continued on to say, “Without labour to get the crop into the ground and particularly to get the crop out of the ground, our farmers, some of them, are under threat of losing their businesses. It’s really that serious.”


”When you are saying to backpackers, ‘you might have been paid $22.62 an hour before but now we’re only going to pay you $14.59 an hour’, I have got to say that gets around pretty quickly and the backpacker community is going to be less inclined to come to Australia to enjoy their working holidays,” the Growcom CEO said.


Mr Hannan said that this kind of decision is going to hurt farmers and rural communities, which heavily relies on labour provided by backpackers.


”There are a lot of rural communities that survive based on the backpackers and labourers that come into those communities during peak planting and harvest times,” said Mr Hannan. ”It is very short-sighted not to take the dramatic effect on the economies of those areas into account when you make changes the way the Government has.”


He also added that the ones who are affected are the backpackers, as well as the growers and the farmers, which in turn are going to affect the local rural economies.


Source: MigrationAlliance.com.au

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Business groups push for reforms to 457 visa

The campaign for reforms in the 457 visas are once again reignited by business groups in Australia, declaring that it is high time that ”misinformation” regarding the scheme that benefits skilled foreign workers be dispelled.


It is most likely that this move is just going to spark tensions with Australian unions due to the 457 visa for temporary skilled migrants, however, business groups are adamant in lining up to say that the government should get rid of Labor-era labour market testing arrangements that are at present in the scheme.




A letter has been sent to the Productivity Commission from the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) stating that it is better if the labour market testing is abolished. On the other hand, the Australian Mines and Metals Association (AMMA) is warning that this requirement is just going to add red tape to the process.




This comes as a number of employer groups are preparing for a different review of the salary threshold for occupations which can be filled by workers who are holding 457 visas, in the newest inquiry that is probably going to spark controversy over the skilled migration visa scheme.




The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry has foreshadowed the argument against the increase in the income threshold for 457 skilled worker visas that are beyond inflation and is arguing that employers located in regional areas should have the capabilities to hire skilled foreign workers on a salary that is at a discount to the threshold, so long as this was in agreement to the market rates of Australia for the people in that specific regional area.




Ms Jenny Lambert, the employment, education, and training director of ACCI, stated that there seems to be ”misinformation” that foreign workers are taking jobs away from Australians.


”That is the wrong basis to move forward,” Ms Lambert said yesterday.
It is by the end of April that the report from the review of the Temporary Skilled Migration Income Threshold is expected to be submitted.




The Australian government agreed to bring forward the review of the Temporary Skilled Migration Income Threshold – which is currently set at fifty three thousand nine hundred – under a deal with Labor to end the wrangling over the China and Australia free trade pact, otherwise known as ChAFTA.




The review is not just going to look at the appropriate level that would be most suited for the threshold, it is also going to look at the roles of indexation as well as regional concessions for the threshold.


During the debate over ChAFTA, it was insisted by Labor that the threshold be increased to fifty seven thousand dollars. However, this push was dropped after the revelation that this kind of pricing would exclude some rural areas out of the scheme should this push through.
Ms Lambert said that the threshold should hold at its present level though there were still good points of argument that were raised for the sake of indexation and inflation.




For regional areas however, there was an argument that a discount be made because there is a difference between regional and metropolitan labour markets.


”The higher you lift the threshold the less businesses and positions would be eligible to have someone come in on a 457,” Ms Lambert stated. ”And that creates real economic problems not just for the business who can not find a skilled worker, but for the regional community who may not have the services available to them because the skilled worker is not available at the price that the region can afford.”




Ms Lambert also stressed that employers should not be able to pay foreign members of their staff less than what equivalent local workers are going to be paid in that region.
Areas hit by skills shortages at that moment, areas such as in the Northern Territory, can ask for something that is called a ”designated area migration agreement.”




Employers can seek concessions of up to ten per cent that is below the threshold under the designated area migrated agreement, so long as the cost of living in that area is lower compared to the national average, and that the foreign workers there are being paid the same as Australians.




Ms Lambert however, said that businesses were not actually guaranteed there would be such agreements to cover them in their areas.




In the mean time, ACCI has made a submission to another review into migration being conducted by the Productivity Commission, saying that it does not agree with a draft finding in support of labour market testing as the testing is the same as ”asking employers to walk through wet cement.”


Mr Scott Marklamb, the executive director of AMMA’s policy and public affairs, said that while there are some highly skilled occupations that were exempt from doing the testing, the ”resource employers support the abolition of this needless and burdensome requirement.”
It was stated by a spokesman for the Business Council of Australia that it consistently called for the elimination of the labour market testing.


SOURCE: The Australian (newspaper)

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Call for ‘burdensome’ Labour Market Testing to be abolished

See article from Chandler Training: http://www.chandlertraining.com.au/call-for-burdensome-labour-market-testing-to-be-abolished/

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