Industry Updates

'International students will be able to apply for an additional year on a second post-study work visa if they complete a higher education or postgraduate qualification in a regional area, and live in a regional area while holding a Temporary Graduate (subclass 485) visa'

"The purpose of the instrument is to amend IMMI 18/037 to remove references to “regional Australia” as defined under subregulation 5.19(16) of the Regulations. As part of the package introducing new regional visas, a new instrument ... specifies the parts of Australia that are regional Australia under subregulation 5.19(16) of the Regulations. Amending IMMI 18/037 to remove references to regional Australia ensures two instruments that specify regional Australia for the purposes of subregulation 5.19(16) do not operate concurrently".

'Users will be unable to access the Employment Suitability Clearance form and the Detention Visit application form' between 9pm Friday 1 March to 1am Sunday 3 March 2019

'festive season changes to timelines for new applications'

'Our office will be closing during the Christmas and New Year holidays from 22 December 2018 to 6 January 2019'

With respect, it appears that Parliament did not consider some unintended, but potentially significant, consequences of the "deregulation legislation". For instance, the Department will no longer be required, in some circumstances, to communicate with non-RMA lawyers, even if informed that they are both the representative and authorised recipient, as we explain in this article. It is true that, although the Department will not be required to communicate with the non-RMA lawyer in those circumstances, it might be very likely to do so anyway. However, who would like to take the risk, even if very low?

'The BPAY Request payment option will be unavailable from 11:59pm (AEST) Tuesday 10th April 2019 until 8:00am (AEST) Wednesday 17th April 2019; A new electronic application form will be introduced for the Working Holiday visa on 17 April 2019'

'From 1 April 2019, application documents for the Job Ready Program: steps 1 and 2 - Provisional Skills Assessment (PSA) and Job Ready Employment (JRE), now need to be emailed within 14 days of applying online (previously 45 days)'

Although this announcement dates 20 March 2019, it was only released today: 'Businesses will need to demonstrate that they are operating and located in South Australia, are a viable business, ... and that they cannot fill the position locally with Australian citizens, by providing evidence of their local recruitment efforts'

Subclass 870 (parent) visa sponsorship applicants must show an "overall" taxable income that is above a certain amount. The overall income can be a combination of the sponsorship applicant's individual income with the income of up to 2 other persons specified in legislation. But the sponsor's individual income must also be above a certain threshold. We discuss an example where the income test is not satisfied and an example where it is.