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The OMARA has recently informed practitioners that it will not be able to refund registration (or repeat registration) application charges for legal practitioners who will no longer be regulated by the OMARA. Although the OMARA is not itself able to offer refunds, we carried out research for our readers and found a piece of legislation which gives the Commonwealth government the discretion to make payments to individuals in certain circumstances, which in the case of OMARA fees could effectively work as a refund. We also discuss the government's policies on such circumstances and how to make a "refund" request.

New Direction No 82 replaces Direction No 77: 'the Government considers that [Sponsors awarded Accredited Status] should be able to access streamlined processing arrangements and their applications should be allocated to a decision-maker for initial assessment as a priority'

"Refunds are being made available to certain persons who continue to be adversely impacted by COVID-19 related travel difficulties and hold, or have held, a Subclass 300 Prospective Marriage (Temporary) visa (Prospective Marriage visa)"

"The amendments of the Skilling Australians Fund Regulations are necessary to ensure that the nomination training contribution charge that currently applies to the Temporary Skill Shortage visa will apply to..."

The new regulations "introduce a requirement that to make a valid application for a Subclass 462 (Work and Holiday) visa, applicants who hold a passport issued by a specified foreign country must have been..."

The new regulations remove a duplicated requirement to provide English language translations as part of citizenship applications

The new instrument specifies "an additional circumstance where the first instalment of VAC may be refunded, to encourage visa holders in nominated subclasses to travel to Australia and participate in the Australian economy"

The new instrument commences on 5 Mar 2020: "One of the purposes of the instrument is to specify... areas of Australia affected by bushfires occurring after 31 July 2019 and before 1 March 2020 as areas of Australia. Another purpose is to specify bushfire recovery work as work undertaken, including work undertaken on a volunteer basis, carried out after 31 July 2019 in an area specified ... as a kind of work. Bushfire recovery work is defined in ... the instrument... The last purpose is to specify construction work as a kind of work for areas specified in [the instrument], in alignment with specified work for Subclass 417 (Working Holiday) visa".

"The amendments allow the person making the nomination to use an alternative methodology for determining the [Australian Market Salary Rate] ..."

The purpose of the instrument is to update the forms used to apply for bridging visas