iscah migration · pdf filewelcome to the 121st edition of our monthly newsletter that ......

Hiya All

Welcome to the 121st edition of our monthly newsletter that updates our readers on all the latest information we can gather about Australia’s visa requirements.

This is free for our nearly 3000 subscribers, if you want backcopies please drop us a line to [email protected] . Also if you want to unsubscribe or wish to suggest some new content, please drop me a line.

Football… All us Fremantle Docker fans are in shock. We actually won a game on the weekend. The team song was dusted off and we relearnt the words. Surreal occasion indeed J

Anyhow on to the latest news

Iscah Migration NewsLetter(Copyright 2008)

MONDAY 21ST JULY 2008 (COPYRIGHT 2008) ISSUE 121

1) The $100,000 investment issue

Contents

1) The $100,000 investment issue

2) Iscah are moving location

3) Minister encourages companies to use Permanent Migration

4) South Australian government relax rules for Australian graduates

5) Changed to Assessing Bodies for some Trades

6) Miscellaneous

7) New DIAC Forms from 1st

July 2008

8) New TRA Pathway D at last ..

9) New Processing Centres for 457 Visa Applications

10) Police Clearance Form has changed

11) Adelaide (ASPC) update for General Skilled Applications

This is for pre-September 2007 visa applicants who required 5 additional points to meet their relevant passmark by investing $100,000 AUD for 12 months in government refundable bonds,

Well what can we say ? This issue continues to concern many thousands of visa applicants and DIAC are still working on possible solutions.

It is good to see that some more information has been released on the DIAC website, and some FAQs have been answered here …

http://www.immi.gov.au/skilled/general-skilled-migration/capital-investment-scheme-faqs.htm

We remain positive that the minister is looking for a fair solution that will assist those adversely affected. Remember Australia has a significant skills shortage, so to abandon maybe 5000+ affected people makes little sense. Also the reputation of the Australian visa system would be damaged significantly if these people after such a long procesing time, were told they no longer met the requirements.

Clearly the legislative solutions are quite complex and DIAC have made it very clear on many levels that they are exploring all the options before making an announcement. I believe personally that if the minister did not want this resolved favourably for the visa applicants, we would have seen DIAC refusing these visa applicants long ago. That has not happened and the longer it goes on, the more imperative and likely I think it is that the solution is in favour of visa applicants.

When this will happen ? Well that is becoming a guessing game. We believed it would be at the start of July and that has not happened. I think that is because of the complexity of the legislation, not a change in direction by the minister.

DIAC have a dedicated webpage that will announce any news on this issue if you want to monitor it yourself http://www.immi.gov.au/skilled/general-skilled-migration/whats-new.htm

(Source: Iscah comment)

Iscah Migration NewsLetter

After 12 years of successful practice in West Perth we have decided that the parking and other related issues necessitate us moving offices. As a result we will move to Kewdale, 15 minutes south of Perth on the 24th and 25th July 2008. And reopen for business on Monday 28th July.

We would like to advise that if you have sent any documents or paperwork to us via our existing post box number, Australia post will divert this mail to us. We would also like to advise that our email addresses will remain the same and our previous numbers will all divert to us. We would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused.

Please see below are our new contact details:

Iscah Australian Migration ConsultantsSuite 22 Kewdale Business Park133 Kewdale Road, Kewdale, WA 6105

PO Box 75, Welshpool BC, WA 6986

Phone: 9353 3344Fax: 9353 3348

A map of of our location will also shortly appear on our website (www.iscah.com) under the “Contact Us” link.

2) Iscah are moving location

ISSUE 121

3) Minister encourages companies to use Permanent Migration

Federal immigration minister Chris Evans has called for West Australian employers to make more use of the permanent migration scheme rather than rely on temporary workers to help plug labour shortages.

Senator Evans said the skills and labour situation in WA was made worse by the mining boom 'sucking' people out of occupations which did not traditionally suffer from worker shortages.

'The reality is that the mining boom is sucking people out of occupations where we traditionally haven't been short supplied and the flow on effect to other industries is where the shortages have been found,' Senator Evans said.

'We have to be able to meet those needs as well as the needs of the mining industry.'

The present permanent migration scheme has been criticised for being inflexible and that the list of occupations on the list too limited.

Employers found the scheme slow and cumbersome to navigate, and it needed to be amended to have more capacity to respond to their needs.

They were predominantly using the 457 temporary skilled immigration scheme where employers sponsor temporary work visas for migrants.

The 457 scheme was mainly being utilised because it was quicker than the permanent migration scheme, Senator Evans said.


ISSUE 121

'I want to see more employers sponsoring these workers as permanent skilled migrants, taking advantage of the (permanent migration) program, rather than just bringing them in through the 457 scheme.'

He hoped to expand the list of skilled migration to include highly-skilled technology workers and community welfare specialists.

Provisions had yet to be made for unskilled or semi-skilled migrants.

(Source: The West Australian newspaper)

The South Australian government last year introduced a policy that Australian student graduates would need to have at least 12 months of work experience to be sponsored for any of their regional visas. This was a surprising move as that state had seemed to want to encourage young skilled people to their area and it resulted in applications from that group dropping to a trickle.

They have now indicated a slight relaxation in that some Australian graduates of selected occupations will now NOT have to have work experience to be sponsored by South Australia. Those occupations are Dentists, General Practitioners, Registered Nurses and Engineers (Mining). It is hoped that pressure on the SA government will mean this list will expand over time.

(Source: Migration Institute of Australia, and Iscah comment)

4) South Australian government relax rules for Australian graduates

5) Changes to Assessing Bodies for some Trades

The following Trades occupations have had Vetassess added to TRA as the assessing body:

Bricklayers - SupervisorCarpentry and Joinery Tradespersons - SupervisorElectricians - SupervisorElectrical Distribution Tradespersons - SupervisorMotor Mechanics - SupervisorPlumbers - SupervisorRefrigeration and Air-conditioning Mechanic - Supervisor

Vetassess is the assessing body for these occupations for applicants from India, Sri Lanka, the United Kingdom, South Africa and the Philippines.

(Source: MIA)


ISSUE 121

6) Miscellaneous

DIAC have announced that they are looking at the situation of 457 dependents (mostly children close to adulthood), who during the life of that visa, lose their financial dependency on their parents. And hence are unable to be included in a future application with their family (typically an Employer nomination 856 visa). Considerable effort has been undertaken by the agents association (well done G, you know who you are) to have DIAC address this issue. Hopefully this deterrent to skilled families moving to Australia is addressed soon.

The occupation of Seafarer-Ship’s Surveyor (ASCO 2542-17) has been removed from the Skilled Occupation List. (So application’s under this occupation can no longer be lodged for a GSM –General Skilled Migration visa)

A correction from the last newsletter (which we also corrected in an interim update), the new DIAC visa application fee for 457 applications from 1st July 2008 will be $250.

The new minimum salary for a 38 hour week (unless exemptions granted) for a 457 worker will rise to $43,440 from 1st August 2008

DIAC will not look be considering any change to the 2007 legislation that made it much more difficult for labour hire companies to be approved as sponsors for 457 visa holders.

7) New DIAC Forms from 1st July 2008

Unless you have been advised otherwise, please use the current version of any of the department's forms or booklets – the versions on DIAC’s website are the latest version.

Withdrawn forms – 1 July 2008Form 47P.

Forms and booklets with essential changes — 1 July 2008Essential change forms usually contain information about legislative changes or have been amended to reflect those changes. Existing stocks of these forms must be destroyed prior to the date of effect of the legislative changes for this cycle, that is, 1 July 2008. Forms and booklets 26, 47ES, 47PT, 55, 118, 119, 128, 132, 157G, 157N, 160, 785, 929, 990i, 993i, 994i (and other language versions of this form), 1000, 1022, 1023, 1054, 1119, 1121i, 1127, 1128, 1129, 1131, 1133, 1147, 1150, 1192, 1195, 1258, 1263, 1272, 1290, 1295, 1299i, 1300T.

Forms and booklets with non essential changes - 1 July 2008Only minor changes have been made to the text or construction of these forms.Forms and booklets 40, 47PA, 886, 913, 1208, 1276, and 1298i.

(Source: DIAC)


ISSUE 121

9) New Processing Centres for 457 Visa Applications

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DIAC have announced that from 1st July 2008, all new 457 visa applications will be processing as follows ..

There will be a geographic split of responsibility for processing new applications for Temporary Business (Long Stay) (subclass 457), Medical Practitioner (subclass 422) and Sponsored Business Visitor (Short Stay) (subclass 459) visas with Australian business sponsors from 1 July 2008.

Sydney will process applications from the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales and Queensland. Applications from the Australian Capital Territory and Queensland will be processed in the Sydney CBD office and applications from New South Wales will be processed in the Parramatta office.

Melbourne will process applications from Northern Territory, South Australia, Tasmania and Victoria.

Perth will process applications from Western Australia.

Each centre will develop a sector-based approach and staff will develop extensive knowledge and a strong stakeholder base in key sectors such as health, engineering and mining. Overseas business sponsored applications will continue to be processed as they are now.

(Source: DIAC)

8) New TRA Pathway D at last ..

The TRA closed the pathway used by tradesman who had little or no formal training (pathway D) back in September 2007. They have now announced not just for this, but in fact a new asssessment process for ALL tradespeople that they assess as follows ..

From 1 September 2008, it is Trades Recognition Australia's intention that the new Migration Assessment Policy (MAP) will replace the current Uniform Assessment Criteria (UAC). The MAP outlines the new standards and procedures used to process applications for skills assessment for the purposes of General Skilled Migrationhttp://www.workplace.gov.au/NR/rdonlyres/A085C24F-5E48-4F89-A64C-E3AB586CB26D/0/TRAMigrationAssessmentPolicy2008ExposureDraft.pdf

In short it looks like those trades people with NO formal qualifications will have to attain a total of 4 years work (up to 12 months of training can be counted) as well as undertake either a workplace assessment OR be confirmed by a recognised industrial or occupational licence. Further details are available in the document above as well as I am sure more will be released soon.

(Source: TRA)


ISSUE 121

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The Brisbane Skilled Processing Centre (BSPC) commenced operations on 1July 2008. BSCP are processing electronically lodged applications forClasses VB and VC lodged on or after 1 July 2008.

Any paper documents received in Adelaide for these applications will becouriered to Brisbane for processing. Applicants are encouraged to providetheir documents electronically either by attaching them to the applicationor by email.

Supporting documentation and enquiries regarding these applications shouldbe directed to the relevant Brisbane contact point.

ASPC PROCESSING INFORMATION - For the week of 15 July 2008

Applications lodged on or before the dates shown below have been allocatedto case officers for further processing.

Skilled Migration Applications lodged before 1 September 2007

Onshore Skilled visas (permanent and provisional)

Student/Graduate applications - Class DD and DE visasSubclass 880: 31 August 2007 (paper), 31 August 2007 (e-lodged)Subclass 881: 31 August 2007 (paper), 31 August 2007 (e-lodged)Subclass 882: 31 August 2007 (paper), 31 August 2007 (e-lodged)

Onshore Skilled Independent Regional (Provisional) (SIR) – Class UX visasSubclass 495: All applications: all applications are now allocated to caseofficers

10) Police Clearance Form has changed

As part of obtaining any permanent visa to Australia, it is a requirement that an applicant aged over 16, obtain a police clearance from any country they have lived in for an accumulated period of more than 12 months in the last 10 years.

DIAC compiled a form (47P) that used to detail how people in different countries could obtain such police clearances. This form has now been updated and renamed. The form is here www.immi.gov.au/allforms/character-requirements/character-penal.pdf

11) Adelaide (ASPC) update for General Skilled Applications


ISSUE 121

Skilled Migration visas - All paper based applications for Class BN, BQ,BR, UX and UZ visasSubclasses 134, 136, 137, 138, 139, 495 and 496: 11 June 2007

e-lodged Skilled Independent Regional (Provisional) applicationsSubclass 495: all applications are now allocated to case officers

General Skilled Migration visas: Class VE and VF,Subclasses: 175, 176, 475, and 476, E-lodged: 12 November 2007 Paper lodged: 19 September 2007

General Skilled Migration visas: Class VB and Class VC subclass 487Subclasses: 885, 886, 887, and 487 E-lodged: 12 November 2007 (applications lodged before 1 July 2008only) Paper lodged: 19 September 2007

General Skilled Migration visas: Class VC subclass 485 only E-lodged: 12 November 2007 (applications lodged before 1 July 2008only) Paper lodged: 19 September 2007

Okay folks that is all for now. Keep well and see you on Monday 18th August (in our NEW offices !!).

CheersSteven O’NeilIscah [email protected]

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Suite 121260 Hay Street, West PerthWestern Australia, 6005PO Box 602, West Perth, WA 6872

Phone: 61-8-93217255Fax: 61-8-93217266E-mail: [email protected]: www.iscah.comRegistered Migration Agent 9687267

iscah migration · pdf filewelcome to the 121st edition of our monthly newsletter that ......

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