In the Government’s pre-election Budget, the Treasurer announced an increase in Government application fees for all visa subclasses, except the Visitor Subclass 600.

The increase will be 5.4%, effective from 1 July 2019.

This fee increase is expected to generate additional revenue of $275 million by 2021-2022:

No increases to the Training Levy.

DISCLAIMER This information is current as of 1 July 2019 and subject to change. The information contained in this publication is of a general nature only. It should not be used as legal advice. To the extent permissible by law, Ajuria Lawyers and its associated entities shall not be liable for any errors, omissions, defects or misrepresentations in the information or for any loss or damage suffered by persons who use or rely on such information. Liability limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards Legislation.

Some changes came into effect on 1 July 2019 relating to the Working Holiday Program:

• France – French nationals up to the age of 35 years are now eligible for Working Holiday Visas for Australia. France joins Ireland and Canada as countries that have signed up to this arrangement. All other countries part of the program have a cut off age of 31.
• Greece and Ecuador have been added to the list of countries whose citizens may be eligible to apply for the Work and Holiday visa.
• Citizens of Austria, Portugal and Spain no longer need to provide evidence of government support for their application.
• Citizens of Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Turkey and Vietnam can now make electronic applications.

DISCLAIMER This information is current as of 1 July 2019 and subject to change. The information contained in this publication is of a general nature only. It should not be used as legal advice. To the extent permissible by law, Ajuria Lawyers and its associated entities shall not be liable for any errors, omissions, defects or misrepresentations in the information or for any loss or damage suffered by persons who use or rely on such information. Liability limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards Legislation.

New Zealand has its own immigration system comprised of various rules and requirements for those wishing to travel to and stay in New Zealand.

Currently, Australian citizens travelling on Australian passports, and those who hold Australian permanent resident visas with valid Resident Return Visas, can travel to New Zealand and be granted residence visas on arrival. People travelling on non-Australian passports, including Australian citizens with dual nationality, must apply for and be granted a visa to be permitted to enter and remain in New Zealand for a specific purpose.

From 1 July 2019 (and compulsory from 01 October 2019), all passport holders will require an NZeTA prior to travel, with the exception of Australian citizens (travelling on an Australian passport) or those who are already holding a valid visa for New Zealand.

This is a significant change for Australian permanent resident visa holders, who will still have the right to reside permanently and unconditionally in New Zealand, however will have to apply for an NZeTA prior to travel. This has been introduced by the New Zealand Government as an additional form of security checking.

Some interesting facts and figures about New Zealand immigration that you may not have known….

·         1 in 4 people in New Zealand were born overseas;

·         New Zealand comes in second only to Ireland in terms of the number of citizens (relative to overall population) who are residing outside of New Zealand;

·         New Zealand has the largest temporary labour migration flows in the OECD, relative to population size.

Our adviser in New Zealand, Karen Justice, is happy to assist with any New Zealand visa query.

DISCLAIMER This information is current as of 27 June 2019 and subject to change. The information contained in this publication is of a general nature only. It should not be used as legal advice. To the extent permissible by law, Ajuria Lawyers and its associated entities shall not be liable for any errors, omissions, defects or misrepresentations in the information or for any loss or damage suffered by persons who use or rely on such information. Liability limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards Legislation.

The Migration Institute of Australia has shared with its members some interesting statistics that paint a picture of the demand for and interest in Australia’s migration program.

Currently, the Department of Home Affairs is processing 30,000 applications under the Employer Nomination Scheme (Employer sponsored permanent residence). The number of available places in the 2019/20 Migration Program is 30,000.

In the Partner visa category, the numbers under processing are even more impressive (!):

Under Stage 1 Partner visa (Temporary)                82,000

Under Stage 2 Partner visa (Permanent)                156,000

Ready for Stage 2                                                        35,000

The number of places for Partner visas in the 2019/20 Migration Program is 39,799.

In relation to temporary visas, the Department is currently processing the remaining backlog of Subclass 457 visa applications (700-800 applications, many with health or character issues).

DISCLAIMER This information is current as of 27 June 2019 and subject to change. The information contained in this publication is of a general nature only. It should not be used as legal advice. To the extent permissible by law, Ajuria Lawyers and its associated entities shall not be liable for any errors, omissions, defects or misrepresentations in the information or for any loss or damage suffered by persons who use or rely on such information. Liability limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards Legislation.

Given our focus on servicing employers’ visa requirements, Ajuria Lawyers does not often reference the Significant Investor Visa in our newsletters. However, a recent report of Deloitte Access Economics (2019) on the impact of this visa program, has highlighted that from the commencement of the program in November 2012 to June 2018, 2022 visas have been granted and $10.1 billion has been invested into complying investments in Australia.

Many countries have their own version of the Significant Investor Visa program. In Australia, the program provides a 4 year visa with a pathway to permanent residence for high net worth individuals who inject at least $5 million into complying investments.

As shown in the table below, different countries have different residency and citizenship incentives to overseas investors, with some countries offering citizenship immediately.

DISCLAIMER This information is current as of 27 June 2019 and subject to change. The information contained in this publication is of a general nature only. It should not be used as legal advice. To the extent permissible by law, Ajuria Lawyers and its associated entities shall not be liable for any errors, omissions, defects or misrepresentations in the information or for any loss or damage suffered by persons who use or rely on such information. Liability limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards Legislation.

There have been conflicting messages in recent weeks as to whether the newly-elected Morrison Government will move forward with changes to Australian Citizenship requirements, proposed in April 2017. These changes would have resulted in stricter English language testing and required the signing of an “Australian values” statement, as well as increasing the residential requirement for permanent residents from one to four years.

In the meantime, the Government has allocated $9 million to recruit and train additional staff to process the 222,800 citizenship applications in the pipeline. Between 1 July 2018 and 31 May 2019, 132,000 conferral applications were finalised, up from 70,000 in the same period last year.

DISCLAIMER This information is current as of 27 June 2019 and subject to change. The information contained in this publication is of a general nature only. It should not be used as legal advice. To the extent permissible by law, Ajuria Lawyers and its associated entities shall not be liable for any errors, omissions, defects or misrepresentations in the information or for any loss or damage suffered by persons who use or rely on such information. Liability limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards Legislation.

In 2018, there were 42.1 million movements across Australia’s international border. This refers to the number of people entering and exiting Australia, by air or by sea; all are subject to security checks at one level or another.

Under Australia’s migration laws, people seeking an Australian visa must be screened on character, health and security grounds. There are different government agencies involved but ASIO is responsible for the security-checking component. ASIO provides thousands of security assessments each year to support Department of Home Affairs in its decisions as to whether to issue visas to people seeking to enter Australia.

Ajuria Lawyers sometimes encounters visa processing delays because, in the words of the Department, ‘external agency checks are being undertaken’; these generally refer to security checks. The Department of Home Affairs has no control over how quickly these can be cleared. It can take weeks or months and sometimes even years.

Not every visa application is subject to ‘external agency checks’ and there is little public information available on who gets referred for further assessment. We understand this is generally based on security information that may be available at a Government to Government level, but also on the country of nationality or the countries where the individual may have lived or spent significant time (generally over 12 months in the past 10 years). Where cases are referred for security clearances, there is little or nothing the Department of Home Affairs, or us as lawyers, can do to expedite a decision.

DISCLAIMER This information is current as of 27 June 2019 and subject to change. The information contained in this publication is of a general nature only. It should not be used as legal advice. To the extent permissible by law, Ajuria Lawyers and its associated entities shall not be liable for any errors, omissions, defects or misrepresentations in the information or for any loss or damage suffered by persons who use or rely on such information. Liability limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards Legislation.

The OECD has recently published a report compiled by German think-tank, Bertelsmann Stiftung, on the effect of migration policy on the attractiveness of OECD countries to international talent.

“Migration policy” referred not only to ease of entry to a country, but change of status from temporary to permanent, acquisition of citizenship and “family-friendly” policies such as work rights for spouses and opportunities for children to remain long-term.

The report considered the optimum location for three groups of global talent: Highly Qualified Workers (with Masters or Doctorates), Entrepreneurs, and University Students.

Factors taken into consideration were grouped under Quality of Opportunities, Income and Tax, Future Prospects, Family Environment, Skills Environment, Inclusiveness, and Quality of Life.

For each of the three groups, the ranking of countries before and after migration policies were taken into account, was different.

Taking migration policies into consideration, Australia was ranked first in attractiveness for Highly Qualified Workers, 7th for Entrepreneurs and 6th for University Students.

This highlights the importance of migration policy in attracting global talent, and is especially relevant in the context of Australia’s skilled migration program, including the pilot Global Talent Scheme.

The full report is here and well worth reading.

DISCLAIMER This information is current as of 27 June 2019 and subject to change. The information contained in this publication is of a general nature only. It should not be used as legal advice. To the extent permissible by law, Ajuria Lawyers and its associated entities shall not be liable for any errors, omissions, defects or misrepresentations in the information or for any loss or damage suffered by persons who use or rely on such information. Liability limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards Legislation.

The Global Talent Scheme (GTS) was introduced as a 12 month pilot program for established businesses and specialised start-ups in July 2018.

The GTS has been promoted largely to the tech industry as an opportunity for Australian businesses to access priority processing of 4 year visas and to create a pathway to permanent residence for certain visa holders who may not otherwise be eligible.

The Department of Home Affairs has confirmed that the pilot program will continue in its current form, while it undertakes a review and until the Government reaches a decision on the future of the GTS. Requests for GTS may therefore continue to be lodged after the initial end date of 30 June 2019.

Only fourteen companies have qualified under GTS, including some non-tech companies. Irrespective of the outcome of the review, companies with signed GTS agreements will be able to access TSS and ENS for 5 years from the date of their agreements.

DISCLAIMER This information is current as of 27 June 2019 and subject to change. The information contained in this publication is of a general nature only. It should not be used as legal advice. To the extent permissible by law, Ajuria Lawyers and its associated entities shall not be liable for any errors, omissions, defects or misrepresentations in the information or for any loss or damage suffered by persons who use or rely on such information. Liability limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards Legislation.

Labour Market Testing requirements have been in place since 12 August 2018, and frequent sponsors are now very familiar with the requirements. Standard requirements have been detailed in previous newsletter articles, however it is important to remind sponsors of the need for their labour market testing efforts to be genuine.

For efforts to be genuine, a sponsor must be able to demonstrate that they have completed labour market testing BEFORE making an offer of employment to a foreign national. This means that the sponsor must have advertised the position for 4 weeks in accordance with the Department’s requirements in the 4 months prior to TSS application lodgement, reviewed all candidates for suitability and determined that there was no Australian suitable for the position.

The Department of Home Affairs has advised that even if labour market testing is done in accordance with standard requirements, the nomination may still be refused, if the labour market testing is deemed not to be “genuine”. Apart from offering the role to a foreign national prior to, or immediately after completion of advertising, a genuineness concern may also be raised if preparation of the nomination / visa application has commenced prior to completion of labour market testing. This may suggest an intention to disregard any suitable local applicant in favour of the foreign national.

It is important for sponsors to keep these genuineness considerations in mind when testing the market.

There continue to be exemptions to the standard labour market testing requirements. Your Ajuria Lawyers adviser will always advise you of the specifics relating to your applications.

DISCLAIMER This information is current as of 27 June 2019 and subject to change. The information contained in this publication is of a general nature only. It should not be used as legal advice. To the extent permissible by law, Ajuria Lawyers and its associated entities shall not be liable for any errors, omissions, defects or misrepresentations in the information or for any loss or damage suffered by persons who use or rely on such information. Liability limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards Legislation.