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Monthly Archives: May 2015

Visa Application Charges To Rise

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The Government will increase the Visa Application Charges (VACs) for a number of visa categories from 1 July 2015.  The proposed increases will apply to applications submitted on or after 1 July 2015.  There will be:

  • A 2.3 per cent increase to certain visas within General Skilled Migration, Skilled Graduate, Subclass 457 Temporary Work (Skilled), Visitor and Student visa streams.
  • A 5 per cent increase to certain visas within the Temporary Short Term Business, Entertainment, Working Holiday, Resident Return Visas, Retirement and Contributory Parent streams.
  • A 10 per cent increase to certain visas within the Other Family (Remaining Relative, Carer and Aged Dependent Relative) visas, and (non-contributory) Parent visa streams.
  • A 50 per cent increase to the Significant Investor Visa (SIV) stream in the permanent migration skill stream category.
  • An alignment of VAC prices where a differential currently exists for lodging an onshore and offshore application for specific visa subclasses.
  • No changes to Electronic Travel Authorities (ETA), eVisitor and Refugee and Humanitarian visas.

 

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Work and Holiday Visa – Australia and Slovak Republic signed agreement

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The Government has signed a new Work and Holiday arrangement with Slovak Republic. The Work and Holiday visa requires applicants to have the support of their government, hold tertiary qualifications or studying for one and to speak functional English.

The agreement will enable up to 200 young adults from Slovak Republic and 200 young adults from Australia to enjoy a holiday in each other’s country, during which they may engage in short-term work and study.

A start date will be announced at a later date.

Joint operation to identify relationship fraud

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The Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP) and the Department of Human Services (DHS-Centrelink) are working together to target welfare recipients who are fraudulently claiming social security payments or committing migration fraud.

DIBP will release more than 5000 individual records to DHS–Centrelink for data matching purposes. These records will be electronically matched against DHS–Centrelink data holdings to identify non-compliance and fraud through declarations regarding relationship status and details.  DHS–Centrelink will provide results to DIBP where a match has occurred.  The collected data will be used to identify non-compliance and fraud, to be investigated by the relevant Departments.

The partner visa data matching programme will begin in mid-2015 and run for 12 months.

More information regarding the data matching programme can be found here.

 

​Volunteer work not acceptable for 2nd Working Holiday visa

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Volunteer work activities will not be counted as eligible work to qualify for a second Working Holiday visa, the Assistant Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, Senator Michaela Cash announced on 1 May 2015. The change is an attempt to prevent Working Holiday visa holders from being exploited by unscrupulous employers that are underpaying them and remove the incentive for visa holders to accept substandard employment conditions.

Under the current regulations, existing holders of the Working Holiday visa may extend their stay in Australia by a further 12 months if they undertake at least three months work in certain industries in regional Australia.

The actual implementation date has not yet been determined. It is expected it may take some time for the change to be introduced.