Monthly Archives: April 2019

Common Reasons for Refusal of an Australian Citizenship Application

Common Reasons for Refusal of an Australian Citizenship Application
So you’ve been an Australian permanent resident for a while now and you’re thinking of making the next big leap… citizenship. It’s a big decision, but you’ll have to consider more than just whether you can stand to live in Australia’s perfect climate forever.  A total of 4,151 applications for citizenship by conferral were refused…
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Increasing number of migration agents facing disciplinary actions in Australia

Increasing number of migration agents facing disciplinary actions in Australia
The Office of the Migration Agents Registration Authority (OMARA) has sanctioned 12 migration agents in the last 6 months for violating their Code of Conduct. Of these, 4 registrations were cancelled, 5 were suspended and 3 were barred. What is the role of OMARA? OMARA registers and regulates migration agents, and provides practice guides to…
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IT System outage at Australian Airports

SmartGate passport control machines, which work with e-passports and use facial recognition technology to check travellers' identities, have malfunctioned, requiring passports to be checked manually. The Australian Border Force (ABF) said it was working with the Department of Home Affairs to resolve the outage, which is affecting the processing of inbound and outbound passengers. "A…
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April 2019 Skillselect

The April 2019 SkillSelect invitation round information has been released by the Department of Home Affairs (Home Affairs). Invitation quotas have dropped significantly in a lead up to the May 2019 Federal Election and the end of the financial year. The figures provided by Home Affairs indicate that since the last round information: The number…
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Training Benchmarks Are Still Valid

Training Benchmarks were abolished from 12 August 2018 with the introduction of the Skilling Australia Fund (SAF) levy. However, sponsoring employers may still need to meet Training Benchmark obligations. This means that: Please note that Training Benchmarks still apply to all sc457 Sponsors who have or had sc457 visa holders working for them. The Skilling…
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Update to the Queensland Business and Skilled Migration Program

Business and Skilled Migration Queensland has received additional quota for the skilled program and is re-opening the ‘Working in Queensland, ‘Masters’ and ‘PhD’ Queensland Skilled Occupation Lists (the Lists) from 18 April 2019. Once this quota has been filled the program will close again until July 2019. The Lists have recently been amended with occupations…
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Australian Working Holiday Maker International Promotion

The Federal Government is launching a new tourism campaign aimed at backpackers from the United Kingdom, France and Germany to lure more working holiday makers and boost the Australian economy. The number of backpackers arriving in the country has stagnated. A campaign video launched on 20 April 2019 will run in the United Kingdom, France…
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Subclass 417 (Working Holiday) visa

Please note changes to electronic application form introduced on 17th April 2019. You may need to start a new application for an incomplete application. A new electronic application form was introduced for the Working Holiday visa on 17 April 2019. Any partially completed, ‘saved’ or, ‘in progress’ Working Holiday visa application forms that were not…
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What is the deal with training benchmarks?

What is the deal with training benchmarks?
With the introduction of the Skilling Australians Fund (SAF) Levy in August 2018, you may be a little confused about your business’s continuing obligations regarding training benchmarks. We don’t blame you. Read on to see our breakdown of whether you’ll still have to adhere to training benchmark requirements, and in what situations. For more advice…
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