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 number of ABF and Department of Home Affairs IT systems impacted by an earlier outage have now been restored,” a spokesman said on Monday afternoon. “The Department is continuing work to bring all systems back online, ensure the integrity of the systems and resolve any ongoing issues.”
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 of invitations for the Subclass 189 (Skilled Independent) visa has been substantially reduced from 1,490 to 100. The minimum points score for a 189 visa invitation is currently 80 points, with a one month processing time Expression of Interest (EOI) at this score. The number of invitations for the Subclass 489 Skilled Regional (Provisional) remained the same at 10, requiring a minimum point score of 80. Processing times are around 5 months from lodgement of an EOI. The minimum points score for pro-rata occupations, or those classified as occupations for which there is more demand for places, are as follows: Accountants: 90 Auditors, Company Secretaries and Corporate Treasurers: 85 Electronics Engineer: 80 Industrial, Mechanical and Production Engineers: 80 Other Engineering Professionals: 80 ICT Business and System Analyst: 85 Software and Applications Programmers: 80 Computer Network Professionals: 80
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 Australia Fund (SAF) Levy applies to new nominations made after 12th August 2018 only on sc482, sc186 and sc187 visas. sc457 sponsor companies who wish to nominate workers on sc482 and sc186/ sc187 visas will need to provide evidence of having met their Training Benchmark obligations. Please also note that sc482 sponsors who had nominated workers after the implementation of sc482 but before the implementation of SAF on 12th August 2018 also will need to meet their Training Benchmark obligations.
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 added and removed so will need to reviewed by the applicant before lodgment of an EOI. The Lists are available at: https://migration.qld.gov.au/skilled-occupation-lists/ Only EOI’s submitted from 18 April 2019 will be picked up via Skill Select. This means that if an applicant has lodged an EOI prior to this date and not received an invitation a new EOI will need to be submitted. Applicants must be onshore only and meet the onshore criteria for working in Queensland, including being employed for 6 months in the nominated occupation before submitting an EOI and have an ongoing job offer for at least a year. Queensland Masters graduates must be currently working in the nominated occupation and have continual ongoing employment for at least 12 months. PhD graduates are not required to have a job, however there is an exception for the occupation of University Lecturer. PhD applicants applying under the occupation of University Lecturer (ANZSCO code 242111), must meet working in Queensland criteria including having been employed for six months in their nominated occupation and have continual ongoing employment for at least 12 months. Invitations to suitable candidates will commence from 24 April 2019.
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 and Germany and will re-engage young foreigners on the benefits of working while holidaying in Australia. Quarterly figures from the Department of Home Affairs shows there were 145,479 working holiday makers as at December 2018, compared to 146,431 in the same period last year, December 2017. However, the numbers dropped substantially between March 2017 and September 2017 when it went from 150,059 to 136,925, during which the backpacker tax came into effect. This is one of a range of measures introduced to promote the working holiday visas. The Government last year also announced it would ease time limit restrictions on working holiday makers allowing them to spend more time in Australia. The changes allow backpackers to stay with one employer for up to a year, rather than six months as well as being allowed to renew their visas for a second year, and sometimes a third.
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 submitted by 16 April 2019 will be set to a status of ‘discontinued’ within ImmiAccount. Applicants will need to start a new Working Holiday visa application form to continue the visa application process.
The Subclass 491 Skilled Work Regional (Provisional) and Subclass 494 Skilled Employer Sponsored visas will be introduced from 16 November 2019. These are points tested skilled assessment migration visa which requires either employer or state government nomination, or sponsorship by an eligible family member who is settled in a designated regional area. The validity period for either visa is five years. Holders of either visa will be work in a nominated position within any designated regional area. Condition 8579 will be imposed on both visas to enforce the government’s intention that that visa holders live, work and study only in regional areas and, if employer sponsored, only in the nominated position. A new permanent visa, the Subclass 191 Permanent Residence (Skilled Regional) visa will be introduced in November 2022. To meet the requirements of the permanent visa, applicants must have held a subclass 491 or 494 visa for at least 3 years, have complied with the conditions on that visa and have met minimum taxable income requirements. The Subclass 187 (Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme) Visa and the Subclass 489 (Skilled Regional (Provisional)) Visa (subclass 489) will close to new applicants from 16 November 2019. Transitional arrangements will be put in place for applications which have been lodged and are undecided at that time. New points test thresholds for both the subclass 489 and 491 visas are: 15 points for nomination by a State or Territory government agency or sponsorship by a family member residing in regional Australia, to live and work in regional Australia; 10 points for a skilled spouse or de facto partner; 10 points for certain Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics qualifications; 5 points for a spouse or de facto partner with ‘competent English’; and 10 points for applicants without a spouse or de facto partner.
A parliamentary Senate committee last week made four recommendations on the government’s planned citizenship changes. The report can be accessed here. The four recommendations are: The senate committee recommended that English language requirements should not be so high. The committee also suggested that Australian permanent residents, who were granted visas before the April 20th, should be allowed to apply for citizenship under old rules It also called for the government to reconsider its plan to ban applications for two years if the applicant failed the citizenship test thrice. And finally, to pass the bill.
As the situation for Rohingya Muslims worsens in Myanmar, Greens have called on the government to take in 20,000 refugees fleeing bloodshed. The political party has suggested Australia organises an emergency intake similar to the Syria program launched two years ago. According to United Nations, at least 300,000 people have fled Myanmar to Bangladesh in recent weeks.As the situation for Rohingya Muslims worsens in Myanmar, Greens have called on the government to take in 20,000 refugees fleeing bloodshed. The political party has suggested Australia organises an emergency intake similar to the Syria program launched two years ago. According to United Nations, at least 300,000 people have fled Myanmar to Bangladesh in recent weeks.
New research from the Economist Intelligence Unit has confirmed that Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) has a positive, causal impact on employment in Australia. Modelling based on data since 2000 has shown that a A$1 billion increase in FDI would result in the creation of around 1,000 Australian jobs. Australia was able to attract over A$140 billion in new foreign direct investment. This was up A$21.2 billion, or 17.8 per cent on the A$119 billion invested in Australia in 2013. ‘Investment and trade are two sides of the same coin, and without investment we would not have been able to create the strong national industries that underpin our economy.’ Minister Andrew Robb said. ‘To be clear, investment equals jobs and growth.’ The total stock of FDI in Australia as at year end 2014, amounted to A$688 billion, or 2.2 per cent of total global FDI. The investment outcomes by the Australian Trade Commission (Austrade) in terms of the number of projects supported, were up 28 per cent in the fiscal year 2014/15, reaching almost A$7.75 billion. You can read all of the figure here. http://dfat.gov.au/about-us/publications/Pages/international-investment-australia.aspx It is an informative resource providing detailed snapshots of the latest trends in Australia’s international investment position with the world (both inwards and outwards) as well as a summary of the world direct investment position. With the investments and employment opportunities in Australia growing it is extremely essential that people looking for work are ready to be employed.