The Australian Border Force Bill 2015 (Cth) passed both houses of Parliament and will be effective on 1 July 2015. This means that both the Department of Immigration and Border Protection and the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service will be integrated into a single department with the authoritative title of the Australian Border Force (ABF).

In essence, there should be no change to processing of visas or the working of the Department after 1 July 2015 for visa applicants…employees of the ABF, not so much.

What should be noted is the effect this may have on communication with the Department, as received in an email from them recently:

From 1 July 2015 email addresses will change from '@immi.gov.au' or '@customs.gov.au' to '@border.gov.au'.  This is to reflect the Department of Immigration and Border Protection and the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service integrating into a single organisation - the Department of Immigration and Border Protection - on 1 July 2015.  At this time the Australian Border Force will be established within the Department.