Business sponsor shame list to begin 13 December 2018; Powers to request tax file numbers; Clarity on review rights for refused sponsored visas

Business sponsor shame list to begin 13 December 2018; Powers to request tax file numbers; Clarity on review rights for refused sponsored visas

New regulations will come into force on 13 December 2018 that will see the Minister of Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs publish a list of sanctioned business sponsors, what obligation they breached, and the sanction they received.

The Secretary of the Department of Home Affairs will be able to request from visa applicants, sponsors, and nominators, tax file numbers of visa holders and former visa holders for many temporary and permanent skilled visas. The ramifications of this may see more visas refused and cancelled.

Lastly, amendments have been made to give more certainty to sponsored or nominated workers whose visa applications are refused to seek review at the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.

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187 visa cancellations statistics: Not what was expected…

187 visa cancellations statistics: Not what was expected…

A Freedom of Information (FOI) request to the Department of Home Affairs (Home Affairs) asked for the number of Subclass 187 – Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme visas cancelled under section 137Q of the Migration Act 1958 (Cth). This section allows Home Affairs to cancel 187 visas post-grant. The statistics were surprising.

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The regional visa debate

The regional visa debate

This week saw debate by federal and state politicians on Australia’s population and immigration, with an emphasis on migration to regional areas. Current regulations, however, does not lend itself to this policy aim, except for General Skilled Migration visas, which already has one visa subclass requiring holders to live, study and work in a regional area. Could we see greater scrutiny on this suite of visas?

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WA announces Graduate Skilled Occupation List for skilled visas

WA announces Graduate Skilled Occupation List for skilled visas

The Government of Western Australia has announced they will be offering a pathway to a skilled visas to certain international students studying a PhD, Masters and other higher degrees and create a Graduate Skilled Migration List, most likely for either Subclass 190 - Nominated visas and Subclass 489 – Skilled Regional (Provisional) visas.

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