Australian Immigration News

Civil and criminal liability for executive officers of companies that employ or refer non-Australian workers without a visa – or with a visa but without appropriate permission to work – is incorporated into legislation passed recently by the Parliament of Australia. The new provisions will be proclaimed shortly and come into operation. This development puts human resources policies and procedures in relation to employing non-Australian workers and management of agents and contractors relationships on company secretaries risk-management priority list in 2013.

Figures released recently by the Department of Immigration & Citizenship
show that the number of Subclass 457 visa applications and visas granted in
the period June to November 2012 decreased compared with the figure for
that period from the previous year.

The new Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Brendan O’Connor has kicked off his new role with an announcement of legislative change for the 457 visa program.

The Significant Investor Visa stream (SIV) of the Business Skills visa program – announced in May 2012 but not introduced on 1 July 2012 with the rest of the new Business Skills visa program – finally came into force on 24 November 2012.

 For some clients, meeting the visa requirements of the General Skilled Migration, Employer Nomination Scheme and Regional Skilled Migration Scheme is not possible despite their having a world class reputation in a profession, a sport, the arts or academia and research.

Melbourne-based firm Mackey Lawyers has been short-listed along with seven international companies in the Immigration Provider category of the Asian EMMA Awards run by the Forum for Expatriate Management (FEM).

Mackey Lawyers has updated its 457 Guide for sponsors to incorporate recent changes to immigration legislation.   The update discusses 457 Frequently Asked Questions and shares Mackey Lawyers’ experience about the problems that sponsors face in the 457 visa application including recruiting, nomination and visa approval and how employers can meet their sponsorship obligations.  Mackey Lawyers has also developed a 457 Visa Checklist for employers to assist employers to keep visa processing time to a minimum. 

•  Five years’ validity with a stay of up to one-year on each entry for parents who have applied for the Subclass 103 Parent Visa and are in the queue for visa grant;
• Three years validity with a one-year stay on each entry for other parents.

The announcement made it clear that these applications will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

The Department of Immigration & Citizenship (DIAC) has announced that the Federal Government’s first round of invitations to Expression of Interest applicants to lodge permanent visa applications was made on 1 August 2012, just four weeks after the SkillSelect portal commenced accepting Expressions of Interest.