Employer Nomination Changes Effective 1 July

The Department of Immigration has announced that on 1 July 2014, there will be changes to certain employer nomination/regional skilled migration provisions so as to provide greater flexibility to intending applicants.

 A major change will be in relation to the policy with regard to the requirements under the Temporary Residence Transition stream when demonstrating 2 years work with the same employer. The Department has recognised that the existing arrangements were too restrictive, particularly where businesses have undergone change in the form of restructures, takeovers and sales.

 The updated policy will apply to all applications on hand as at 1July 2014, as well is all applications lodged from this date onward.

 The updated policy also provides greater clarity on issues such as ‘periods of continuous employment’, how time spent on a bridging visa is to be dealt with, and how employment is to be treated when the nominee has been working for a number of companies within a group.

 Persons wishing to apply for permanent residence under the Temporary Residence Transition stream should seek legal advice prior to lodging an application so as to ensure that their situation will fit within the new policy guidelines.

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Regional Skilled Migration Scheme (RSMS) subclass 187 visa

The Regional Skilled Migration Scheme can provide a permanent visa for people who are nominated for a job in a regional area of Australia.

 

This visa is available for employees nominated by employers operating in regional, remote or low population growth areas of Australia, who have nominated skilled workers to fill skilled vacancies in their business. This visa entitles the holder to a three year provisional residence in Australia. Holders of this visa are permitted to apply for a permanent visa after they have lived for two years and worked for at least one year in a Specified Regional Area.

The criteria for the employees is either of the following:

• skilled workers from overseas
• skilled workers temporarily residing in Australia

and also meets the following criteria:

• meets the age and language requirements.
• meets the skills requirements and be holding a Trade Qualification or Diploma.
• has an employer that is willing to sponsor them for this visa

A Regional Certifying Body assesses the nomination application lodged by the employer against specific criteria and must certify that the position is in high demand in the regional area.
This visa allows you and your accompanying family members to:

• live and work permanently in Australia
• study in Australia
• apply for Australian citizenship
• claim healthcare which is subsidized under the Australian Medicare System and the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS)
• apply for applicable social security payments
• sponsor people for permanent residence

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Skills assessment validity period - 3 years from the date of issue

Following amendments to the Migration Regulations 1994, from 1 July 2014, if a skills assessment is mandatory as part of a visa application, it will only be valid for a period of 3 years from the date of issue, unless a shorter validity period is specified on the assessment.

A skills assessment must be valid at the time of lodgement for the following visas:

• Direct Entry stream of the Employer Nominated Scheme (subclass 186) visa;
• Direct Entry stream of the Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme (subclass 187) visa; and
• Graduate Work stream of the Temporary Graduate (subclass 485) visa.

A skills assessment must be valid at the time of invitation to apply through SkillSelect for the following visas:

• Skilled—Independent (subclass 189) visa;
• Skilled—Nominated (subclass 190) visa; and
• Skilled Regional (Provisional) (subclass 489) visa.

These changes do not affect the Temporary Work (Skilled)(subclass 457) visa.

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Migration Review Tribunal (MRT) & Refugee Review Tribunal (RRT) - Community Liaison Update

The MRT-RRT have provided their June 2014 Community Liaison Update notes.  The notes include the following:

• 22,000 decisions have been made by the tribunals this year, 3000 more than for the same period last year, which has resulted in some improvement in waiting times.
• It will be business as usual during the amalgamation of these two tribunals with the AAT and Classification Review Board on 1 July 2015.
• Videos are also being developed for the tribunal's website to provide essential information for applicants on how the tribunals operate.
• From 1 July 2014 only the new versions of forms M1, M2 and R1 released on 12 March 2014 will be acceptable.

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Asylum seeker detention on Manus Island is constitutional, High Court rules

The High Court has unanimously upheld the Federal Government's constitutional right to send asylum seekers to Papua New Guinea. Read more

Questions about this article or immigration matters, please contact our specialist Nevett Ford Immigration team.

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Can You Remember the Dates of Your Previous Trips to the U.S.?

If you are a frequent traveler in and out of the U.S., you may find it difficult to remember the exact dates of your recent arrivals and departures. 

It’s not easy to remember all of these dates, and when you asked to list these dates on a visa application and your mind goes blank. 

Your temporary brain freeze is not a problem anymore and can be resolved in a few minutes.   

Under the new system, every time you enter the U.S. by air or sea your admission is now recorded electronically with Form I-94 by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) at your port of entry.  When you arrive, you are issued an I-94 number and you are given a paper with instructions on how to access the CBP website where you can retrieve an electronic copy of your I-94.  CBP maintains the arrival records in the Nonimmigrant Information System (NIIS).

Furthermore, there is a very handy tool on the website at the login page. 

There are two options:  “Get Most Recent I-94” or “Get Travel History”.  The travel history will reflect all of your arrival and departure dates for the last 5 years.

If you traveled on an older or now expired passport, you can enter those details to obtain their corresponding travel records . 

If you have any questions about this new tool or about U.S. Immigration, contact our specialist U.S. Immigration Attorneys at Nevett Ford.  

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Three new occupations to be added to the Skilled Occupation List (SOL) - chef, tiler, bricklayer

Chefs, tilers and bricklayers will be added the Skilled Occupation List (SOL) on 1 July 2014, Senators Michaelia Cash and Andrew Robb have announced. The recommendation to add these occupations was provided by the Australian Workforce and Productivity Agency which works independently of the Government to ensure the composition of the SOL responds to Australia’s changing skills needs.

It was also announced that no existing occupations will be removed from the SOL.

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