Author Archives: aesadmin

Interruption to DIBP services

Some employees of the Department of Immigration and Border Protection including the Australian Border Force, who are members of the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU), will take part in protected industrial action at various work sites over 7-9 December 2015.

The Community and Public Sector Union​ (CPSU) have given notice of 24 hour work bans over 7-9 December 2015, which will impact container/ cargo examination facilities and international mail facilities nationally.

The Department has contingency arrangements in place to protect Australia’s borders. The Department is working closely with stakeholders to minimise the impact on business the travelling public and on cargo and mail operations and is ensuring appropriate contingencies are in place for visa and citizenship services. During protected industrial action, the health, safety and security of the public and our staff continues to be our priority.

DIBP will continue to negotiate in good faith with all bargaining representatives to reach an agreement which is within our means, and meets the parameters set by the Australian Government Public Sector Workplace Bargaining Policy.

Please refer to the following link for more details:

http://www.border.gov.au/News/Pages/travellers-clients.aspx

Source: DIBP

Phone scam seeking money from visa applicants

DIBP’s phone numbers are being used as part of a scam to intimidate visa applicants to pay money or face deportation. Be advised that DIBP’s general enquiry telephone numbers are not used for outbound calls. Staff from DIBP offices, including the Office of the Migration Agents Registration Authority will never use these numbers to phone visa applicants or agents.

Scamwatch​​ provides more details on how to protect visa applicants against phone scams.

Protect your per​​sonal information

You should never provide your personal, credit card or online account details if you receive an unexpected email requesting these, that purports to be from the Department. Inste​​​ad, you should contact the Department to verify the authenticity of the email.

Information about types of scams and how you can protect your​​​self is available on the Scamwatchwebsite.​

Source: DIBP

Don’t sell visas, not even to significant investors, warns productivity commission

Auctioning off Australian visas could boost the country’s bottom-line by $7.6 billion per year but the Productivity Commission has rejected the idea saying that it is short-sighted and would attract the wrong sort of people. The commission also suggested that even the SIV program should be abolished.

In its draft recommendations, the Productivity Commission’s report has instead called for improvements in the immigration system stating that it needs to focus on attracting skilled migrants, removing barriers to immigrants integrating into the labour market, and improving access to humanitarian migrants.

The draft recommendations have backfired on Liberal Democratic Senator, David Leyonhjelm who originally called for the investigation into the price-based visa system and suggested that charging $40,000 per permanent visa would allow for large tax cuts for Australians.

The commission said its research and analysis found that gains from auctioning off visas would be minor compared to the ongoing contributions and income tax that can be collected from younger immigrants over their lifetime. It said, skilled immigrants contribute much more in tax than they cost in services and warned that selling visas could hurt the economy in the long term.

The commission also stressed that migration levels need to be maintained for decades to increase income levels of Australians. It said that at current levels of immigration, Australia’s population will reach 40 million by 2060, and real per capita incomes will climb 50 per cent.

The commission’s report also made a call to abolish the significant and premium investor visas saying that Australia’s “open and deep capital markets are no barrier to foreign investors.” It argued that the economic benefits of such visas accrue mainly to the visa holders and fund managers selling assets to foreigners.

“The benefits to Australian businesses seeking investment and the economic benefits to the broader Australian community are likely to be very small or nonexistent," it said. “Overall the case for retaining the Significant Investor Visa and Premium Investor Visa streams is weak."

The commission’s final report is due to be released in May next year. Follow this link to make submissions on the Commissions draft report.http://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/current/migrant-intake#draft

Sourced from various media reports including the ABC, The Australian Financial Review and Sydney Morning Herald.

Source: Migration Alliance

Australian Citizenship Legislative Changes Update

These amendments and the new fees will commence on 1 January 2016

1. Foreign currency exchange

Acceptable foreign currencies for payment of citizenship application fees will be determined by the conversion instruments Payment of Visa Application Charges and Fees in Foreign Currencies and Places and Currencies for Paying Fees which are updated in January and July each year. 

2. Increase in citizenship application fees

Amends Schedule 3 of the Citizenship Regulations to change the fees set out in this schedule payable for certain citizenship applications. The new charges can be found below:

3. Application and transitional provisions

Amendments made by these changes apply to applications made under a provision of the Australian Citizenship Act 2007, made on or after 1 January 2016

Source: MIA

Migration Legislative Changes Update

Effective from 21 November 2015 and apply to applications made on or after this date

1. Student and student guardian visas

Dependent relatives of diplomatic and consular representatives will now be able to granted student or student guardian visas onshore during representatives’ posting period. The requirement for the Foreign Minister to recommend the grant of the visa has been removed.

2. Diplomatic domestic workers employment conditions

The wages and working conditions of domestic workers of diplomatic or consular representatives must be determined in accordance with the standards under the relevant Australian legislation and awards.

3. Visitor visa – 12 month maximum stay on combined visas

A Subclass 600 Visitor visa may only be granted, if the combined stay with one or more visitor visa, working holiday visa, work and holiday visa or bridging visa does not exceed a total of 12 months combined stay in Australia.  Exceptional circumstances must exist to be granted a period exceeding 12 months.

4. Referred stay visas – human trafficking, slavery or slavery like practices.

Lowers the threshold and broadens the scope for allowing a person who has participated in the criminal justice process and would be in danger if they returned to their home country, to be issued an Attorney General’s certificate for a permanent Referred Stay visa

Effective from 01 December 2015 and apply to applications made on or after this date

5. Three months employment for second Working Holiday Visa 

The three months specified work performed in order to gain a second WHV must be appropriately remunerated in accordance with relevant Australian legislation and awards.  The work will be calculated as the full time equivalent of 88 days.

Effective from 21 November 2015 and apply to applications made but not finally determined before this date or made on or after this date

6. PIC 4020 added to six extra visa classes

The PIC 4020 has been added to Subclass (SC) 124 & 858 Distinguished Talent, SC 405 Investor Retirement, SC 410 Retirement, SC 771 Transit and SC 988 Maritime Crew visas.

Effective immediately

7. Technical amendment

This is a technical amendment to enable an English test undertaken within three years of unfinalised pre-July 2012 applications to be accepted for those applications.

Source: MIA

中國的貨幣貶值會影響到留學生前來澳大利亞嗎

有人說，中國貨幣迎來了21年來最大的貶值- 數十億股市被抹去，這將很有可能會影響到澳大利18.1個億的教育產業。

Maryland大學金融學教授Albert Kyle告訴The Australian報，中國的貨幣貶值將導致中國企業的和投資者們對對澳大利亞的產品和服務的興趣逐步減退。根據The Australian報導，這可能包括對悉尼和墨爾本房產的需求。

“我認為這會影響到我的生意，還有澳洲的一個重要行業- 那便是對中國學生的教育…… 所以這是一個可能會萎縮的出口市場，因為孩子們的父母有較少的可以支配的錢來支付相對昂貴的學費- 這就是為什麼伴隨著中國貨幣的貶值，澳大利亞的貨幣也將貶值，”他說。

然而，其他分析師不同意，他們稱貨幣貶值將會對澳大利亞的教育行業的長期影響是有限的。匯豐銀行首席經濟學家Paul Bloxham對The Australian說，銀行並不認為貨幣價值會繼續下降，而且澳大利亞的高等教育行業將依舊從中國崛起的中產階級身上受益。

“這是一個中期的結構性趨勢- 它並不會被我們在過去幾週看到的或者現在所看到的中國的短期的周期性疲軟所破壞，”Bloxham先生說。

“中產階級的收入正在增加。他們有大量的人出國，並且有越來越多的中國人希望得到海外的教育。”Bloxham先生說人民幣的貶值是相對來講比較小的，而中國的貨幣價值自2008年以來大大增強了。

由Ernst & Young和McKinsey整合的數據顯示，預計到2030年，亞洲和太平洋地區的中產階級會從0.5個億增長到3個億。

根據該報告，在2013年有超過15萬的中國學生在澳大利亞留學，是入學率第二高的國家的三倍以上。

到六月截止的過去12個月中，海外留學生貢獻了18.1億澳元，比去年同期增長了14.2%。

來源：移民聯盟

本地學徒輟學率上升，外國工人填補行業工作

隨著國家一半的年輕學徒從他們的培訓中輟學，新南威爾士州技術主席John Barilaro強調了457類別簽證在填補行業空缺中的作用。 Barilaro先生對The Australian報說，現在技術工人的平均年齡是40歲，管道工、電工和建築施工者們越來越缺乏，離校生們不願再繼續拾回技能- 這意味著這場危機可能會進一步加劇。

“我們用了二三十年的時間來告訴孩子們藍領的技術工作不會給你帶來好的生活和收入，”他說“大多父母們鼓勵孩子去讀大學。”

“但是對於大多數的技術工人來說，他們最終成為了企業家，運營著自己的業務。”

據The Australian報導，Barilaro先生本人在從政前在家族企業中當過木匠。

“很多技術工人都得到瞭如汽車等非常好的報酬。因為技能的短缺，他們的薪酬率增加了，”他說。

他指出，儘管行業對技術工人有需求，卻有著近一半的澳大利亞年輕人在開始當學徒的四年內輟學。據國家職業教育中心的調查數據，約50%的高中等教育的學生報名參加職業培訓。然而，數據還顯示，這些在2010年開始接受培訓的學徒中只有56%的人四年後在他們的技術領域工作。

“在建築行業、美髮或食品工業中，每三個學徒中只有一個人完成了他們的培訓；與此同時，有1/3的建築工人和15%的美髮師在他們學徒生涯的第一年便輟學了。”

Master Builders的首席執行官Wilhelm Harnisch告訴The Australian報，這個趨勢是“令人不安的”，而作為建築行業，在未來的10年需要30萬名額外的行業工人。 “培訓一個學徒是非常昂貴的，”他說，“通常由中小型規模的企業來運作，當條件變得艱苦的時候，他們對培養學徒的意願也隨之降低。”

來源：移民聯盟

No more visa labels for Australian visa holders

Here’s another reason to ensure your smartphone is properly charged-up before travelling to Australia. Labels for Australian visas won’t be issued from September 1. It’s a move designed to streamline visa processing and encourage digital service use, says the department of immigration.

Your passport or ImmiCard number will be the basis of identification and to determine if you hold a valid visa to enter or remain in Australia. DIBP announced that from 1 September 2015 visa holders will no longer be able to request and pay for a visa label. Visa holders can access their visa record through the free Visa Entitlement Verification Online (VEVO) service or the myVEVO mobile.

The DIBP advised that the visa grant letter should be retained and carried by visa holders as the information contained within the letter ‘will help check your visa status online’. Clearly the online status information will prevail. Last year, Vietnamese student Minh Duong was refused entry into Australia despite claiming to have a valid grant letter. DIBPs systems indicated that his visa had expired. Minh Doung was refused entry and had to return to Vietnam to make another visa application to continue his studies in Australia.

The DIBP insists that, “The practice of obtaining visa labels often resulted in unnecessary expenses, delays and inconvenience for clients and stakeholders. Offering these services digitally is an efficient, economical and sustainable solution.”

The department’s statement said that electronic management of visa records is expected to provide real-time visa information to registered organisations and other appropriate stakeholders as well as visa holders themselves through the free Visa Entitlement Verification Online service or the myVEVO mobile app.  Airline staff use the Advance Passenger Processing system to confirm that a passenger has a valid Australian visa.

Visa holders can also provide evidence that they have the authority to enter and remain in Australia by simply showing their passport or ImmiCard linked to their electronic visa record.

Source: Migration Alliance

澳洲大學受到攻擊- 中國學生掛科，絕望的學生採取欺騙行為

悉尼大學著名的商學院揭露了一個情況- 有超過400名學生碩士主修課程不及格，而這其中大部分學生來自中國- 這意味著就讀於該商學院的研究生們有可能需要被強制學習一個英語語言課程。根據ABC的報導，在1200名學習Critical Thinking in Business課程的學生中，有37%的人在第一學期結束後得到了不及格的成績；同時，有12%的學習Succeeding in Business課程的學生不及格。

全國高等教育聯盟（NTEU）權衡了大學與這些不幾個學生之間的矛盾- 學生們抱怨學校沒有好好的幫助他們學好課程。 NTEU的總裁Jeanie Rae說大學院校應該頂住要讓差生通過考試的壓力是沒錯，但是這次這些學生的待遇似乎是不公平的。

“我認為對於這件事，大學應該更加誠實- 對我而言，在課程結束後進行考試，然後在他們付過學費之後把他們除去對我來說很具有諷刺意味……如果說這些學生需要更好的語言能力，那麼當初當對於他們完成學業的能力有所懷疑的時候卻又為什麼錄取他們呢？”她說。

悉尼大學商學院副院長John Shields教授說，英語並不是有些中國學生在學業中苦苦掙扎的唯一原因。

“我們有大量的在海外完成本科學位的學生，包括中國大陸- 在那裡，學習的主導模式是被動地，而不是批判性的思維和積極學習，”他說。

“我們一直尋求做的是對來到我們學校的海外學生進行一個轉變- 從完全不同的學習體系和教育價值體系- 到批判性的思維方式。我們已經制定了比較系統和全面的額外支持給那些我們認為比較有風險的學生，”他說。

據之前其他媒體報導，至少有70名學生在支付MyMaster公司來寫論文的事情敗露後面臨著被驅逐出境。悉尼大學的一份報導稱，至少有16所大學已經陷入了抄襲醜聞。 Yingying Dou被指控收取了大約1000名學生的每份論文至少1000澳幣的費用。該公司的網站已經被關閉，而大學院校們還在繼續他們的調查。

來源：移民聯盟