General news

Australian Businesses are looking for the best and brightest talent from around the world. Do you have what it takes? In July 2018, the Global Talent scheme was established as part of efforts to resolve skills shortages in niche industries in Australia. There are two branches of this scheme, including The Global Talent Employer Sponsored [...]

What is a Domestic Violence Order?   A DVO is an official document that is issued by the court to stop threats or acts of domestic violence. In most cases, a DVO sets out rules that the ‘respondent’ (the person who has been violent) must follow. It is carefully designed to keep the ‘aggrieved (the person [...]

 In the past year, the overall number of working holiday makers has increased by 20 percent, with 43,000 visa holders currently working in regional areas in Australia. The Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs David Coleman claims that these changes are a result of recent improvements to the program, which focuses upon [...]

What is PIC 4020?   According to the Australian Government, visa applicants must prove their identity by providing true information within their visa application. If an applicant submits a ‘bogus document’, or information that is false and misleading, then they risk having their application refused for failing to satisfy the Public interest Criterion (PIC) 4020.  Submitting a ‘bogus [...]

If an applicant’s motives to enter a marriage are primarily to get a visa in Australia, does it matter? Will evidence that the applicant is in a genuine spousal relationship be disregarded, if the applicant’s primary motive is simply to receive a visa? According to the Australian Federal Circuit Court, a motive to gain Permanent [...]

There are currently over 220,000 Australian citizenship applicants are waiting for a decision to be made on their application, despite a drop in waiting times. The amount of people that have been granted Australian citizenship has doubled in the past year coupled with a reduction in waiting time according to the Department of Home Affairs. [...]

Always Provide Genuine Documents – it may come back to bite! The Public Interest Criteria When applying for a visa you must satisfy the Public Interest Criteria 4020 (PIC 4020), the Department of Home Affairs will need to be content that all information provided as part of a visa application is correct and authentic. There [...]

Now that the Federal Election is done and dusted, what does it mean for Australian Immigration?  1. Partner Visa Changes The changes for the partner visa were scheduled to occur 17 April 2019. So far, these changes have not come into effect, but are expected to occur fairly soon. Their commencement dare has not been [...]

It isn’t rare for a client, who just before attending a hearing at Court or at the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, to pull a sickie. When this occurs, the suitable action is for the client to provide a medical certificate to explain their absence. The certificate provided must be in the proper form and explains why [...]

Employers wanting to nominate a foreign employee for permanent residency (subclass 186 visa) must prove that the employee is a ‘genuine need’ for the position available on an ongoing basis. The ‘genuine need’ criteria is relevant to both the Temporary Residence Transition Stream and the Direct Entry Stream. There is a certain amount of confusion [...]