There are a number of law changes beginning on Monday, the 1st of July. We will cover through these now, but first, just a word of warning about the Immigration Department’s website and all of its functions, including IMMI accounts, etc., will not be available from 2 p.m. on Sunday, the 30th of June. This means if you’re intending to lodge your visa before the end of this financial year, you must apply before 2 p.m. on the 30th, because after that, you will not be able to make an application until Monday. Now, first is the law which restricts certain visa sub-classes from being able to apply for a student visa whilst the holder is in Australia. On the 1st of July, there is a restriction on being able to apply while you’re in Australia if you hold one of the following visas. transit, subclass 988, maritime crew, and subclass 995, diplomatic. And also on Monday, there are some very positive changes to the work limitation conditions on the employer-sponsored visas, being the 482, 457, and 494 sub-classes.
On the 1st of July, those visa holders are allowed to work for any employer in any position
for up to six months at one time. You can also have multiple gaps between sponsorship as long as it does not go for more than 12 months over the lifetime of your visa. This is to give sponsored employees more flexibility to find a new sponsor if they choose to or need to. However, it is possible that six months before your visa is going to expire, you decide you need a break to sit on the beach or perhaps travel around Australia and see the sights. You do not have to prove that you are looking for a new sponsor. The government’s explanatory statement on the new law changes makes this perfectly clear. During this period, a visa holder may work while they pursue the alternative sponsorship arrangements, including for alternative employers and in occupations other than for which their visa was granted.
The visa holder can also choose not to work during this period. It is also important to note that if you have already left your employer and spent time for looking for a new one already, from the 1st of July, you will be given an additional 180 days to find one. Also from the 1st of July, the Philippines have been added to the subclass 462 visa program, allowing Filipino nationals to apply for the visa. The eligibility requirements are that applicants must hold a valid passport issued by the Philippines. they must also meet one of the following education requirements. They must hold tertiary qualifications or have successfully completed at least two years of undergraduate study or post-secondary education. The government says this change enhances the working holiday visa opportunities for Filipino nationals, promoting cultural exchange and bilateral ties between Australia and the Philippines.
And on Monday the usual application fees start going up for citizenship visas and appeals through the AAT. The AAT’s fees increase from $3,496 up from $3,374. If you win your case then they will refund you $1,748. The citizen charge goes up too, and you can check the department’s website for these changes, but the standard one goes up to $560. You can check the other citizenship costs and visa application fees by using the link in the description of this video. On Monday, the new streams within the 485 visa commence. The graduate work stream becomes the post-vocational education work stream. And the post-study work stream becomes the post-hire education work stream. The visa length will be shorter too, unless you are lucky enough to be an Indian national.
If you are, then the visa lengths will be basically the same as they are now. Now, sadly, we must confirm that on the 1st of July, as many of you may have already feared, the Home Affairs Minister, Claire O’Neill, introduced the legislation for the new 485 visa arrangements without a transitional period regarding the new age requirement. The law regarding the new age requirement will read, the applicant seeking to satisfy the primary criteria of the grant of the 485 visa must be, one, If the applicant holds a Hong Kong passport or British national overseas passport, or has completed a master’s degree by research or a doctoral degree, be less than 50 years old, or two, otherwise 35 years old or younger.
Whilst the masters by research and PhD students are now added, everyone else must be 35 or below, except for Hong Kong and British national overseas passport holders. the secondary applicants do not have an age limit. This really is the darkest days in immigration history in Australia for those over 35 have been misled and had this visa misrepresented to them before they decided to come to Australia to study. For those who remember only a year or so ago, we had the Home Affairs Department calling for students particularly to enrol into high-demand occupation courses with the promise, don’t worry, even if your course comes off this special list, we will guarantee you a long-term 485 visa. That was a specific guarantee, so students would choose those courses Australia needs.
They failed to mention that, SORRY, if you’re over 35, that does not apply to you. That was a disgusting thing to do to anyone, and certainly not to those we have lured to Australia to undertake certain courses. Of course, this example does not cover all of your circumstances, but the principle of a broken promise remains the same. And in justifying breaking this promise, we have this explanation from the Minister Andrew Giles in the explanatory statement, where it states, When considering data from the 2019-20 program year and to the end of April 2024, the total number of visas granted to primary applicants was 317,000, 270. Of these, only 16,167, or 5%, were granted to primary applicants aged over 35 years of age. So if it is only 5%, why do these 5% matter so much that you would destroy their dreams?
Surely that is such a small overall percentage that their inclusion with a transitional arrangement is not in any way going to upset the temporary migration balance in this country. Given the reputational damage this government policy is going to do to the international student market, is it worth it for just 5% saving? Minister Giles is a Melbourne University graduate. It’s a place that teaches you to think outside the box and to challenge everything. As a lawyer, he proudly stood up for refugees in private practice, and even on his Facebook page today, he still supports many refugee functions. It’s very sad to see that it seems international students mean so little to him that he can’t even stand up to protect the 5% from being discriminated against because of their age.
In the last invitation round for the 189 visa on the 13th of June, there were some interesting figures released on the Skill Select website. There were 5,292 invitations issued in total. If you scroll down the page, you can find the minimum points needed in order to receive an invitation. For many occupations in accounting and IT, the competition was high with 100 points required. For many trade occupations, the requirements were less, particularly for carpenters, drainers and electricians at 65 points. At least it demonstrates the department has finally woken up to the reality of the need for construction workers if they want to build the houses they promised. Well, the end of the financial year usually brings lots of changes, and this year has more than most, and certainly not all of them good.