Visitor visas: Countries of citizenship with most bond requests, and a history lesson on the Modified Non Return Rate

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Visitor visas: Countries of citizenship with most bond requests, and a history lesson on the Modified Non Return Rate

An interesting Freedom of Information (FOI) application was made asking how many security bonds were requested by the Department of Home Affairs for Subclass 600 – Visitor visa applications. Find out why the applicants are considered high risk, in what circumstances Home Affairs can request a security bond, who can pay for this, what are the obligations for sponsorship, and what this little thing Home Affairs used to use is assessing risk called a Modified Non Return Rate was.

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Data matching for 457 and TSS visa on its way

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Data matching for 457 and TSS visa on its way

The Department of Home Affairs and the Australian Tax Office will begin sharing data on some 280,000 primary Subclass 457 – Temporary Work (Skilled) visa and the Subclass 482 – Temporary Skill Shortage visa holders between 1 July 2015 to 30 June 2018. This will be to ensure both business sponsors and visa holders are or were complying with their sponsor obligations and visa conditions. Inconsistencies may well be investigated.

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Character cancellations: What the media didn’t report; NZ government weighs in on new bill

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Character cancellations: What the media didn’t report; NZ government weighs in on new bill

A number of recent articles reported on visa cancellations based on failing the character test. What wasn’t reported was that the number was lower than previous years. This has not stopped the Minister for Home Affairs wanting to strengthen the character test further despite the Government of New Zealand not approving.

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PR carrot for semi-skilled workers under DAMAs, extended to south-west Victoria

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PR carrot for semi-skilled workers under DAMAs, extended to south-west Victoria

Announcements made this week will see the renewal of the Designated Area Migration Agreement (DAMA) in the Northern Territory and a DAMA in south west Victoria, with more being considered. However, the bigger reveal is that these two DAMAs will come with it a pathway to a permanent visa, which is a significant development as semi-skilled workers have not been a feature of Australia’s skilled migration program for many years.

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