OK folks On to another year. Hope you all had a safe and festive season and got some great personal goals for 2013. This newsletter is to keep you updated on any changes about Australia’s visa rules and requirements we come across in the last month. It is sent out free to around 4000 subscribers on the 3rd Monday of each month. If you have any suggestions or want backcopies etc please drop us a line to newsletter@iscah.com On we go …

MONDAY 21ST JANUARY 2013 EDITION 175

Contents 1) State Sponsorship for Accountants 2) NZ Migrants to Australia 3) 457 Training Benchmark changes 4) 457 Transition to Permanent Residence 5) TRA changes 6) Skill Select – latest invitations 7) Partner applications 8) Employer Sponsored visas 9) New Iscah Feedback service 10) DIAC Processing Times

Iscah Migration Newsletter (Copyright 2013)

1) State Sponsorship for Accountants

From WA State government ... Mid-year review of the Western Australian skilled migration occupation list 31 December 2012 Skilled Migration Western Australia is conducting a review of the Western Australian skilled migration occupation list. The occupation of ANZSCO 22111 – Accountant (general) will be evaluated. It is anticipated the review will be completed in January and the outcome will be published on the state government website.

(Source: WA State Government)

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2) NZ Migrants to Australia This is an article related to the 2001 changes that made it considerably harder for New Zealand citizens to acquire Permanent Residence and Citizenship in Australia .. David Faulkner is a man on a crusade. Stripped of his own right to permanent residency and citizenship in Australia, he has become a tireless advocate for other New Zealanders caught by the 2001 changes to Australian social security rules. The rules removed access to most Australian welfare payments, benefits and supports, creating two classes of expat Kiwis - those resident in Australia before the changes who continued to have permanent residency, and a new class who can live, work and pay taxes indefinitely, but without the welfare net and loans to help pay for higher education. They also caught up New Zealanders who were overseas at the time and who, regardless of the time they had previously lived in Australia or their investment in homes, families and businesses, suddenly became "temporary" residents. Mr Faulkner was one of these. He had arrived in Australia at the age of 6, been educated at Australian schools, worked for Australian companies, and married an Australian wife. But he was temporarily seconded to his company's European office at exactly the wrong time. And even though he arrived back in Australia before the legislation was passed, the law was retrospective and he had unknowingly been swept up in it. "I was not notified that I was affected and I had no idea that my rights had been stripped until I applied for citizenship in 2005," he said. "I was aware to some extent of the changes, but they were advertised in the press as applying only to new arrivals. "As I had arrived some 30 years beforehand I assumed that they didn't apply to me." Already outraged by the discrimination of the new rules, Mr Faulkner's anger was fuelled by the "lies" of the Immigration Department claiming the changes had been agreed to by the New Zealand Government. Mr Faulkner said he found he was not alone in being misled. He said the Australian Parliament had also been duped into passing the legislation, and that then-Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock had continued to claim the changes had been necessary to implement the new social security treaty with New Zealand. The changes were unilateral, made by Australia alone and not part of any agreement with New Zealand. "I swore that if I was ever discriminated against again I would fight it tooth and nail," Mr Faulkner said. He has since led a long, hard and only occasionally successful campaign against rules he says discriminate against New Zealand and run counter to international treaties. "The issue has wide-ranging ramifications - not just for New Zealanders but for all Australian residents. "It makes clear that past and present Australian governments are far more interested in their budgets and their political futures than in treating their residents fairly and equally," he said. "I was particularly disgusted when I found that disabled children were being denied government assistance." (Source: NZ Herald)

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3) 457 Training Benchmark changes Training Benchmarks Update There has been some confusion about whether a sponsor must keep with the same training benchmark from one year to another, or whether a sponsor can change benchmarks. The DIAC Monitoring and Free Trade Agreement Policy Section Director has just released the following advice that training benchmarks can be changed: An approved sponsor is required, throughout the term of their approval, to ensure that they continue to meet one of the training benchmarks. There is no requirement for the sponsor to continue to meet the same benchmark that they were originally approved against so long as one of the benchmarks has been met. As such, our advice in relation to monitoring of this requirement has not changed since the advice provided (earlier in 2012). Sponsors should note that under regulation 2.84 - Obligation to provide information to Immigration when certain events occur, if the information provided at application in relation to the training benchmarks has changed, the department must be notified of this change. In terms of nominations for ENS and RSMS, reg 5.19(f) may be considered to be met where the sponsor has met one of the benchmarks for each year of approval, regardless of whether different benchmarks were met for alternating years. (Source: MIA/DIAC)

4) 457 Transition to Permanent Residence Many of you may know that there is a simpler pathway for 457 visa holders to access company nominated permanent residence if they have worked in the same occupation for the last 2 years. Just a point that the occupation that is nominated does not have to be in exactly the same occupation as what was carried out on the temporary 457 visa. Rather it just has to have the same first 4 digits in its occupational code (ANZSCO). This gives a greater degree of flexibility than previously.

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5) Changes to TRA assessments

As part of TRA’s continuous improvement commitment, a new version of the Migration Skills

Assessment (MSA) and Migration Points Advice (MPA) Applicant Guidelines containing important

updates will become effective for applications registered with TRA from 14 January 2013.

Applicants and their representatives are advised to download the latest version of the Guidelines which

includes changes or clarification related to:

the use of statutory declarations as supporting evidence; 

documents required as evidence of paid employment; 

the number of years of employment under supervision required for applicants who hold an AQF issued via RPL. Please see the MSA Program Applicant Guidelines or the MPA Program Applicant Guidelines for further information. Page Content

Pakistan is no longer a nominated country of the Offshore Skills Assessment Program.

People who hold a Pakistani passport with trade skills who require a skills assessment for permanent

migration can be assessed through TRA’s Migration Skills Assessment program. Please see the TRA

Migration Skills Assessment Program Applicant Guidelines for further information regarding this

program. (Source: TRA)

6) Skill Select – latest invitations The automated invitation round for SkillSelect on 17 December 2012 was successfully completed. The table below lists the number of invitations issued: 17 December 2012

Visa Subclass Number Invitations Skilled - Independent (subclass 189) 1400 Skilled - Regional Provisional (subclass 489) 100

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During 2012 the following number of invitations have been issued: Visa Subclass Skilled - Independent (subclass 189) August September October November December Total 90 900 1800 2800 2800 8390 Skilled – Regional Provisional (subclass 489) 10 100 200 200 200 710 Total 100 1000 2000 3000 3000 9100 The above automated invitation rounds do not include invitations issued under the state and territory government nominated subclasses. State and territory governments nominate throughout the month for state and territory nominated points tested skilled migration and business innovation and investment visas. Separate results for these visa subclasses are provided monthly

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Invitation process and cut offs The highest ranked clients by points score are invited to apply for the relevant visa. For clients who have equal points scores, the time at which they reached their points score for that subclass (referred to as the visa date of effect) determines their order of invitation. EOIs with earlier dates of effect are invited before later dates. Visa Subclass Points Score Visa date of effect Skilled - Independent (subclass 189) 60 05/12/2012 21.34 pm Skilled - Regional Provisional (subclass 489) 60 12/12/12 00.27 am If you wish to compare your Expression of Interest (EOI) against the outcomes of the invitation round, you can check your points score and visa date of effect at any time for all visa subclasses covered by your EOI on the home page of your SkillSelect EOI. Invitations are subject to yearly occupational ceilings. The following occupation has reached its annual occupational ceiling: Chemical and Materials Engineers (Source: DIAC)

7) Partner applications DIAC have published a very useful information sheet that goes through the steps involved in processing a Partner application. How you get updates, medicare, adding children etc. It is a must. See details here … www.iscah.com/Partner2012.pdf

8) Employer Sponsored visas - Processing Information from DIAC about processing of Employer nominated (including RSMS) applications when they are lodged with all required documents …

We are still using the Decision Ready Checklist system. We have revised these Checklists and are in the process of getting these loaded onto the website – this is an internal process that may take a couple of weeks.

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You are aware that we have had significant systems issues post 1 July 2012 with one issue being that the applications lodged between 1 July and 23 November 2012 were not being recognised in our system as “decision ready”. When this issue was raised we requested that agents advise us by email if they were lodging “decision ready” applications so we could identify those applications out of the general pool of applications. This issue has since been fixed and applications lodged from 24 November 2012 can be identified in the system as “decision ready”. We are allocating applications according to date of receipt. Where we have a “decision ready” application these are prioritised, however given the large number of applications and subsequently the high number of these that are identified as “decision ready”, these are also allocated according to date of receipt. In effect we triage the “decision ready” applications out of the larger group and then allocate those by date. There are always exceptions where we may prioritise an application out of date order for a range of reasons, and any prioritisation of a “decision ready” application out of date order is determined at management level. In terms of processing times - we are working hard to get through the pre-1 July caseload, however given the unprecedented number of applications in May and June (a 525 percent increase on the average monthly lodgements) our processing times are longer than usual. Having said that, there is light at the end of the tunnel as we get the backlog of cases down.

(Source: MIA/DIAC)

9) New Iscah Feedback service We have identified on several occasions where we have not been providing enough feedback on how visa applications are progressing for our clients or being pro active enough with corporate clients to see if they are getting quality service from Iscah. As a result we have created a feedback position to help address some of these issues. Please do continue to reply to any of our Iscah team directly who may contact you about your case. However if you ever feel you want to provide some feedback about our services, or have any concerns that you don’t feel are being well handled about your case please email us to feedback@iscah.com We will investigate your issues and try to address them as promptly as possible.

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10) DIAC Processing Times Details of Processing times for : GSM visas are available here http://www.immi.gov.au/skilled/general-skilled-migration/estimated-allocation-times.htm For other visa categories are available here http://www.immi.gov.au/about/charters/client-services-charter/standards/2.1.htm (Source: DIAC) Ok folks, that’s the new year kicked off. If you have any suggestion for particular content or processes explained, drop us a line to newsletter@iscah.com See you all hopefully on Monday 18th February. Kind Regards Steven O'Neil (Iscah Manager - MARN 9687267) 08 9353 3344 / www.iscah.com Latest newsletter www.iscah.com/Iscahnewsletterlatest.pdf Facebook using facebook@iscah.com Twitter using www.twitter.com/iscahmigration

Iscah Migration Suite 14 (Kewdale Business Park) 133 Kewdale Road, Kewdale Perth Western Australia, 6105 PO Box 75 Welshpool BC 6986

Phone: 61-8-9353 3344 Fax: 61-8-9353 3350 E-mail: newsletter@iscah.com Website: www.iscah.com Registered Migration Agent 9687267