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| Issue No 37 | May 2002 | ||||||
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We are pleased to announce that Rania Skaros has joined the firm as a solicitor and migration agent. Rania focuses on temporary and permanent business visas and skilled migration. She is fluent in Arabic and is a member of the Migration Institute of Australia. Additional information about Rania Skaros may be found in our staff profiles.
Nigel Dobbie, a Senior Associate at Parish Patience Immigration, gave a seminar on behalf of the CLE Centre (University of Technology Sydney Faculty of Law) on 10 May 2002 on the topic "Preparing an Application Before the Migration Review Tribunal." For additional information please contact Nigel Dobbie.
Two new staff publications have been added to our website:
David Bitel, Parish Patience Immigration Managing Partner and an accredited specialist in migration law, travels to Melbourne and Canberra on a regular basis for consultations with clients and prospective clients. To make an appointment with Mr Bitel, please contact his secretary Barbara Dixon.
The Minister for Immigration, Mr Ruddock, announced the 2002-2003 Migration (Non-humanitarian) Program on 7 May 2002. The Skill Stream will have 60,700 places, compared with a projected 53,500 for 2001-2002.
Media release MPS 30/2002 with attachments - details of the program
From 8 May 2002 the pass and pool marks for the following general skilled migration visa categories have changed:
These changes only effect you if you lodged your application on or after 8 May 2002. If you lodged your application before 8 May 2002 these changes will not affect your application.
Additional information may be found in the DIMIA information brochure, Skilled Migration to Australia - the Points Test.
By Gazette Notice GN14 of 10 April 2002, the Minister for Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs has substantially revised the Migration Occupations in Demand List (MODL). Occupations removed from the list include:
On the other hand, four Computing Professionals Specialisations have been added:
The Skilled Occupations List (SOL) was also changed by Gazette Notice GN 14, effective 10 April 2002. Additions to the list include:
Occupations removed from the SOL include:
Numerous other occupations have been renamed or rearranged on the SOL, for example Computing Professional - Systems Designer was formerly known as Information Technology Officer - Systems Designer.
Special note on Nurses: The Minister for Immigration has announced special initiatives to assist the entry of nurses, as part of the 2002-2003 Migration (Non-humanitarian) Program. These initiatives are detailed in Attachment 6 to the Minister's announcement of the 2002-2003 Migration Program.
The May 2002 edition of Vetassess News includes an update on the Qualifications Assessment process. The documentation requirement may seem deceptively simple, however it is quite rigourous for certain countries and it is important for applicants to seek professional assistance in this area.
Please contact our office if you have any questions about skilled migration to Australia.
The Minister for Immigration, Mr Ruddock, has released statistics showing the strong growth in student visa numbers this year and the major source countries - Media release MPS 28/2002.
Finland has joined the Working Holiday Maker (WHM) program, with effect from 1 May 2002. Australia now has 13 reciprocal WHM arrangements, including the United Kingdom, Canada, Republic of Ireland, Japan, Malta, the Netherlands, Republic of Korea, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China. Media release MPS 29/2002.
On 28 May, Amnesty International released its Annual Report 2002. The Report covers human rights violations in 152 countries, including Australia.
The Government has made a number of announcements in relation to its Budget handed down on May 14:
The Refugee Council of Australia has issued a Position Paper and Media Release detailing how the 2002-2003 Budget will impact upon asylum seekers. Parish Patience Immigration Managing Partner David Bitel is the President of the Refugee Council of Australia.
In a recent Newsletter, we highlighted the Edmund Rice Centre for Justice and Community Education's pamphlet, "Debunking the Myths about Asylum Seekers". We commend this publication to our readers, to the extent that we have obtained permission to place a link to it from the Articles page of our own website.
On April 5 the Government issued a Response to "Debunking Myths about Asylum Seekers".
The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission has received more than 200 submissions for its National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention. A number of submissions are now posted on HREOC's website, along with details of further hearings, background papers and other information.
The Law Librarians Resource Exchange in the USA has published an "Update to Guide to Country Research for Refugee Status Determination". This excellent guide was written by Elisa Mason, information manager for the Forced Migration Online project at the Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford.
In addition to the immigration-specific matters covered elsewhere in this Newsletter,
In a meeting held 24 April between senior DIMIA officers and members of the Migration Institute of Australia, it was emphasised that DIMIA is giving strong focus to vetting applications for fraud and misleading statements. Suspect cases are referred back to Australian offices in the source country. For example the relevant staffing in Beijing has recently increased from 2 to 20. DIMIA has an expectation that migration agents will be enquiring when accepting documents from clients.
Also at the meeting of 24 April, DIMIA reported that approximately 1750 applications transferred to Pretoria last November have now been unpacked and processing is commencing. DIMIA will allow a 3-month extension on validity of medical and police clearances completed before the file transfer, i.e. will allow 15-month validity for those applications.
On April 8, the Sydney Morning Herald reported that the Federal Opposition is considering a policy which would "fast-track" family reunions for those who agree to live outside the big cities. Labor's industry spokesman, Craig Emerson, said the plan was intended to boost regional growth and also to ease the population pressure on the Sydney basin. "Bush Push Lure for Migrants"
The Citizenship Legislation Amendment Act 2002 received Royal Assent on 4 April 2002. The Act includes repeal of section 17 of the Australian Citizenship Act 1948, under which Australians formerly lost their Australian citizenship upon taking up citizenship of another country. The change brings Australia into line with citizenship practices of many countries including the UK, Canada, New Zealand, USA, France and Italy.
Although the repeal of section 17 does not apply retrospectively, there is still a mechanism for people who lost Australian citizenship under section 17 prior to 4 April 2002, to apply to resume their Australian citizenship.
The new Act also contains initiatives for young people, including raising the age limit for citizenship by descent and resumption from 18 to 25 years, to give them more time to acquire Australian citizenship.
Additional details may be found in Media Release H36/2002
As reported in our April Newsletter, the Migration Legislation Amendment (Procedural Fairness) Bill 2002 and the Migration Legislation Amendment (No 1) Bill 2002 were introduced into Parliament in March 2002. If passed, the first Bill will amend the Migration Act to specifically state that the provisions of the Act constitute a code with respect to the procedural requirements under the Act and that the common law requirements of the natural justice hearing rule do not apply to decisions in relation to visa applications made under the Act. The Bill reinforces the removal of judicial review grounds enacted in September 2001 with the introduction of the privative clause.
The second Bill contains some significant technical amendments to the Act, including introducing strict liability provisions for some offences, and removing the "loophole" whereby the section 48 bar on repeat applications was available to persons granted a Bridging Visa B who re-entered Australia.
Both Bills were referred to the Senate Legal and Constitutional Committee for enquiry and report by 15 May 2002. Due to the complex nature of the issues involved and the number of submissions received, the Committee has obtained an extension of time and has agreed to table its final report on 5 June 2002.
The Committee held a public hearing in Sydney on 9 April 2002. The transcript of the hearing, including extensive testimony by Parish Patience Immigration Managing Partner David Bitel, speaking in his capacity of Secretary-General, Australian Section of International Commission of Jurists, is available at http://www.aph.gov.au/hansard/senate/commttee/s5456.pdf.
Full text of the Bills, Explanatory Memoranda, 2nd Reading Speeches and Bill Digests may be found in the
Parliament Bills Index.
The Migration Amendment Regulations 2002 (No 2), Statutory Rules 2002 No 86, were made on 2 May 2002. These Regulations cover several visa classes and for the most part commence on 1 July 2002. They will be summarised in the next edition of our Newsletter. Full text of the Regulations is available from the Commonwealth Attorney-General's website, Scaleplus.
See also "Ruddock overruled on wife's refugee plea", Sydney Morning Herald, 11 April 2002.
We intended to commence a brief listing of interesting upcoming events, seminars, commemorative days, etc in this issue of the Newsletter. Although space constraints forbid listing in this issue, we commend to you the extensive "Diary Dates" section found in the United Nations Association of Australia's UNity newsletter. Reader contributions of upcoming events may also be submitted to the Parish Patience Immigration Update Newsletter Editor.
With this issue of the Newsletter, we are commencing a new section of quotable quotes. We welcome reader contributions to the Editor .
Quote of the month: "The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers."
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