News

It was announced yesterday that from 23 November 2013, standard business sponsors (i.e. 457 sponsors), will be required to undertake Labour Market Testing (LMT) prior to lodging a 457 nomination application.

In October 2013 the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection and the Minister for Education jointly announced the introduction of streamlined visa processing arrangements for applicants seeking to enrol in courses at particular education institutions.

In September 2013 the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) changed its name to the Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP) to emphasise the new Liberal government’s commitment to “Stop the Boats”.

Over the course of 2013 the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (“the Department”) has progressively moved more of their processing systems online.

Public Interest Criteria (“PIC”) 4020 was introduced in April 2011 to reduce the level of fraud found in visa applications, and originally only applied to General Skilled Migration and Employer Sponsored visa subclasses.

In an effort to prevent the misuse of the subclass 457 visa scheme by some employers the government has introduced legislation into Parliament this month empowering the Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) to monitor and enforce conditions surrounding the employment of subclass 457 visa holders.