Permanent residents are being urged to lodge applications for citizenship before Spring, after new figures revealed that the Department of Immigration’s processing queue has blown out by more than 300 per cent. ​ New data published by the Department of Home Affairs shows that the number of permanent residents awaiting approval for citizenship applications has spiked… Read More

We are excited to announce and welcome Belinda Man as Associate Director of Absolute Immigration. Belinda has been in the Australian immigration industry for 16 years including 11 years at one of Australia’s big four professional services company as a Director. In this role Belinda provided immigration compliance and advisory services to large scale corporate… Read More

Earlier this month the legislation for the new Skilling Australians Fund (SAF) tax was officially implemented by the Australian government. As a result, several of the skilled worker sponsorship training obligations have now been updated to fall in line with the new requirements. Reg 2.87B Obligation to provide training has now been repealed, which will… Read More

The Department of Home Affairs has confirmed that the government’s new Skilling Australians Fund (SAF) tax levy will officially come into effect this Sunday on 12 August. The introduction of the SAF will replace the previous Training Benchmarks, which required visa sponsors to demonstrate that they had spent at least 1% of their payroll on… Read More

To maintain the standards of the Australian healthcare system temporary migrants are required to meet certain minimum health requirements in order to be granted a visa. In addition to meeting the health requirement, some visas may also require temporary foreign workers to provide evidence of adequate health insurance for the duration of their stay. This… Read More

Newly published immigration data has revealed that Australia’s annual intake of permanent migrants has fallen to its lowest level since 2007, representing a decline of approximately 20,000 when compared to the same period last year. Although the annual permanent intake cap remained at 190,000 during the previous financial year, increasing visa application scrutiny—which led to… Read More

The government’s previously defeated legislation that would see citizenship requirements significantly tightened is set to make a potential comeback. A senator for the Greens party, Nick McKim, recently questioned the Department about the bill—entitled the Australian Citizenship Legislation Amendment (Strengthening the Requirements for Australian Citizenship and Other Measures Bill 2017— at a Senate Estimates hearing… Read More

The Australian government’s new Global Talent Scheme (GTS) visa program has officially launched, beginning at the start of this month on 1 July. Details of the program were first published by the Department of Home Affairs in March, with the intention of integrating the GTS into the broader TSS visa system. The Department’s decision followed… Read More

Earlier this month the Australian government updated the Labour Market Testing (LMT) rules for the skilled visa program, reversing an earlier decision that previously barred employers from advertising on the LinkedIn social network. The LMT requirements—which were instituted by the government to ensure that local Australian workers are given priority when applying for jobs—mandate that… Read More