Indian Community in Australia

I attended immigration forum organised by CIA (Council of Indian Australian) today. Chief guest for the forum was Assistant Minister of Immigration the Hon. Alex Hawke MP and supported by Mr Mark Taylor MP. It was interesting discussion regarding immigration laws and current issues. Some point from the discussion below:

• Australia has recently changed some of the immigration laws example 457 Visa and change to citizenship. As per minister, government review immigration law to make this country safe from terrorist.
• Skilled occupation list was changed so more Australian can get jobs easily. Example: mining boom is over now so there are many ship caption and other mining workers has lost their jobs. Government has removed this occupation from skilled list so there is less competition from overseas migrants.
• Government review skilled occupation list every 6 months and make changes as per demand.
• There were also question regarding parents’ visa

Questions asked by community members:

1. Are there any changes to the current contributory and non-contributory visa requirements? Is government is looking to reduce queue for non-contributory parents’ visa as waiting time is approx. 30 years now.

Answer: No there is no changes to the current contributory and non-contributory visa and government is not looking to make any changes at this moment.

Current cost for contributory visa per person is $44K and as per minister single aged person costs approx. $400K to Australia economy. So the government won’t make any changes to this fees in any time soon. The other option is non-contributory visa where you can apply once your parents meet age requirements (minimum 65 years) and queue may be as long as 30 years.

2. What about new 5 and 10 years visa? Why visa processing fees (up to AUD 10K) is so high? When we can apply for this Visa.

Answer: People can start applying for this long term visa from December 2017 (may be early or late depends). Some people think up to AUD 10K visa processing fees is so high but as per minister not all people do right thing. Sometimes some people over extend their stay and it costs money for government to find them and deport. So overall this visa fees justify.

Government will see what is working and what is not and they will review visa fees at later stage but they don’t have any plan to reduce visa fees at this moment.

3. One person raised issue asking I pay tax in Australia, I pay for food, accommodation as well as health insurance for my parents and still I have to pay too high visa fees for my parents?

Answer: Same answer from minister not all people do right things and it costs lot of money when people do wrong things and visa fees are here to stay at this moment. May look in future.

4. There are many Doctors and Accountants in Australia why government still wants to bring doctors and accountants from overseas:

Answer: There are obviously many doctors in capital cities but there is shortage of doctors in regional area. Not many doctors wants to work in rural area. So as per visa law doctors must work 5 years in rural area before they can migrate to capital city. Same as accountants due to complex laws and accounting terms there is shortage of good accountants in Australia and country needs more accountants.

5. Interesting question: new migrant cannot find work easily in Australia as most of all companies ask for local experience.

Answer: As per minister not all local companies ask for local experience. In fact some companies wants to hire new skilled migrant but they cannot find. So basically, new migrant should learn how to apply for the job and how to present yourself. If you have required skill you will get jobs easily.

Mohit Kumar (President of CIA) speech:

Australia is the only country who provides free medical service (Medicare) and people need to look at bigger picture. If government keeps migrating everyone to this country easily then there will be burden on Medicare system. People need to think about future. If we want to keep this Medicare alive for our children and grandchildren then we need to support government. Otherwise government will be forced to cancel Medicare as government cannot keep migrating people and keep providing free health service.

I agree with Mohit Kumar’s comments. If you have any comments feel free to comment here or on our Facebook Page: