AUSTRALIA 60000 APPLICATIONS ARE AWAITING APPROVAL FOR SPOUSE VISAS WITH APPROX WAITING TIME BETWEEN 12-15 MONTHS WITH NO ASSURANCE HOWEVER THE GOVT INCREASED FEES FROM 1ST JANUARY OFFSHORE FEES TO $ 4627 AND ONSHORE TO $ 6865 AND ONE AWAITING DECISION ALLEGED THAT INCREASE IN FEES IS UNFAIR AND BEING DISCRIMINATING AGAINST AUSTRALIAN CITIZENS AND NEEDED URGENT REVIEW There are now some 60,000 Australian’s anxiously awaiting the immigration department’s approval to bring their spouses in to the country. The wait on average is between 12 and 15 months. Added to this the government recently increased the visa application charges for spouse visas to almost $7000 with no assurance that it intends to shorten the wait. Instead, Assistant Immigration Minister Michaelia Cash said the fee ¬increases were needed to “repair the budget and fund whole-of-government policy priorities”. Why target the partner visa? The Australian reports that migration agents it interviewed recently warned that the new government fees are unfair and discriminatory. The report states that one of the country’s leading demographers says the family migration system is in urgent need of review, with up to 60,000 Australians waiting for departmental approval to bring spouses in to the country. The average length of time for ¬approval is now between 12 and 15 months. From January 1, the cost for someone wanting to migrate to Australia to marry their partner rose to $4627, up 50 per cent from last year’s fee of $3085.The cost for onshore permanent partner visas has risen from $4575 to $6865. The price increases announced in December’s mid-year budget review will reap $373.6 million for the government’s budget repair mission over the next four years. Crawford School of Public Policy professor of demography Peter McDonald told The Australian that visas were more difficult to obtain for partners of Australian citizens than partners of other skilled migrants. “That is a major problem — we are discriminating against Australian citizens,” Professor McDonald told The Australian. Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows 55 per cent of marriages in 2013 were between partners born in Australia, with 31 per cent of marriages between partners born in different countries. The number of family and partner visas granted by the Department of Immigration is restricted based on the number of other ¬migrants allowed into the country. Professor McDonald said this quota system needed to be ¬reviewed. Migration agents said the fees were going up despite the service getting worse. “It is a lot of money and the vast majority of clients are not wealthy,” he said.
Posted on: Wed, 14 Jan 2015 06:01:08 +0000
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