Australia helps offshore visa holders with new measures

Are you a candidate who is stuck outside Australia due to COVID-19 travel restrictions, but is on the pathway to getting a temporary or provisional visa? Here’s good news for you as some fresh steps for immigration Australia have been taken.

The Australian government has now made legislative amendments to its regulations for migration that will provide you with COVID-19 concessions. It’s done to limit the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on visa holders like you who are stranded outside Australia.

Border closures, business shutdowns, and dip in the economy are all reasons for Australian visa holders outside the country to not being able to make it to Australia. To help them, the Migration Regulations 1994 has been amended with the Migration Amendment (COVID-19 Concessions) Regulations 2020.

Now, graduates affected by travel restrictions due to the pandemic could apply for and will be issued a Temporary Graduate visa, even if they are outside Australia. This is possible if they have met all requirements for getting the visa.

This means that those applicants wanting to study in Australia, but now outside Australia, will be granted a post-study work stream visa. Once the travel restrictions are lifted, successful applicants can arrive in Australia. They won’t have to worry about the time elapsed since their visas were granted.

In some cases, they can come to Australia if they get approvals for travel exemptions. Their visa duration will be counted from the date of entry, instead of the date they were granted the visa.

Here are some other key changes to the regulations:

• Applicants won’t anymore need to have held a student visa within 6 months immediately prior to applying.
• The period to meet the ASR, I.e. the time between course completion and applying for visa, has been extended from 6 to 12 months.

This will be applicable only to those applicants who were offshore between February 1, 2020, and September 19, 2020. Their offshore stay could be fully, in part, or for a portion of this stipulated period.

Good news for Subclass 887 visa holders

COVID-19 concessions have also been applied to lodgement and eligibility requirements for Subclass 887 applicants. They have to meet the following criteria:

• Prospective applicants eligible for Subclass 887 visa can apply for the visa from outside Australia. It can be done during the concession period. They can also be granted the visa while outside Australia.
• Applicants outside Australia who lodge while spending the concession period are allowed to access shorter residence requirements and shorter employments.

The new rules have changed the prior requirement for the applicant to be in Australia holding a valid visa while filing an application for Subclass 887 visa.

Apart from these changes, the Department has made changes to Subclass 188 and Subclass 888 visas as well as Subclass 790 (Safe Haven Enterprise visa) visa.

If you are looking to Study, Work, Visit, Invest or Migrate to Australia, talk to Y-Axis, the World’s No.1 Immigration & Visa Company.

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Note:

ASR – Australian Study Requirement