The Department of Immigration and Border Protection are inviting submissions from key stakeholders towards series 400 visa subclasses after announcing further reviews of Australia’s skilled migration programme.
The invitation follows the release of the eagerly-anticipated 457 programme review’s ‘Robust New Foundations’ report, which was unveiled last week.
The Department have indicated four broad frames of reference on which the review will be based, including the consideration of new visa models to help meet skill shortages.
“This review presents an opportunity for Australia to implement a number of short and long-term stay visas, measures we have been advocating for since the closure of the eight family visa subclasses back in June,” says Managing Director, Mark Glazbrook.
“These visas are of crucial importance to many vulnerable Australian visa applicants and migrants, who have been severely disadvantaged by their closure.”
“As such, we will be making a submission to the Department regarding a number of new models currently in use overseas which we feel would be appropriate to implement here in Australia.”
The announcement comes on the eve of Senator Hanson-Young’s attempted Disallowance Motion against the family visa repeals.
The Department has already advised that should the motion be successful, applications for the affected visa subclasses will be open for a period of six months.
