Today at 10:00am, on behalf of Migration Alliance (stakeholder), Frank Donatiello and I attended the DIAC NSW Client Reference Group meeting, which was held at the DIAC Gateway Building, Elizabeth Street, Sydney 2000.
My notes taken from the meeting are as follows and may not follow a particular logical 'topic' order due to notes being taken based on conversations from the floor and from designates speakers in real-time. My notes are as accurate as possible.
DIAC Jim Callow:
DIAC are pushing for an online lodgement for student visas. There have been around 6000 student visas lodged and around 5000 finalised in the last few months.Complaint from floor that there is no analysis of complaints when the Commonwealth Ombudsman complains to the Global Feedback Unit.Sydney Entertainment Processing Centre (SEPC) is exceeding delivery requirements and has experienced a 10% increase in applications in recent months.Temporary Business Entry experiences around 2000 inquiries from businesses each month which is a huge number. From the 1 July 2010 to the 30 June 2011 the DIAC received around 100,000 457 visa applications and 54,000 of those were in NSW. This is the highest number of 457 visa applications since 2008. The main occupations are information technology, media and telecommunications, and health occupations.In 2011-2012 there has been an 8% increase from 42,000 to 45,500 placesENS - decision ready cases are given to case officers within 10 working days. They are currently. There are currently 24,000 cases and there has been a recent reduction.There has been a recent increase in the number of citizenship applications as Residents hit the 4 year mark. This trend is set to continue (increased citizenship applications).Borders: There has been a 4% increase in passenger numbers coming in through airports. There have been approximately 16,400 people arrive on 1,400 vessels, referred to DIAC in the last programme year.DIAC Rocio Trapaga-Saul:
There are a large number of clients who do not arrive by boat.From 1 September about 5,600 clients are in detention. Of this, 350 were not boat arrivals. These people are usually shorter term detainees as detention is mainly used to resolve their status. More than half of the 5,600 are in Immigration Detention Centres. Children are not placed into detention centres. Mainly single adult males are in Immigration Detention Centres. Unaccompanied minors (children) are placed into Alternative Place of Detention (APOD). From there they can attend school etc.On the map there is a circle coloured in purple called 'Berrima House'. This is a small facility for unaccompanied minors and crew.On Christmas Island there are currently 740 clients. Of this number, 560 are adult males. The rest are families.There is a facility called Wickham Point. This is starting with 500 clients, with capacity to hold 1500 clients.The priority for the Minister is families and unaccompanied children.David Prince
Disturbing information provided to the meeting by David Prince that CIRCO keeps medical records of asylum seekers. The issue is that there is also a DIAC file. The CIRCO file and the DIAC file 'never meet'. IHMS is 'absent'. The DIAC is not kept abreast of medical problems. This is a counter-intuitive and systemic problem where medical information is collected and just sits there. There is a recent MIAT+RRT Federal Court and Full Federal Court Decision regarding this exact issue.Ministerial Intervention UnitThe MIU has produced a publication which is very helpful. It mainly covers s351 and s417 clientele. The on-hand caseload is dropping favourably and is moving quickly in Sydney and Melbourne. The Ministerial Intervention Unit is not a long-term parking space.We currently have a very active Minister who moves quickly and has a holistic approach. The team make examinations of typical requests and pre-empt questions that the Minister might ask.David Prince commented that the FOI briefing notes are very good in the MI Unit and show that decisions have been properly made.DIAC Adrian Motherway - E-Business Strategy - Business Owner
Adrian Motherway started with the DIAC in May last year and the role was created as part of the transformation strategy.Mr Motherway looks after all client-facing systems including VEVO and all online business.There will soon be attachment capability for Citizenship applicationsThe DIAC website has been upgraded to support Internet Explorer 8There are expanded markets now for e-676 visasLegendcom has had the subscription fee reduced and will be improved (March 2012?)Big projects are a web redevelopment as the DIAC website has not been meeting the need of the consumer and has been driving people away. People then get driven to call the contact centres of speak to case officers which is not the right result.A review has been commissioned and evaluated. The new DIAC website is going to be more about accessibility and to be written in plain Engish as at the moment, not all people understand it. It is also currently not accessible for people on mobile devices so this is also being considered.There is a new GSM and Media Portal comingThere is a new 'e-lodgement plus' system redevleopment coming which consists of the following: Prepare. Lodge. Update. Status.E-RRV is coming next year.The new e-visa system moves away from the current linear model of online visa applications. The new system will allow the user to save, add in information anywhere, save, come back, jump around and save again. The new system arrives in March 2012 with the e-RRV. The aim is to reduce service centre calls.There is the development of a Generic Visa Portal - GVP. The rollout within this portal is as follows: July 2012 - Permanent Skilled, Business Skills, ENS and RSMS; November 2012 - the 400 series; March 2013 - Visitors; July 2013 -Students. Partner visas are not mentioned at all. The question of partner visas was raised but the feedback was 'no'.There is a new DIAC CIO and his name is Tony Kwon and he is looking into the e-visa system being unresponsive at times.DIAC are looking at having an online agent account with the one login, which will look at the system as a whole. DIAC are looking at this as a new framework. DIAC looking at a new category of of VEVO for migration agents which also has mobile device delivery capability.It is the DIAC experience that clients want to do more online.Discussion began around a standard of documentation for visa applications (document integrity) and how DIAC plan to deal with certified documents being scanned and attached online.Agents Gateway
The problem was raised that it is open to the public despite it being called an Agents Gateway which means the gateway is not exclusive. Comments were made that there was no consistency with areas within the DIAC uploading information to the Agents Gateway.Application Forms - no Synergy
No synergy in paper-based forms, e-forms and LEAP Migration Manager. All the forms are slightly different with different questions.485 visa holders wanting to apply for 457 visasRequest a waiver - DIAC is open to itUnregistered Practice - Especially in the sc420 Entertainment Visa SpaceThis is a focus of the DIAC at the moment and it is not being swept under the carpet.Partner Visas
Average 9.4 months partner visa processing, 14% of cases decided within 1 month.No priority given to domestic violence casesNSW CRG meeting closed at 12:33pm Australian EST (Sydney).
Yours faithfully
Liana Allan
Vice-Convenor
Migration Alliance |
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