Give me your visa in the morning. Don`t worry about it!
On December 10, 2018, the new Immigration Amendment Act 2016 (Family violence and other measures) Migration Amendment (Family Violence and Other Measures) Bill 2016) was discussed in Parliament.
Although the date of implementation of the bill has not yet been set, it will come into force at any time! Therefore, it is recommended that the affected applicants seize every opportunity to seize the visa! The implementation of the new law will have a series of significant effects on spouse immigration applications.
Core content of the new bill
First of all, let`s look at some of the current policies of spouse immigration:
- Applicants are required to receive PR, Australia citizen or qualified New Zealand citizen guarantee;
- Applicants and guarantee applications can be submitted at the same time;
- Applicants who submit their applications in China can get BVA, and stay in Australia after the visa results are released, and they can work full-time and enjoy health insurance and so on.
As a result of the entry into force of the new bill, the following major changes will occur:
- Guarantee applicants are required to submit an application for approval of the guarantee qualification and must be approved by the guarantee before the applicant can submit a visa application.
- The validity period of the temporary residence visa for spouse immigrants will be set upon approval. The application for a permanent residence visa shall be carried out within the period of validity. Once the visa has passed the validity period, the application will be invalidated.
- The temporary residence part and the permanent residence part will pay the application fee respectively;
- Guarantee people need to meet more conditions and requirements, if not, will be subject to law sanctions;
- Guarantee information will be shared with applicants.
The most important reform is for applicants and guarantee applications to be considered separately. Although the new bill does not disclose the timing of the guarantee application, the separate processing of the application by the applicant and the guarantee undoubtedly lengthens the progress of the entire spouse visa process. The current visa processing time for spouse immigrants is 12 to 26 months.
Moreover, the new bill requires a review of the guarantee, stating that the requirements for the guarantee are higher and stricter.
The purpose of the new bill
The new law is stricter for the guarantee, in an effort to better protect the legal rights and interests of spouse immigrant visa applicants and give them a long-term guarantee of stability.
If the guarantee people hide bad records such as their criminal history and the applicant has no way to know, even if the future spouse visa is successful, then the ultimate victim will be the applicant!
Spousal immigrants have zero requirements for age, education and English. Many applicants go to Australia alone to reunite with their spouses, and if there is any problem with their spouse, the applicant will be in a very passive and helpless position in Australia.
So the implementation of the new law is beneficial to visa applicants in the long run. Guarantee people in advance of the audit can avoid greater hidden dangers in the future. However, the extension of the overall visa time would create more uncertainty due to the inability to submit applications at the same time.
The impact of the new bill
The impact of the new law on the guarantee is clear that guarantee people need to meet more conditions to qualify for guarantee, and that once the first guarantee qualification has not been passed, the future guarantee is largely hopeless. At present, the main factors that affect the qualification of guarantee are:
- Whether or not there is a history of crime, no proof of crime must be provided in all countries that have lived for more than one year in the past 10 years;
- There are only 2 guarantee places in a lifetime;
- The second spouse of guarantee has to wait five years;
- If you were taken to PR by guarantee, it would take five years for the others to guarantee.
In the case of visa applicants, domestic applicants bear the brunt, especially those whose visas are about to expire, especially those who wish to obtain a bridge visa by submitting a spouse`s visa.
Although the new bill does not disclose the specific timing of the guarantee application, it is unlikely to qualify for guarantee within a short period of time, depending on the current progress of the spouse visa process.
In this case, if the applicant`s visa expires immediately, the idea of continuing to stay in the country by submitting a spouse immigration application is virtually impossible. They can only submit other visa applications within the country or leave the country to submit spouse applications.
Another potential impact is that the Immigration Service will have stricter controls on the relationship section.
The separation of the applicant and the guarantee is likely to lead to extended trial time as a whole, so the relationship between the applicant and the guarantee will have to last longer in order to obtain a visa. This has become an effective means of testing whether a relationship is true and long-lasting.
epilogue
On the whole, the new Act sets out more and higher requirements for spouse immigration applications. Although the date of entry into force of the new bill has not yet been finalized, it may come into effect at any time! We urge applicants to submit their spouse visa application as soon as possible.
