George Lombard

Hi Everyone,

This is not the amendment you've been waiting for. DIAC take bonds for a variety of purposes, but mainly with respect to Bridging Visas E and Sponsored Visitor Visas.

I can't speak on behalf of all registered migration agents but I did want to say the following.

The government's failure to live up to the speculation about a 1 July resolution, which was ultimately generated by DIAC, and following on the speculation which was raised in April, also generated by DIAC, is extremely disappointing. I could never have imagined that the government could have been so callous in its management of this issue. It's not that the processing for this group has been slow - this is a periodic problem - or that none of the obvious solutions has been implemented - but rather the complete lack of an open communication process. I'm sure it would be easier for everyone to cope if they knew the issues.

I don't know an agent who doesn't have clients affected by this and in fact we've all found alternative strategies for relevant clients where feasible, including, in our case, two entirely new applications by people who couldn't be bothered waiting, both families now being proud Australian permanent residents. The shocking waste of lives and time is probably exacerbated in the case of the onshore students, many of whom are forced to accept low status jobs while this is resolved, if they can find work at all as bridging visa holders. There is no obvious resolution through the courts since a change of policy is required, and for students of history, the current Minister is from WA, which was the first state to abandon the statutory deposit scheme.

Cheers,

George Lombard

geelong

Thanks for expressing your thoughts on this George.

Gazzap

Cheers George.
Do you know if MIA has made any more contact to DIAC or the Minister on behalf of the agents (and ultimately us all), regarding this prolonged issue?
Gaz

George Lombard

Hi Garry,

As far as I know the MIA has lobbied exclusively through the Department and this is ongoing but I'm more than happy to go to see the Minister with a delegation if the MIA can't do that. Very disappointed with the current situation.

Cheers,

George Lombard

Allan Miller

Hello George,

I'm more than happy to go to the minister and discuss the situation; hopefully more members of the discussion will come as well (the more the better I guess). This will allow us to establish some better forms of communication, rather than getting information from the third parties.

Please let us know how that can be arranged.

lyse

Thanks for sharing your thoughts George. My agents believe that there may be no decision taken but that decisions may be taken on a case by case basis taking into account the merits of each application.

Tom_VI

Thank you for the comment, I was very surprised because recently none of the agents made any comment while we were waiting for some.
And now such a bold statement!
To sum it up our frustration mounts higher an higher. There are no verifiable news what so ever about any advancement in the bonds case.
I also went through the announcements for the bill and I couldn't find anything that relates to our situation.
My conclusion is: IT ONLY CAN GET BETTER!

Selah

Thank you George for those statements. I am applying for a 138 and my relatives (mother and father in-law and husbands's aunt/uncle) have all written to Chris Evans, national MP and gone to see their local MP. I have given the local MP written consent to investigate our case and stated exactly what you have said: That the lack of communication and then inconsistent communication is unacceptable and cruel. I have to believe that if there are 4000 visa applications, the issue probably affects over 10,000 if you include family members on the application (we are a family of 5.)

I have also asked them to investigate why our medicals/PC's were requested on the 15th of April (due in by 24th of June) and when queried by our agent she was told the capital investment wasn't an issue. We dutifully spent the £1000 and now after contacting DIAC after the 7th of July announcement (It's come to our attention that some of you have had meds requested...) we are now told we are officially on hold until the issue is resolved and that they regrettably have no timeline. What right did they have to ask us to spend that money? We can't put the house on the market until this issue is resolved as they themselves say don't do anything irrevocable - and yet we will be forced into a very expensive holiday to validate or redoing meds. I appreciate that some applicants had meds requested when DIAC weren't clear all states/territories have withdrawn but not 5 months down the line when they should know full well what the situation is. We're one of the one's that can only apply for a temp visa under new rules so this is our only option for PR.

bigpond

We are not sure about what we looking for.As mentioned by DIAC they cant grant visa without capital investment and there is no alternative.Which mean a delay for a considerable period and after that refusal of applications. That is what we are looking for proberbly.little disappointing truth.

Elton John

If its going to be a "refusal". Then what about the costs incurred in good faith by applicants on application fees, migration agent's fees, IELTS fees, medical fees, and other misc costs like courier, photograhs, photcopies etc.

Tom_VI

Sorry to say that was your own amusement to do all of this.
I guess nobody will recompense you for it.
(Same for us unfortunately!)

Something will come but nobody knows when it will be and if it will be positive or negative.

On official answer from the Ministers office was recently: "The Government is yet to make a decision on this matter and has given no indication of a likely timeframe nor likely outcomes at this point in time." (Quote)
Notice it was said "the Government" and not any more Minister Evans
Unofficially the word was "shortly" - as I posted earlier.

Joannec2014

We have to keep our faith that they WILL resolve this, it is NOT some dodgy banana republic we are dealing with, Australia is a law abiding nation with law and legislation to uphold, if you genuinely think there is some underhand conspiracy going on and you don't have faith in the Australian government to do the right thing, then why do you want to live there? I for one genuinely believe they ARE looking into solutions and to be honest I'm getting on with my life while we're waiting, we all just have to be pragmatic about this, it is not easily fixed and may still take some time to resolve.

George - Thank you again for your valued comments, its always a relief to see some migration agent support on this thread. Do you need a list of names to take to this DIAC deputation? Is there anything I can do to help? (albeit I'm UK based). Please PM me if there is anything I can do.

Gazzap

Nice one Joanne, for keeping positive.
I think you'd be a good nominee to assist/co-ordinate with any 'delegation'.
Gaz

kenwen20

Hi GAZZAP and Joannec,

I am totally agree with you. I also have faith in Australia government. But I think we can't stop giving pressure to DIAC and just let this issue "fade out".

From my point of view, if we don't get urgent notice from DIAC by October. We are pretty much looking at next year to accomplish our applications. The other fact that the regular process of our application usually take 1 to 2 months individually once it started. In addition, the Christmas holiday will also slow down our progress. Therefore, OUR APPLICATION WILL BE DELAYED by almost 1 year.

Now what? should we give more pressure to DIAC ???

Allan Miller

I think we should. The question is how? Are we still up for setting up a delegation to the minister.