April at Nomos
COVID-19 immigration issues have again been the focus of our month. Here’s what Nomos has been up to:
- We are seeing significantly delayed processing across the visa programme, in terms of both temporary as well as permanent visas, and in both onshore and offshore processing. The update to the skilled occupations lists (that was scheduled for March 2020) has also not been announced as yet. With everything else going on in the world, it is understandable that the Department has other things to focus on at the moment.
- The commencement of the JobKeeper programme this month left a lot of temporary visa-holders and their employers wondering what support, if any, the government was planning to introduce for them. Whilst we await any further action from the federal government, a number of states (including Tasmania, South Australia, the Northern Territory, the ACT and Victoria) have introduced financial support programmes for some temporary visa-holders. New South Wales has not yet announced a similar programme. As advised in our visa-holder fact sheet, the Australian Red Cross has a programme that provides financial support for temporary visa-holders in urgent need of financial support.
- We ended the month on a happy note with Kathryn being recognised once again by Best Lawyers and being named on the list of best immigration lawyers in Australia for 2021. This is amazing recognition for Nomos and was certainly a highlight for us.
That’s the Nomos wrap-up for April. We hope you all keep safe and well during these challenging times and we will see you next month!