August at Nomos
As we say goodbye to August we also say goodbye to winter and hello to spring! Here’s our round-up of what’s kept Nomos occupied this month:
- This month, legislation was introduced to implement some of the changes announced for Hong Kong nationals in Australia. The legislation has extended the validity of specified temporary visas to 8 July 2025 if the primary visa holder held a Hong Kong SAR passport when their visa was granted. Secondary visa holders have also had their visas extended to 8 July 2025. Moving forward, all TSS and subclass 485 visas granted to Hong Kong SAR passport holders will also be granted with a 5 year validity period.
- The AAT’s recent stakeholder meeting confirmed that in-person hearings are resuming in a limited capacity in all states apart from Victoria, at the Tribunal’s discretion. The majority of hearings continue to be held using Microsoft Teams or telephone. According to the AAT, there are 63,000 cases in the queue as at 30 June 2020. Approximately half of these review applicants are represented by an immigration lawyer or registered migration agent.
- Travel exemptions were once again a hot topic for many this month. Our experience with clients has been that requests for exemptions need to be accompanied by relevant documentation, and in some cases, perseverance is required as making a repeat request can have a better outcome. As at 16 August 2020, the Australian Border Force has approved 34,379 requests (approximately one-third of all requests) from Australians wishing to travel overseas. This means that the average approval rating has increased from 25% from earlier in the pandemic to 33%. This is in line with Commissioner Michael Outram’s comments at a recent senate enquiry, where he indicated a review would be undertaken into some of the administrative guidelines that apply to exemption requests. If you want to discuss an inbound or outbound travel request, particularly if your family group is separated because travel exemptions have been denied, please contact us.
That’s the Nomos wrap-up for August. We hope you all continue to stay safe and look forward to seeing you back next month!