As political debate about Australia's subclass 457 visa program continues to go around in circles, it has been announced that the Department of Immigration and Citizenship will provide the Australian Tax Office with details of one million temporary visa holders in an effort to identify fraud and visa rorts.

Those targeted in the investigation will include 457 visa holders, as well as international students and backpackers.

The Australian recently reported on the upcoming crackdown; 

The Department of Immigration will hand over the records of one million temporary visa holders to the Australian Tax Office to identify fraud and visa rorts, in a massive data-matching operation.

The exercise will target the holders of 27 temporary visa types including skilled “457 visa” workers, students, backpackers and foreign sports people playing in Australian competitions.

Foreign doctors, film industry professionals, seasonal workers, researchers and employees of foreign government agencies will also have their records scrutinised.

The operation coincides with a Gillard government crackdown on the 457 visa sub-class, which it claims is being rorted by employers to deny Australians jobs.

The exercise will analyse records from three financial years, 2011-12, 2012-13, and 2013-14, with preliminary results expected to be available ahead of the September 14 election.

The operation will red flag individuals and employers who are cheating tax and immigration laws.

According to the ATO, the names, addresses and other details of visa holders “will be electronically matched and analysed with certain sections of ATO data holdings to identify potential fraud, and other non-compliance with lodgement and payment obligations under taxation law”.

“The ATO may also provide information to assist the Department of Immigration and Citizenship to maintain the integrity of the student and temporary working visa programs.”

Labor argues, with strong backing from the union movement, that temporary 457 visas are being abused by employers to avoid training Australians.

But it has struggled to come up with hard evidence of widespread rorting of the system, sparking claims it is demonising foreign workers for electoral gain...


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Australia's population has finally reached 23 million people with immigration receiving more credit for the growth than natural increases (i.e. births), accounting for 60 percent of the population increase. Western Australia is the leading state for Australia's population boom.

The Australian recently reported on some interesting statistics released by the ABS;

Immigrants are driving population growth more than natural increases, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, which tipped that the country would welcome its 23-millionth resident last night.

The population milestone came on the back of slightly increasing national growth of 1.7 per cent after a low of 1.1 per cent in March 2011.

Immigration continues to dominate natural factors in its contribution to growth, accounting for 60 per cent of the increase, while the latter accounted for 40 per cent.

Those figures are up from 54 per cent in September 2011 for net migration - the difference between immigrants entering Australia and residents leaving - and down from 46 per cent for natural increases, the difference between births and deaths.

The director of ABS demography, Bjorn Jarvis, said this was the highest annual increase in net overseas migration in almost five years. "Natural increases are pretty consistent over time, certainly in the last 25 years, but net migration is noticeably more volatile, depending on different policy approaches and the popularity of Australia as a destination," he said.

The ABS estimates a child is born every 104 seconds, someone dies every 3 1/2 minutes and a net gain of one migrant happens every two minutes, 19 seconds.

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The Queensland Government has announced that it will sponsor international students who have completed at least a Masters Degree in Queensland.  A successful sponsorship will allow the graduates to apply for a subclass 190 visa through the SkillSelect system.

Applications for Queensland state nomination are assessed on a case-by-case basis. To be eligible, applicants must meet all of the following requirements:

• Completed 100% of a Masters Degree or qualification higher than a Masters Degree at a Queensland institution in Queensland and have graduated within the last 18 months;
• Have an occupation on the special Queensland Skilled Occupation List (QSOL)* for International Post Graduate Alumni and meet the national assessment requirements for that occupation;
• Have an offer of employment in your skilled occupation and evidence of acceptance; the employment opportunity must be for a period of at least 12 months duration; and
• Provide evidence you have sufficient funds available to settle in Queensland.

*PhD graduates who wish to apply for Queensland state sponsorship must adhere to all of the above requirements, however can nominate an occupation from DIAC’s Consolidated Skilled Occupation List (CSOL).

Minimum English requirements apply.

For more information about applying state for sponsorship, contact AMVL Migrations to speak to member of our migration team.
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