When do the visa's for umrah open again?

AUSTRALIAN IMMIGRATION : How are student visas processed and issued?

• What is the exact criteria for asian people between the age of 18 - 30 to be granted a student visa for entry into australia. What exact documentation is needed and what proof that the applicants are actually taking up a form of education in australia is required. Are all student visas issued for a minimum period. What is that period and do student visas all include permission to work while studying. How is income tax calculated and monitored for holders of student visas if and when they include permission to work and if they are self employed are students issued with an ABN (australian business number) for taxable puposes ? There is widespread yet quite covert criminality involved and false information being put forward to the australian immigration department in connection to this particular type and category of visa. The law is definitely being conveniently flouted. The main focus of my awareness to this is upon the Melbourne licenced brothel business which provides gainful employment to many holders of student visas who are involved in a solely cash payment form of remuneration. It is my knowledge that within this type of organisation pre arranged assistance for easily obtaining visas is provided in order to supply a regular compliment and variable turnover of staff. The successful visa holders are also presented with an extortionate amount of repayment debt to the provider. So as well as informing the department what other methods of awareness and publicity in australia could you suggest to ensure that the australian immigration department investigates much further into the high number of "students" being assisted with falsified visa appilications. These easily obtained visas are giving entrance into australia for young people who are entering under false pretences who are working illegally and who are being exploited. As this matter has been raised before several times and brought to the attention of the australian authorities can australians explain why no action has been taken and the illegal entrants are still succeeding in getting through. Who can assist in steering this important issue and potential security risk to australia into the hands of the appropriate authorities who may deal with this more effectively. Are there no follow up checks carried out on students to ascertain that holders of study visas are in fact truthfully engaged in education and that if they are working then is it within the legal limits set out under the visa conditions. Or do we have a situation here of one set of rules opposed to another and a blind eye being turned ? If the immigration department are choosing to ignore the matter then who else would you suggest it is reported to in order to achieve investigations and tighter monitoring of entrants who are being exploited and assisted in an organised way to enter the country falsely and work illegally ?

• Answer:

  I really hate to agree with you about anything, but you're 100% correct on this subject. The whole situation is absolutely appalling and I wonder how the people responsible at DIAC can look anyone in the eye while they allow it to continue. Many heads should roll at all levels of the department and there should be an enquiry into how long it has been allowed to continue when the dogs have been barking for years that there was major rorting of the system both overseas and in Australia. To answer your specific questions: The criteria for granting anyone a student visa are: • they must have been accepted by a registered educational institution - that means there must be major corruption in that area because many of the students couldn't possibly be qualified. They also don't attend courses and the department is never notified of that fact (as you'd expect). • students must have sufficient financial resources to pay their tuition for the entire course and must have at least $12000 per year for living expenses. People from low assessment level countries (e.g. Thailand) just make declarations about their financial capacity. People from high assessment level countries (e.g. China, India, Vietnam) must provide proof and produce certified documentation of their financial resources and the sources of those funds. The requirements are pretty stringent so there must be major corruption overseas about the certification and something badly wrong in Australia (corruption? incompetence? who knows?) in that the documentation is obviously not checked properly. • student visas are issued for the duration of the course and can be of any length. They run from just before the course starts until between 1 and 4 months after the course ends (depending on the course duration and end date). The onus is on the institution to notify the department if a student doesn't attend and there is evidently no spot checking by DIAC. • all student visas now automatically include permission to work for 20 hours per week while the course is in session and unlimited hours during official course breaks. Accompanying family members can work 20 hours per week all year around. • income tax is calculated in the same way as it's done for anyone else in Australia. Most students can be treated as residents for tax purposes, but as with everyone else, if they work 'under the table', the ATO only occasionally finds out. When they do find out, they act, but they don't look very hard in the first place. • you only get an ABN if you apply for one. If someone wants to work cash in hand and thinks they can get away with it, they keep their heads down and don't apply. I honestly believe that the current Immigration minister, Senator Chris Evans, is a decent bloke and a good minister who genuinely wants everything to do with immigration to be administered properly, but he has a heavy workload and is obviously being ill-informed at best or deliberately misled at worst, by his department. I believe that if he was presented with solid evidence of wrongdoing, he would act, but he's only one man and it's a huge, busy department. The recent complaints by Indian and other students about the quality of education and bogus institutions together with evidence of fraudulent IELTS results and financial resource information has caused some rocks to be turned over and a major shakeup in that area is imminent, but that's largely a different problem from the one you're talking about. Stopping the fraudulent financials might have some effect though as without them, your brothel workers wouldn't get visas in the first place. If 4 Corners were to get interested in the subject, that would bring it into the open and the government would act. It would make a great story of exactly the kind that they love to get their teeth into.