Australian immigration changes petitioned

Frustrated visa applicants have made their feelings towards the Australian government known through the establishing of an online petition.

With many visa applicants frustrated by what has been described as a sudden and unexpected alterations by the Australian Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) they have created the online protest to speak out against what they see as extremely unfair practices in the changes to visa processing policies.

Earlier this year in September, the Australian immigration authorities declared a new range of processing priorities would be applied to the General Skilled Migration program, a move which had ramifications for both unprocessed visa applications and also applications already allocated to case workers which were in the final stages of processing.

Applicants were especially piqued that the new visa processing priorities had been announced without any advance notification or consultation and that the unexpected changes were enacted immediately.

A spokesperson for the petition site said that the group was alarmed that applications already in the processing stages were suddenly subjected to a raft of new criteria. The group claims such a move was extremely unfair and has respectfully asked the department to reconsider its decision to ensure no additional penalties are applied to those cases already under consideration.

Government commentators and immigration specialists in Australia have doubted whether the requests will be met citing economic factors as the driving influence. However, it is expected that extensive changes to immigration laws will be made by the soon to be formed Migration Occupations in Demand Lists (MODL) review, similar to Britain’s occupation shortlist.