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The latest Education Visa Consultative Committee (EVCC) meeting was held earlier this month in Canberra. Feedback from this important stakeholders meeting includes:
Streamlined Visa Processing (SVP)
Submissions responding to the recent discussion paper (before Christmas) indicate that, while it has been beneficial, SVP is unsustainable in its current form in the longer term. It has created a split between the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’, has a high administration cost and throws up challenges in identifying fraud.
DIBP is finalising its thinking regarding the way forward and is keen to work closely with the EVCC during this process. Should the government decide to put in place a new framework, DIBP would look to establish an EVCC working group to input to its implementation.
Student visa processing update
Approximately 60 per cent of offshore student visa applications are processed in Australia. Processing times have increased in some markets due to fraud and integrity concerns. For example, in India, many non-genuine applicants typically have a similar profile: poor secondary school outcomes, low English levels, poorer financial background, but are being accepted for (heavily packaged) Higher Education courses through SVP. It is expected that the refusal rate may increase, with DIBP moving to refuse applicants expeditiously where visa requirements are clearly not met.
Some of the larger markets such as Vietnam were showing a decrease which was actually a market adjustment after significant increases last year. Integrity concerns were largely a result of providers recruiting in new markets. It was stressed that providers need to be aware of the risks in the markets from which they are recruiting.
China’s growth has been positive, with good integrity outcomes to date.
Student visa integrity – ‘course-hopping’
DIBP commenced Operation Noda in September 2014 in response to concerns about course-hopping.
Cancellation action was undertaken against students who arrived on a SVP 573 visa and were recently refused a 572, students who had not resolved their status and students who had transferred to a course inconsistent with their study background. Over 1,000 Notices of Intent to Consider Cancellation were issued. Of these, 772 visas were cancelled.
Approximately 90 per cent of students responded to the notices with the most common reasons for course-hopping being that they found the course too hard and friends/family suggested change to a VET sector course, they were misled by their education agent overseas who advised that they could change their course once they were in Australia and their course fees were too high. The highest proportion of students whose visas were cancelled were from India (56 per cent), China (15 per cent), Vietnam (15 per cent) and Nepal (six per cent).
Approximately 60 per cent of students whose visa was cancelled have lodged an application for review by the Migration Review Tribunal (MRT) with the majority of decisions now being affirmed by the MRT.
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