Australian Visa Application Increases in 2012
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Australian Visa Application Increases in 2012
| Date Added: December 07, 2011 10:15:06 PM |
| Author: Brian Haines |
| Category: Travel and Tourism: Travel Services |
| Last November 29, the Australian Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Chris Bowen MP, announced that the Gillard Government will implement a new visa of Australia fee system. A new application for Australian visa pricing arrangements will be introduced in order to ensure that taxpayers are no longer subsidizing visa applications. According to Minister Bowen, significant changes will be made, including a reduction in the Visa Application Charge (VAC) for new students and the introduction of a new fee for dependants of visa from Australia applicants from July 2013 which will take effect from January 2012. However, at the moment, there is no fee for student dependents, though all other visa in Australia applicants’ dependants will now have to pay a fee. The cost of a student visa Australian application will be decreased by five per cent from the 1st of January 2012. This is done in order for Australia’s international education market maintain competitive rates. On the other hand, the costs for skilled worker and business visas will be increased between five to fifteen per cent. Fee increases will also affect longer duration visas and paper-based Australian visa form applications where there is an online Australia visa form option available and other optional services, such as visa labels, which are not required by Australia. These changes will be progressively introduced over the next 18 months, subject to normal legislative processes and are aimed to “bring Australia's visa application charge structures in line with comparable countries." Meanwhile, the vast majority of visitor visas will see no pricing change, including those arriving on an Electronic Travel Authority (ETA) and visitors from the European Economic Community, as well as applicants for refugee and humanitarian visa, citizenship applicants, postgraduate research students, and Australian sponsoring businesses. Currently, costs of visa application do not cover the entire cost to the Commonwealth of processing the applications. The changes are estimated to generate about $613 million in revenue over the next four years, aiming to remove the cost of visa applications from the tax burden. The move to a per-person visa application charge structure or a user-pays approach realizes the value of visa access while safeguarding Australia’s international competitiveness. It will also provide greater fairness and flexibility to respond to changing circumstances. According to Minister Bowen, with the user-pays approach, taxpayers will no longer need to subsidize visa applicants. Moreover, the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) will also implement on July 2012 the revised living costs, one of Australian visa requirements, which will be reviewed based on Consumer Price Index (CPI). |
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