On 1st July 2016, the Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP) introduced a new Australian Student Visa program whereby the existing eight Student visa subclasses were reduced down to only two; the Subclass 500 being the new Student visa and the Subclass 590 being the Student Guardian visa.
Another major change is in relation to lodgement. All student visa applications can now be lodged online. This is great news for agents and visa applicants alike!
With regards to eligibility, the Department has removed the different country assessment levels and replaced them with a risk matrix based on the education providers risk rating and the applicant’s home country risk rating. I hope this change will clean up the education industry in Australia as education providers are provided an individual risk rating based on the following criteria:
• Rate of visa cancellations (25% weighting)
• Rate of refusals due to fraud where the applicant lodged overseas (40% weighting)
• Rate of refusals (excluding fraud) where the applicant lodged overseas (10% weighting)
• Rate of student visa holders becoming unlawful non-citizens (15% weighting)
• Rate of subsequent protection visa applications (10% weighting)
So much for a SIMPLIFIED Student Visa process, if you would like to study in Australia and don’t know where to start contact McFarlane Migration take the stress out of the process for you, contact us today on (+61) 0410 546 168 or email info@mcfarlanemigration.com.au