Lawyer Stephanie Chia takes a look at the complexity of the Australian visa system and how best to navigate your way through it …and who to get help from to achieve a realistic and stress free outcome.

To legally enter and explore the attractive sandy shores of Australia, you need to be an Australian Citizen or a person who holds a valid visa. If you are not a citizen, you need to hold a visa that allows entry and stay in Australia, whether it is for one day, a few years or indefinitely.

Australia’s Migration Programme is carried out by the Australian Government’s Department of Home Affairs. It has been known by different names in the past – the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC), and the Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP). The changes in its name have generally reflected the current waves in migration trends, social policies and public sentiments towards the Migration Programme as a whole.

How to Apply for a Visa
To apply for a visa that allows you entry into Australia, it will depend on what you intend to achieve in the Land Down Under. Many young students from other countries apply for a working holiday visa, and find themselves working hard to earn a decent wage in regional farms, often staying with the farmers and getting a first hand taste of what it feels like to ‘live in the bush’! This is a great way for students to earn money as it is seasonal and therefore no long term commitment is needed.  

Others turn up in airports on visitor visas which allow them to take a well-deserved holiday in Australia and engage in sightseeing, or visiting family and friends. Some may even be flying in to meet up with a love met and nurtured online!

Overwhelmingly, a lot of people all over the world want to move to Australia and make it their homes permanently. Australia is attractive due to its reputation as a safe, fair and systematic country to raise a family that has an enviable place amongst the world’s big players.

The criteria to being selected for Australia’s permanent residency visas has increasingly become more difficult throughout the years, as the world’s social climate and policies shift quickly around us. Most potential applicants are assessed strictly through a dazzling array of selection criteria that may be a challenge to navigate, and they are not always for the faint-hearted.
Even choosing the relevant visa to apply for requires a certain amount of research and determination.

To start off with, it may be well worth a click to https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/Trav.
Here you’ll see that there are broad categories which list the relevant visas within them in order to help you focus on what you should be applying for. Be really sure of what you want to achieve.

Many potential applicants wring their arms up in despair at the sheer amount of visa options before them, and this is even more challenging for anyone who does not understand the English Language in other parts of the world.

How To Find Great Professionals To Help You
The complexity involved in visa navigation and its subsequent application process has created a demand for professional visa expertise and advice. The Office of the Migration Agents Registration Authority (OMARA) was created as an authority body to regulate the profession of Migration Agents.

It is highly advised that anyone seeking the services of a Migration Agent should ensure that the Migration Agent is registered and listed on https://www.mara.gov.au/. As a Registered Migration Agent (RMA) with OMARA, an applicant will be able to lodge a complaint if the appointed RMA is not doing a good job. It is also a good practice to check if the RMA is listed on the suspended or barred listing before engaging them, as they are not be able to provide immigration advice.

Legal Practitioners in Australia are also eligible to provide immigration advice. However, they must hold a current legal practising certificate, and be registered with OMARA. Legal Practitioners, or Immigration Lawyers, are usually engaged as a result of a difficult visa application, a visa application rejection, or a visa application which requires judicial review.

Many potential applicants mull between engaging an RMA or an Immigration Lawyer. Like all service providers across all industries, there are stellar examples and awful representatives of each service provider wherever one goes. In fact, it can become quite subjective as one client raves about a great RMA, and another client begs to differ. Another may only swear by Immigration Lawyers, and yet another may avoid them due to the fees they charge.

I have seen many applicants’ cases fall to pieces due to incompetent service providers, and this has happened with RMAs and Immigration Lawyers alike. This has grave consequences which applicants have never been advised of or likely to expect. A careless application costs money, but most importantly, time. Visas are highly dependent on time-sensitive criteria that rely heavily on age, working experiences and occupations, just to state a few. They shift rapidly due to Australia’s employment needs, social climate and other pressures. Some visas are scrapped altogether, and some visas are created in the meantime. If you miss out, you miss out completely! Therefore, potential applicants should not jump into choosing a service provider recklessly.

Good luck, and if you have any general questions about migration just drop me a line in the area underneath.

Hey and don’t forget to check out all the fabulous FAMILY LAW resources we have online HERE

With the coming of each new year, it is heralded around the land by scribes in the press and much concerned friends, that it’s time to make our annual pilgrimage to the bottomless well of New Year’s resolutions. That’s why we have the month of January, named after Janus, the god of new beginnings.

Lose weight? Travel more? Quit smoking? Get a six pack? Stop eating fast food? Stop judging people? Stop farting? Learn a foreign language? Budget and save more? Stop procrastinating? Stop something that rhymes with procrastinating?

Those self improvement “to do’s” we make may look motivating as post-its stuck all over our bathroom mirror but by mid month, they and our post-its have usually exceeded their half-life and fallen back to earth.

And think about it, if all these resolutions we set for ourselves were actually achieved, imagine the sheer pandemonium it would create. Endless queues outside of gyms, one size clothing for all, a planet devoid of miserable bastards, and the death of lifestyle blogs to tell us what to do. Ouch! That last one hurt.

However, the reality is that resolutions roll on and resurface every December with a vengeance and there’s nothing I can do about it.

Or is there?

Well, if there was one thing that I could suggest you start doing, and it really doesn’t take up much time, is to start incorporating a small amount of meditation in your mornings before you start your day.

[Author immediately glances sideways at readers heading towards the exit] No, no, come back!

This is not some ‘new age’ hippie or religious stuff I’m pushing here. It’s actually quiet simple and doesn’t require you to join a buddhist monastery.

The 10 minute “Breath Counting” Meditation
This is a great 10 minute morning meditation devised by an American medico, Dr Andrew Weil. He’s been an expert in this area for years so if you feel a little suspicious with a lawyer like myself prescribing meditation, trust Andrew.

It’s a simple technique much used in Zen practice. After waking, do what you have to do in the bathroom, wash your face and stay in your loose fitting PJs.

Then Andrew suggests you:

Sit in a comfortable position with the spine straight and head inclined slightly forward. (A chair is fine, you don’t have to be cross legged on the floor.)

Gently close your eyes and take a few deep breaths. Then let the breath come naturally without trying to influence it.

Ideally it will be quiet and slow, but depth and rhythm may vary.

To begin the exercise, count “one” to yourself as you exhale.

The next time you exhale, count “two,” and so on up to “five.”

Then begin a new cycle, counting “one” on the next exhalation.

Never count higher than “five,” and count only when you exhale.

You will know your attention has wandered when you find yourself up to “eight,” “12,” even “19.”

If you start experiencing that annoying mind chatter, as we all do, just refocus on the breath and the counting.

Try to do 10 minutes of this form of meditation in the morning before your ‘other day’ begins.

Don’t waste time convincing yourself that it can’t apply to a busy dynamo like yourself.

For heaven’s sake… Just do it.

I hope we have an understanding? Good, because in the words of the great Cavett Robert:

“Character is the ability to carry out a good resolution long after the excitement of the moment has passed.”

And what I surely want for you in the New Year is not a resolutions list that is going to be unachievable and end up in the bin, but instead, a little meditation that will lead to you – being happier, having less anxiety, being more creative, having lower blood pressure and boosting your learning ability.

Have a great New Year and thanks for supporting The Legal Eagle in 2017!

Some interesting statistics from the census which include the lengthening of marriages before getting a divorce. This figure used to hover around the 9-10 year mark as an average but as you can see below now is well over the 12 year mark. Comforting, I guess.

The one stat that continues to baffle me is the non resident parent’s lack of either opportunity or availability to spend time with the kids. 51% spending no time with the kids – well there’s just something terribly concerning about that considering that the Family Law Act suggests that it is in the best interests of the kids to have a relationship with both their parents …except of course where there is violence.
Anyhow check it out…

Don’t forget to check all our essential info on divorce including our divorce survival guide and our famous DIY divorce guide.