A Department of Immigration and Citizenship client reference group has released a report on new visa pricing to be implemented on 1 July 2012 and 1 July 2013.

The main key points are;

• Visa charges will be per person, rather than per application
• A new charge to obtain visa labels
• Skilled and temporary economic visas will be affected
• Encourages temporary and long term residents to consider permanent migration
• Encourages more use of VEVO and electronic visa lodgements
• July 2012 fees will be adjust as per CPI
• July 2013 surcharges for extra services to be introduced, such as additional applicant
• More services will be available online and provide quicker processing times

Job offer – tick.  Visa – tick.  Flights – tick.  Your life down under awaits but whilst the plane will take the strain to transport you and your family across the other side of the world, your possessions will need expert handling.  Notching up almost 35 years in the business, Anglo Pacific World Movers is the name to look out for when it comes to shipping the contents of your house, and your garage, overseas.

International Removals

Anglo Pacific is acknowledged as the UK market leader for shipping household effects to Australia and New Zealand.  They’re also a ‘significant shipper’ to the USA, Canada, South Africa, South East Asia and other major routes worldwide.  In fact Anglo Pacific has relocated more than half a million households over the last 35 years - quickly, efficiently and with minimum fuss.  But just because Anglo Pacific is ‘big’ doesn’t mean that they’re not personal. 

Noel Glavin, International Migration Manager for Anglo Pacific explains, “We go out of our way to focus on the individual, the finer detail, and care very much that your possessions are delivered on time and in perfect condition.  Returning nationals, expats, migrants and employees on corporate secondment come to us through word of mouth recommendation and many come back for repeat business.  Clearly we’re getting it right.”

“Perhaps our greatest quality is our beginning to end service.  Our packers, trained to the British Association of Removers Export Packing Skills, will delicately and diligently wrap everything from dainty glassware to cumbersome sofas and do it all on-site at your home so you can witness our unrivalled care and attention.  Our team will then collect, transport by sea or air to suit timeframes and budgets, arrange customs and importation paperwork and deliver to your final destination.  Of course we’ll then unwrap the items and remove all unwanted packing materials and waste so you can get on with the important task of enjoying your new surroundings.”

Need more reassurance?  Anglo Pacific is a fully bonded member of the British Association of Removers (BAR) and other major bodies that govern the international removals industry.

Car Shipping

Classic or convertible, motorbike or scooter, caravan or boat, whatever your chosen mode of transport you won’t want to leave your precious cargo behind when you relocate and with Anglo Pacific you don’t need to.  Each year they handle thousands of individual shipments and work to internationally recognized quality standards to ensure that your wheels (or craft) arrive in tiptop condition.

Much more than just transporting from A to B, Anglo Pacific’s car shipping service is a meticulous and thorough process.    If you’re also sending household goods they can cosy them up in the same container by fixing up a timber frame in front of the car with the remaining space filled available for your belongings.  This way, everything conveniently arrives at the same time.  Storage is also an optional extra so that your shipment can be deferred to coincide with your arrival date.

An unexpected bonus of car shipping with Anglo Pacific is the ability to stow personal effects in the luggage compartment free of charge – just make sure it’s all packed in cartons or suitcases.

Anglo Pacific knows that you’ll want to keep a close eye on the progress of your delivery and as such have a unique car shipping tracking system.  The location, status and contact details of the relevant local representative are at your fingertips.

Anglo Pacific has all the know-how to clear the formalities at customs, conduct the necessary port admin and advise you of any additional fees that will be levied by the various government departments.  And, as fully bonded members of the British Association of Removers (BAR) you have full financial protection for your shipping costs. 

For removals enquiries contact Anglo Pacific on 020 8838 8493 or email migration@anglopacific.co.uk

About the author of this blog entry:

Noel Glavin is the International Migration Manager of Anglo Pacific, offering worldwide moving services. 

New clear advice from the Australian Department of Immigration and Citizenships (DIAC) helps explain the myths around the requirement for a visa label to be placed in passports. DIAC has for many years now been slowly developing its IT capacity and one of their programs is to slowly phase out the requirements for visa labels to be affixed to a page in an applicant’s passport.

The Facts;

• DIAC makes it quite clear that they do NOT require a visa label to be placed in your passport to be able to travel to, or enter or remain in Australia
• All Australia bound international commercial airlines and cruise ships are required to verify your visa details before departure
• Visa details can be accessed by the airlines, banks, employers, government services and yourself through the Visa Entitlement Verification Online (VEVO) system
• Organisations viewing VEVO can only see certain information relating to your status and entitlements
• Visa holders can see class and subclass of visa, grant and expiry dates, grant number, entries allowed and all conditions that apply to your visa
• Australian employers, schools and banks can verify your status using VEVO with your consent
• All visa holders have the responsibility to check for themselves the requirements by foreign countries to transit through or exit their country
• Foreign governments are aware that a visa label is not required to travel to Australia.
• If required a visa label can be obtained by attending a DIAC office in Australia or overseas
• See: Visa Entitlement Verification Online (VEVO)

For further information http://www.immi.gov.au/visas/about-your-visa.htm

If you have any questions then please make a comment below. 

A recent Sydney Morning Herald article discusses research from Lloyds TSB International Wealth showed 19% of wealthy Britons were thinking of moving to Australia, the United States, New Zealand and Canada or to the euro zone countries like France and Spain.

• One in five Britons with more than 250,000GBP in savings are thinking about this
• Main reasons; tired of crime, poor weather and high cost of living
• Government trying to preserve image as a safe-haven for the international rich while increasing taxes and slashing public spending
• About half a million people in Britain have more than 250,000 pounds in savings or investments that exclude property.

Lloyds TSB International Wealth Director Nicholas Boys Smith, who oversaw the report, said in a statement.

“Our research suggests the number of wealthy people leaving the UK is set to increase in the next two years,” he said.

“Clearly there’s a growing minority that is worried about the outlook; infrastructure, crime, anti-social behavior, tax, red tape and do believe that there are better options abroad,” Boys Smith told Reuters

With Australia’s business skills migration policy being amended on 1 July 2012 by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) we may see some of the high worth Britons looking to make Australia home as business owners or investors?

A recent article in the Sydney Morning Herald by Madeleine Heffernan discusses the impacts that high Australian wages and industrial relations laws are having on big businesses. So far early indications are that this is affecting the food production industry with major food producers such as Woolworths and Heinz moving some of the operations to New Zealand. Other manufacturers such as Imperial Tobacco have also announced they will be moving manufacturing from Sydney to New Zealand.

Key points;

• New Zealand has lower wages
• Heinz closed down their Australia plant at a loss of 300 jobs in favour of their Hastings New Zealand plant
• Australian manufacturing workers average weekly earning are more than Canada, UK, NZ and the US
• High wages, penalty rates and the productivity of Australian workers have come under attack in recent months
• New Zealand benefiting from a more flexible industrial relations environment

Business owner and philanthropist Dick Smith has stepped into the void left behind by Heinz closing down their tomato sauce plant in Victoria and also acknowledges the higher costs in wages and work conditions means products produced here are more expensive and manufacturing will go offshore. Australians have to be willing to spend 20cents more on Australian sauce.

If the trend continues and more manufacturing jobs are created in New Zealand we may see a few less kiwis making the move across the Tasman and may even see some kiwis return?

The Australian Tourism Export Council has announced the annual Backpacker & Youth Industry Conference is being held on the Sunshine Coast on 1st May, 2012 at the Novotel Twin Waters Resort.

The conference will feature speakers who will look at issues including aviation access and the new opportunities offered by the fast growing China market and its impact on the youth tourism, the working holiday maker visa and other topical issues affecting the market.

ATEC have previously announced new research commissioned by themselves indicates changes to the Woking Holiday 417 Visa program have the capacity to increase annual GDP by over $85 million with the potential of up to a $700 million boost over a 10 year period.

At present working holiday visa makers under the 417 program which includes the following countries: Belgium, Canada, Republic of Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Republic of Ireland, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Taiwan and United Kingdom can obtain a 12 month work visa for 18 to 30 year olds. Also a second visa is available to applicants who have completed three months of specified work inregional Australia while on your first Working Holiday (417) visa. At present specified work includes plant and animal cultivation, fishing and pearling, tree farming and felling, mining and construction.

ATEC provide some interesting figures regarding the benefits of adding the tourism industry to this list of specified work and feel a larger uptake of the 2^nd working visa would be seen. I would strongly agree with this information. However I am sure the affect on the farming sector would be significant in that a backpacker would rather work as a waiter or barperson for 3 months to obtain a 2^nd 417 rather than working hard on a farm picking fruit? The agriculture sector at present is heavily really on itinerant workers to get food into our supermarkets and exported abroad. However I do not think it would be a bad thing to utilise 417 visa holders to fill short term skills gaps and make it easier for proven skilled workers to move onto further visa programs such as the 457, Employer Sponsored Migration Scheme and Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme.

Following ATEC’s commissioned research they have made a submission to the Federal Government to make five key policy adjustments to the Working Holiday (WHV) 417 visa program;

Ms Mariani said the Position Paper, The Importance of the Working Holiday Visa (Subclass 417), offered the government some valuable and realistic policy change options including:

1. Employment for 88 days in ‘tourism and hospitality’ in regional Australia be included as part of the 12 month extension program for the Second WHV 417;

2. The costs and financial requirements of applying for WHM program visas be held constant or reduced;

3. The qualifying age range be increased from 18-30 up to 35 years in line with other countries;

4. Multiple visa applications be permitted, one between 18-25 years of age and a second one from 26-30/35 years;

5. Better engagement

Ms Mariani said the proposed changes would have significant benefits for regional Australia which has a greater reliance on tourism generated revenue than metropolitan areas.

“Backpackers are keen to work in the hospitality industry and are more likely to take short-term and seasonal work in regional areas where this kind of labour force is most needed and where employers have struggled to find an adequate workforce. “We also know that for every hundred travellers in Australia under this visa category, 6.3 full time equivalent jobs are created in the wider economy which equates to almost 12,000 full-time-equivalent jobs across the country.”

ATEC’s position paper, The Importance of the Working Holiday Visa (Subclass 417) is available here.

Ferguson Cannon Lawyers Managing Director Glenn Ferguson recently received the Queensland Law Society Specialist Accreditation in Immigration Law. As a founding member of the Immigration Lawyers’ Association of Australasia (ILAA) and a member of the Migration Agents’ Advisory Board, Glenn is one of Australia’s most experienced immigration lawyers.

If you need assistance with your Australian Visa application please call (+61 07 5443 6600) or Skype (fcl_migration) us today!

Recently we had the pleasure of assisting Stellar Live the promoters of Adam Ants upcoming Australian tour with obtaining Entertainment Subclass 420 Visas for their touring party. Whilst under tight deadlines, all members of the touring party obtained their visas and are currently en route to Australia.

Ferguson Cannon Lawyers would like to wish Stellar Live, Adam Ant and the Posse all the best on their tour and that they get some time to enjoy a little bit of Australia at the same time as we understand a number of the band members have never visit Australia before.

Adam Ant may also make an appearance on the Adam Hills in the Gordon St Tonight show and The Circle, so keep an eye out for these possible appearances.

The Australian tour will visit;

• SYDNEY - Mar. 23rd. Enmore Theatre
• MELBOURNE - Mar. 30th. Palace Theatre
• PERTH - April 1 Astor Theatre
• BRISBANE - Apr. 8th. Tivoli-Theatre

If you are an artist planning on coming to Australia on a Entertainment Visa, please contact our experienced migration agents to assist you with your application.

A report in the Sydney Morning Herald by Rania Spooner paints a different picture from the Sunday Herald Sun article. It reports that rising unemployment in Europe is driving an influx of Irish and British skilled migrants to Australia but skilled migration from Greeks where unemployment topped 20% in November remains low.

The facts;

• Australian recruiters targeting an already strong relationship with the British Isles
• Global Recruitment company in Perth has noted a surge in Irish and British citizens on temporary visas seeking employer sponsorship
• East coast counterparts have only reported a small rise
• WA Chamber of Commerce and Industry forecasts an extra 500,000 extra workers required by 2020
• Current trends show a shortfall of 150,000 WA workers predicted by 2017
• Working holiday makers on 417 visas from Britain and Ireland in the 6 month to Dec 2011 numbered 42,793 a 30% increase from 2010
• Irish 457 visa applicants increased by 68% to 3095 up from 1840 during same period in 2010
• Greeks white collar professionals are tending to migrate to other European countries, rather than faraway places such as Australia
• DIAC advise the interest is there from Greece but not translating into skilled labour migration to Australia
• Of 750 hand pick Greeks to attend and expo only 30 Greeks obtain employer sponsored 457 visas
• Australian National University public policy professor Glenn Withers said the ties between UK and Australia are strong with established support networks and recruitment programs, however with Greece the ties are not as strong

Ferguson Cannon Lawyers has also noted a large rise in enquires from British and Irish already in Australia on temporary working holiday 417 visas who are coming to the end of their 1^st or 2^nd working holiday visa and for obvious reasons do not want to return due to the very limited employment options back home. We strongly advise that prospective temporary and permanent visa applicants don’t leave things to the last minute, research their options thoroughly and speak early with prospective employers looking to sponsor you.

A recent article in the Sunday Herald Sun by reporter Hamish Heard discussed the rush of new wave of Greek migrants to Melbourne due to the nations dismal economy which is driving away workers who are in search of jobs in Australia.

The facts;

• Unemployment above 17%
• Greek organisations in Melbourne receiving hundreds of enquires a month
• DIAC advised they expect a 65% increase in Greek Migrants this financial year
• The number of Greeks arriving on short term visa has seen a 21% increase last year on 2009 figures
• Melbourne is home to 300,000 Greeks who mainly migrated in the 1950’s and 60’s

If you are considering migrating to Australia, please contact one of our Migration Agent’s to consult you with possible Visa options.