Australia and New Zealand Immigration News

Australian Immigration has announced that from 15 February 2012 the validity period for Resident Return Visas (Subclass 155) will be reduced from five years to one year when the applicant has not lived in Australia for more than two of the last five years.

Currently there is a huge demand for Residential Care Officers in Australia. If you meet the necessary requirements you can emigrate to Australia under the General Skilled Migration (GSM) Program. A Residential Care Officer provides care and supervision for children or disabled persons in group housing or institutional care.

The Australian Treasurer Wayne Swan announced changes to the Living Away from Home Allowance (LAFHA) as part of the Mid-year Economic and Fiscal Outlook 2011-12.LAFHA is an allowance paid to the employee to cover the additional costs of living away from home while performing employment related duties. There are typically three elements to a LAFHA; accommodation, food, and hardship. LAFHA is widely used by temporary residents to boost their take-home pay.

Human Resource Advisors looking to emigrate to Australia can apply under the General Skilled Migration (GSM) Program. Human Resource Advisors provide staffing and personnel administration services in support of an organisation's human resource policies and programs. In order to receive a visa, applicants will need to meet the basic requirements for GSM, pass the Australian immigration Points Test and pass an occupation skills assessment to qualify for an Australian visa.

According to Australian-based private educational chain Navitas Workforce Solutions, only one in two overseas-trained engineers can get work in their field. In order to address this issue they have teamed up with Engineers Australia to create a new program focusing not only on aspects of technical training but also workplace culture, communication and job-finding skills for Australian immigrant engineers. Engineers Australia is a national group of more than 85,000 members working in all disciplines of the engineering industry.

Western Australia Tourism Minister Kim Hames is pushing Australian immigration to relax rules for the Working Holiday visa to help fill job vacancies in the hospitality and tourism industry.