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Student Visa Cancellations It has been reported in the Australian on the 2nd of September that the Department of Immigration and Border Protection cancelled 10,949 student visas between the start of July last year and the end of June this year, compared with 8018 in the previous year and 8930 in the year ending June 2013. The visa cancellation figures, indicate that Chinese students had the biggest number of student visa cancella­tions; 1793 in the past 12 months. More than 1160 South Korean students had their visas cancelled, followed in number by India, Vietnam and Thailand. The total number of student visas issued rose by 2 per cent, from 292,060 to 299,540. The new figures come as the government puts finishing touches on he SSVF (simplified student visa framework), with a working group of international education sector stakeholders holding its concluding meeting last week. The updated framework will mean a broader, simpler, fairer framework for both international students and Australian education providers which will reduce the number of student visa subclasses from eight to two, by the middle of next year. The altered student visa framework will will replace both the Streamlined Visa Processing (SVP) arrangements and the current Assessment Level Framework and will apply to all international students. It will lay out a student’s financial and English language evidentiary requirements based on two things: the immigration profile of the student’s country of citizenship and of their education provider. Phil Honeywood, chief executive of the International Education Association of Australia, said the present system allowed low-quality education providers to misuse the visa streamlining scheme. The Streamline Visa Processing arrangements end at the end of the financial year 2015-16. The agencies responsible for the quality assurance and regulation of education services for overseas students will work closely with the Department of Immigration and Border Protection on the new regime.

Immigration SA will be publishing a revised South Australian State Occupation List on 1 July 2015.  Occupations that are not available on the State Occupation List will be listed on the Supplementary Skilled List and are available to applicants who meet additional requirements. The Supplementary Skilled List reflects all occupations available on the Commonwealth’s Consolidated Sponsored Occupations List (CSOL) that are not listed on South Australia’s State Occupation List. 190/489 application system closing temporarily The application system will be closed down at 1 pm on 30 June 2015 and re-opened at 12 pm on 1 July 2015. Saved applications and applications submitted but no payment made If you have a saved 190 or 489 state nomination (GSM) application or an application submitted with no payment made, you will need to submit the application and make the payment before 1 pm (South Australian time) on 30 June or submit a completely new application from 12 pm on 1 July. All saved applications and applications which have been submitted (but no payment made) will be deleted at 1 pm on 30 June 2015. English requirements There will be some changes to English requirements for occupations and we would like to give you advance notice of changes to the following occupation groups: ICT occupations – Proficient English in each band score (or an overall score of Proficient Plus – i.e. IELTS 7.5 overall). Engineering occupations – Competent Plus English (or an overall score of Proficient i.e. IELTS 7 overall). There will be changes to the English requirements for other occupations. Please check the occupation lists on July 1 2015 for details. For information on what the terms Competent, Competent Plus and Proficient are for each of the accepted English tests, please refer here. State nomination requirements All applications from July 1 2015 must meet the new requirements published.