Visa Applications Spouse/fiancee To Australia

[david96]

Of all the visa applications in one year processed by DIAC at the Bangkok Embassy how many are,

1 Successful and get their visa

2 Are refused a visa

3 Appeal to the MRT in Australia and eventually get their visa

4 Propose to re-apply at a later date.

In other words what is the refusal rate?

[gburns57au]

Havent been able to source any current info on that....maybe someone else has a few hours to spare...However the rate prior to 2003 was consistantly around the 7-10% mark and I dont see it as being too different today.

To this time I have heard of very few people here who have applied have been knocked back, The few that have appealed successfully and I cant recall anyone having to withdraw their applications.

[Chris Lawrence]

I think Graham is right, but maybe over a few days. What about the annual report, but that may not break it down for countries rather than certain catorgories.

The other place some of the info may come from is the commonwealth ombudsman, but I think that would be directed more to complaints on service.

The other way to do it is email the embassy in Bangkok and say you are a uni student doing an assignment on a humanitarian degree.

Very hard to get this type of transparency from the Department. But I can assure you these figures would be close at hand for them. I don't think Afganie Ben would be bothered with these figures, its not as though you would use them as a basis for destroying national security, its has got to do more with the culture of the service.

David how were you going to use this information

[gburns57au]

The 2005 - 2006 annual report wasnt helpful

Edited November 18, 2007 by gburns57au

[Chris Lawrence]

Yeah I know. So much for transparency, but lets face it would you as a major corporation highlight areas that may have been also mentioned as critiques in a watchdog type service.

Thought the name change might have made a difference?

The annual reports want to highlight achievements. Why not just send an email to Ross Greenwood in Canberra and ask about the figures and client satisfaction surveys. Ross was the one that predominantly decides the applications from what I found out in Jan 06.

[david96]

Yes one must accept that it is a difficult one.

Political reasons would be the main reason.

Example in one year 976 visas are issued. This would look good for DIAC

Example in one year 976 visas are issued and 257 are refused. This would not look good for DIAC and questions might

be asked as to the high refusal rate.

This is most likely the reason that refusals are not published.

[Chris Lawrence]

I would suggest you ask Ross before drawing conclusion. And what about the surveys as to client satisfaction? I can't find these on the dept. web site.

[david96]

Chris this link has som interesting info

see clause 1.1.2 Family entry note the processing times

http://www.immi.gov.au/about/reports/annua...utcome_1_1.html

[Chris Lawrence]

Check this out on http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=45c_1191243691 about the Aussie Citizenship test.

David

I know this might be a bit off topic but have a look at this link. I thought it was funny.

[david96]

How very true the Howard test is rubbish, I wonder how many people know that the term "Australian Citizen" did not exist until August 1948.Before that Australians (ie the inhabitants of Australia) were "British subjects"

Australians was just a general term for people living in Australia. The natives (aborigines) were not counted in the census.

Think one might have got off topic -- information of interest only.

[david96]

From the Australian newspaper today 21/11/2007

THE Department of Immigration is planning to hook a web of government and private agencies into its $495 million Systems for People platform in a move expected to improve its visa enforcement capabilities and national security.

Migration agents and service providers will be given access to the network

Migration agents and community and settlement service providers will be given access to new internet portals being developed as part of the project, as Immigration works to avoid a repeat of the Cornelia Rau and Vivian Alvarez Solon scandals.

Department chief information officer Bob Correll said some external organisations already had access to new computing platforms through portals launched this year.

In one instance, a contracted detention centre operator had been linked into the department through a procurement portal.

Additional detention centres are to be connected to the procurement portal next year in a move intended to improve access to critical detainee information, such as medical alerts.

Labor has not raised any objections to the Systems for People project.

Mr Correll said the department hoped to increase access to a wide array of organisations as it amalgamated reams of data stored in silos throughout the organisation.

Organisations slated to receive access include migration, welfare and community service operators such as the Red Cross, and state agencies such as corrective services departments could also be connected to the system.

The department hopes that expanding the system to include other organisations will improve management of visitors, immigrants and asylum seekers, and beef up enforcement. Data swapping with agencies such as the Department of Education, Science and Training, for example, would allow Immigration to check that student visa holders were attending courses as required.

Relationships between visa holders could be unearthed through data mining, giving the department's compliance division new tools in efforts to track down visitors who are in the country unlawfully.

The activities will be enabled through the integration of client information into a database that mirrors the massive customer relationship management systems used by financial institutions.

Access to the information in the database will be governed by a series of portals that dictate details that internal and external users are allowed to see.

The portal model and various other aspects of Systems for People draw on the Commonwealth Bank's $250 million CommSee CRM project and one of the key developers of CommSee sits on the Systems for People steering committee.

Immigration has previously struggled to create a complete picture of visitors and migrants through its systems because information has been stored in disparate databases split across regional, state and departmental business lines.

Mr Correll said it was likely to be some time before the full array of links to external organisations was established and Immigration's first priority was overhauling internal client management and visa processing capabilities.

Systems for People is about 18 months into its five-year program of work.

Mr Correll said Immigration had already averted one potential repeat of earlier detention scandals when an Australian citizen with mental health problems presented herself as an immigrant who wanted to return home.

Immigration is gearing up for its next wave of portal releases, scheduled for January, including general skilled migration and border security information access points.

Both systems are expected to strengthen national security by providing a clearer picture of threats posed by some prospective immigrants, and more tightly integrating terror watch lists into visa processing systems.

[david96]

With the ALP now the new government in Australia it will be interesting to see if there will be any changes to the Immigration policy.

[CbrLad]

With the ALP now the new government in Australia it will be interesting to see if there will be any changes to the Immigration policy.

If there is any change you can bet it will be in relation to refugee's and not the kind of immigration issues we generally discuss here.