DIMA Annual Report 1996-97

Sub-program 2.2: Family Entry

Objective

To benefit Australian society through the entry of eligible family of Australians.

Description

The Family Entry sub-program is responsible for the determination of applications in the Preferential Family category which comprises the spouse, fiancé, interdependency, parent, child, adoption and preferential relative visa classes.

It also includes a small Special Eligibility category which comprises the family of New Zealand citizen, former citizen and former resident visa classes.

The sub-program also includes, from time to time, a number of 'one-off' visa classes not falling into the above categories.

Applications are processed by staff in the Department's regional offices in Australia and, overseas, at migration offices of Australian missions. The Protection and Family Residence Branch provides policy and program support.

Financial and staffing resources summary

	1996-97 Budget and AEs $'000s	1996-97 Actual $'000s	1995-96 Actual $'000s
Budgetary (cash) basis
Components of appropriations
Annual appropriations
Running costs	19 523	21 155	17 258
Other program costs	-	-	-
Total appropriations	19 523	21 155	17 258
Less adjustments	558	676	732
Total outlays	18 965	20 479	16 526
Total revenue	32 794	30 030	32 583
Staffing
Staff years (actual)	324	350	296

Performance information

Outcomes are measured by the extent to which:

management mechanisms to deliver Migration Program outcomes are effectively deployed;
the sub-program is delivered against the planning level;
the annual target of finalised applications is met; and
policy advice on residence issues is provided to the satisfaction of the Minister and the Executive.

(i) Management mechanisms

Following unprecedented growth in the Preferential Family category in 1995-96, the Government identified this category as one of the key areas needing reform.

On 3 July 1996, the Government announced a comprehensive and integrated set of measures designed to change the overall program and to return the Preferential Family category to previous levels. These measures included:

a restriction that only Australian citizens would be able to sponsor their relatives under the Preferential Family category;
a tighter balance of family test, requiring that a clear majority of an applicant's children must live in Australia;
a wider application of the existing Assurance of Support measures across the Preferential Family program;
limitations on the period and number of sponsorships;
introduction of a probationary arrangement for offshore spouse applicants;
introduction of a cohabitation requirement for de facto (and interdependent) relationships; and
enhanced assessment procedures.

Regulations to implement some of these measures came into effect from 1 October 1996, with remaining measures coming into effect from 1 November 1996. On 7 November 1996, the Senate disallowed regulations relating to:

Australian citizenship restrictions for sponsoring people under the Preferential Family category;
the new balance of family test, for people seeking to migrate as parents; and
a wider application of the existing Assurance of Support (AOS) scheme.

On 12 December, the Minister issued a new General Direction for migration officers providing guidance on processing priorities to be applied from that date in the Preferential Family category.

Under the General Direction, applications in the Preferential Family category are processed under priority groups.

Processing priority is given to children, applications where children are involved and immediate family members of Humanitarian Program entrants or Protection visa holders.

Applications where sponsors are Australian citizens are processed before applications where the sponsors are permanent residents, and in the case of parents, those who have the majority of their children in Australia are processed before those who satisfy the balance of family test.

The balance of family test requires that an applicant have at least half their children in Australia or the number of children residing in Australia is greater than the greatest number of children residing in any single overseas country.

Indications are that demand for Preferential Family category visas continues to be higher than available places and that unfinalised applications involving Australian citizen sponsors (group 2) outweigh those by permanent residents and eligible New Zealand citizens (group 3) by a factor of 2 offshore and by a factor of 3.5 onshore.

To prevent the Family stream of the program from growing at the expense of the Skilled stream, on 31 July 1996 'caps' were set for some sub-classes in the Preferential Family category, including fiancé, interdependency, working aged parent (revoked on 26 March 1997) and preferential relative.

Spouses, dependent children and aged parents were exempted from capping. The exemption of aged parents from capping was revoked in February 1997.

Capping levels were raised on 21 October 1996 for the prospective spouse sub-class (from 1 500 to 3 000 places) and the interdependency sub-class offshore (from 200 to 300 places).

Capping limits the number of visas which can be granted each year in a particular visa sub-class, although processing of applications can continue. The use of caps assisted the Government in meeting its program planning levels.

Regulations to introduce a probationary arrangement for offshore spouse applicants came into effect on 11 December 1996. This brings the arrangements for offshore processing of spouse applications into line with onshore arrangements.

The Migration Legislation Amendment Act (No.1) 1997, passed on 17 March 1997, enabled amendments to the Migration Regulations to introduce a cohabitation requirement of 12 months for de facto (and interdependent) relationships.

The Migration Regulations will also be amended to limit the number of spouses able to be sponsored (two per person, a minimum of five years apart).

These measures are expected to reduce the use of contrived relationships to obtain permanent residence in Australia. Performance will be measured by examining the approval rate for permanent residence, at the end of the two-year waiting period.

As a part of a package of measures to curb abuse of the spouse provision, an enhanced assessment regime for spouse/prospective spouse/interdependency applications was introduced.

The strategy to improve the bona fides assessment of spouse relationships included three main elements:

an increase in the number of applicants interviewed at both the temporary visa and permanent visa decision stage (from around 25 per cent of cases to 85 per cent offshore and from about five per cent to 65 per cent onshore);
training to enhance the skills of decision makers, including training on interviewing techniques, administrative law and investigation; and
greater capacity for a range of follow up measures in individual cases including telephone checks, document verification and field checks.

It is too early to evaluate the full impact of these measures. In the early stages of these initiatives, the refusal rate of spouse, fiancé and interdependency applications has increased from 7.7 per cent (for 1995-96) to approximately 12.6 per cent (for 1996-97). The refusal rate for prospective marriage applications has increased from approximately 16 per cent to 34 per cent.

It is hoped that the measures will act as a significant deterrent to abuse as people become aware of the more rigorous assessment procedures.

An evaluation of the domestic violence provision of the Migration Regulations was commenced in 1996 and is expected to be finalised in the latter part of 1997.

(ii) Delivery/planning level

The total number of visas granted in 1996-97 was 37 240. This was slightly above the planning level of 36 700, but well below the outcome for 1995-96 of 48 720.

Table 4: Visas granted

Category	1994-95	1995-96	1996-97
Spouse	21 000	27 790	22 130
Child	2 500	2 540	1 900
Child — adoption	300	290	300
Parents	5 100	8 890	7 580
Preferential Family	2 800	2 800	1 930
Interdependent	-	650	400
Fiancé	5 100	5 760	3 000
Totals Preferential Family	36 800	48 700	37 240
(Planning level)	(36 500)	(42 000)	(36 700)

In 1996-97, 49 642 applications (both offshore and onshore) were received in the Preferential Family category, compared with 60 109 applications received in 1995-96, a decrease of about 17 per cent.

The number of applications received offshore decreased by 23 per cent, while the number received onshore increased by seven per cent, mainly due to an increase in the number of applicants for spouse visas applying onshore rather than offshore, following the introduction of regulations bringing the offshore arrangements into line with those onshore.

Most spouse applicants are now required to be granted an initial two-year provisional visa. If the relationship is shown to be genuine and continuing at the end of that period, they can then obtain permanent residence.

In 1996-97, 78 per cent of all applications in the Preferential Family category (offshore and onshore) were finalised within 12 months, from the date of lodgment.

The number of on-hand applications increased slightly in 1996-97 to 45 988 applications.

Table 5: Applications unfinalised at 30 June

			1995			1996			1997
	Off- shore	On- shore	Totals	Off- shore	On- shore	Totals	Off- shore	On- shore	Totals
Spouse	12 556	4 815	17 371	12 103	6 607	18 710	12 561	5 947	18 508
Child	1 955	210	2 165	1 948	235	2 183	1 671	198	1 869
Child — adoption	117	n/a	117	133	n/a	133	120	n/a	120
Parents	7 820	1 891	9 711	9 089	2 393	11 482	9 822	2 207	12 029
Preferential Family	3 854	1 799	5 653	4 749	2 231	6 980	6 398	2 318	8 716
Interdependent	-	553	553	105	379	484	109	285	394
Fiancé	4 120	n/a	4 120	4 171	n/a	4 171	4 352	n/a	4 352
Totals Preferential Family	30 422	9 268	39 690	32 298	11 845	44 143	35 033	10 955	45 988

(iii) Applications targets

The Residence Resource Agreement covers onshore applications for permanent residence but does not differentiate funded targets by category.

In 1996-97, 28 851 onshore applications (people) were finalised across all categories, 6 470 more than the planned target of 22 381 as provided for in the agreement.

This compares with the outcome for 1995-96 when 25 433 applications were finalised. Of the total finalised applications in 1996-97, 22 980 (or 80 per cent) were in the Preferential Family category.

The 1996-97 outcome was achieved through improved caseload management and through increased case officer productivity.

In 1996-97, 34 883 offshore applications (people) were finalised in the Preferential Family category.

(iv) Residence policy advice

The sub-program provided policy advice on a range of residence issues throughout the program year.

On 13 June 1997, the Government announced decisions to resolve the status of certain groups of people who, for humanitarian reasons, have been allowed to stay in Australia as long-term temporary residents.

The decisions cover about 8 000 people who are citizens of (and normally resident in) Kuwait, Iraq, Lebanon, the People's Republic of China, Sri Lanka and countries of the former Yugoslavia.

Initially, eligible applicants will be granted further temporary residence with work rights and access to Medicare, and with opportunities to sponsor existing spouses and dependent children.

Permanent residence will be available to eligible applicants 10 years after the date of their arrival in Australia. It is expected that people will be able to apply for the new visas from 1 October 1997.

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