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About the Department

DIMIA Annual Report 2001-02

1.1.2 Family entry (permanent)

Objective

The overall goals of this output component are to:

  • facilitate the entry of close family members of Australian citizens, permanent residents or eligible New Zealand citizens including spouses, interdependent partners, fiancé(e)s and dependent children

  • provide opportunities for other family members such as parents, aged dependent relatives, carers and remaining relatives to join their relatives in Australia.

Description

In the Family categories the number of offshore applications (persons) finalised in 2001-02 was 42,314, including some second stage spouse processing, while the number of onshore applications finalised (persons) was 51,842, including second stage spouse and fiancée processing.

In 2001-02, the overall number of visas granted in the Family categories of the Migration Program was 38,090 - an increase of more than 4,500 places (13.8 per cent) on 2000-01. The planning level for these categories in 2002-03 and the following three years is around 43,200 places per year which represents the largest number of visas in the Family Stream since 1996-97.

Key results

Partner visas

Client Service

  • following successful experiences with new procedures for processing partner visa applications in Australian offices during 2000, in November 2001 similar procedures were introduced in the department's overseas offices.

    Under the procedures officers provide more comprehensive information and assistance to clients before they lodged their applications in order to encourage complete applications that can be assessed quickly

  • applicants are also provided an appointment date for this interview as soon as possible after lodgement and are encouraged to bring any outstanding documents to the interview

  • training in the new procedures was conducted in 11 centres covering 34 overseas posts and about 150 people between February and April 2002

  • the new procedures have improved client service with global reductions in processing times and a reduction in the size of the overseas pipeline:

    • the median time for processing applications for partner visas in Australian offices was 15 weeks compared with 22 weeks last year

    • the number of applications in the overseas pipeline dropped by 22 per cent between August 2001 and August 2002 (a total of 3,000 cases)

    • in the seven months since the new procedures were introduced overseas, the proportion of cases lodged and completed at overseas posts increased from 29 per cent for the same period last year to 37 per cent now. The median processing time for these cases was nine weeks

  • overseas offices reported that many applications are now being processed much more quickly and in some high risk overseas offices processing times have been halved.

    Client reaction to the reduced processing times and the extra effort now being directed to providing information and guidance on the application process has been very favourable

  • Fig. 11 shows the reduction in the partner visa pipelines in most regions overseas. The difficulty in obtaining background checks for applicants in some regions following the events of September 11 hampered efforts to reduce the pipelines in those regions.

Fig. 11: Unfinalised Caseloads by Region

Integrity

  • specialist Bona Fides Units were established in all Australian offices at the beginning of 2002 to undertake more intensive checking in cases where possible fraud has been identified.

    Checks included investigative interviews, checking the authenticity of documents provided and in some cases, visits to the homes of applicants and their sponsors

  • during the first quarter of operation the Units achieved the following results:

    • 461 cases were identified for further checking

    • 15 per cent of these cases were refused,

    • withdrawn or referred to another area of the department for further investigation

    • 15 per cent of these cases were approved

    • in 43 per cent of cases officers made home visits to applicants and/or their sponsors

  • the Units also liaised with overseas offices to help prevent the misuse of partner visa provisions.

Parents

  • A pilot project to bring back applications for visas lodged in the People's Republic of (PRC) for processing at the Perth Overseas Centre (POPC) commenced in late September 2001.

    Forty-three per cent of these applications have now been processed to queue stage. The Australian sponsor is the prime and this has significantly improved the of service provided to clients.

    The department expects to significantly expand the in 2002-03 so that all parent visa applications would be processed in Perth.

  • under current arrangements parents contribute an estimated 0.5 per cent to the higher and welfare costs that they incur.

    Therefore to reduce the potential impact on the Australian community as a whole the government again capped the number of places parent migrants at 500 during 2001-02

  • the department conducted extensive consultations with community leaders to find ways to allow more parents to migrate, that would allow for a higher contribution to the health and welfare costs. Further work on possible options is continuing.

Domestic violence

  • The department discussed with the Office of the Status of Women how the integrity of domestic violence provisions in the Migration Regulations could be enhanced and, if possible, the incidence of such violence reduced.

    These discussions resulted in the preparation of a paper that is being used as the basis for discussions with state and territory government agencies on how to progress possible initiatives.

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