Update to Student eVisa Lodgement for Assessment Levels 2-4
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On 20 August 2009, the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship announced that the department is strengthening checks on student visa applications to stamp out fraud and ensure students have the financial capacity to live and study in Australia. One of the measures to strengthen integrity in the Student visa program is reviewing the access and compliance of the Student eVisa lodgement.
A copy of the Minister's announcement is available online.
See: Student visa checks strengthened
Access to the Assessment Level (AL) 2-4 offshore Student eVisa trial
The department currently grants access to the Assessment Level (AL) 2-4 offshore Student eVisa trial to approved education agents operating offshore and Registered Migration Agents in Australia. An agent must sign a facility access agreement with the department to gain access to the AL 2-4 offshore Student eVisa. Under the terms of the facility access agreement, in order to lodge Student eVisa applications agents are required to satisfy a number of requirements. These include:
- taking appropriate steps to ensure the confidentiality of their logon ID and password and not sharing these with other persons
- obtaining from applicants all documents required to support a valid and complete application, and attaching these specified documents at the time of lodgement
- using all reasonable and demonstrable efforts to verify the authenticity and validity of all supporting documents
- maintaining an application approval rate of 90 per cent or higher.
The department monitors compliance with the terms and conditions of the facility access agreement. Under the terms of the agreement, the department also has the right to terminate or suspend access at any time, including where non-genuine or fraudulent information is detected in applications. A recent review of compliance with the agreement has identified a number of agents who were failing to meet their obligations.
Who has been suspended from the trial?
On 7 September 2009 the department notified the agents of concern directly of the decision to suspend their access to the AL2-4 Student eVisa trial. The agents suspended from the trial have been removed from the list of active agents posted on the departmental website and have 28 days to respond to the decision.
The department continues to closely monitor the compliance of the AL2-4 Student eVisa trial and take action where necessary.
What will happen to applications from suspended agents?
Any eVisa applications lodged prior to a suspension of access will be processed and finalised in the normal manner. Users needing to amend these applications or attach supporting documents should send the necessary information to the Adelaide Offshore Student Processing Centre.
See: Adelaide Offshore Student Processing Centre (AOSPC)
Note:
- Users should include the client's full name, date of birth and any departmental reference numbers in any correspondence.
- Users suspended from the trial will still be able to lodge paper applications in the normal manner.
- Paper visa applications will need to be lodged with the nearest immigration office.
Review of the facility access agreement
The department is currently reviewing the terms of the facility access agreement and it is expected that a new agreement will be finalised before the end of 2009. The Migration Institute of Australia and the Office of the Migration Agents Registration Authority (Office of the MARA) will be consulted on this review. Once the new procedures are finalised, the department will seek applications from interested agents operating both in Australia and in relevant eVisa trial countries. As part of these new procedures, agents with existing access will be approached to sign a new facility access agreement with the department.
Agents are encouraged to monitor the Agents Gateway for further updates which will include details of future information sessions on the new facility access agreement.
See: Agents Gateway
New procedures for access to the AL 2-4 trial
One of the criteria for access to the eVisa facility is the lodgement of full and complete applications with all required attachments uploaded within 24-48 hours of lodgement. From 1 October 2009 the department will make a decision on applications lodged by agents through eVisa without requesting further documents which may not have been attached. If required attachments are missing, the application may be refused.
Agents who continually fail to lodge full and complete applications may be suspended from the trial.
Further information
For further information on access to the AL2-4 Student eVisa trial please email the department.
Email: StudentVisa@immi.gov.au