457-Visa Processing Times increase to more than 40 working days

An increase of processing time concerning the Australian Visa no. 457 (Temporary Work Skilled Visa“: most-commonly used visa for a continuous specialised employment in Australia) for up to 40 working days will lead to delays in the application process.

Reasons for the increase:

In July 2015 the Australian Government merged the Department of Immigration with the De-partment of Border Protection thus leading to a dominant position of the latter. As a conse-quence, the commercial orientation, especially the review of business visa applications, suffers.
Business operations are being „pooled“; Business visa applications are not carried out individu-ally by a case manager but in an accumulation.

Implications for employers:

It will take considerably longer than in the past for an employee to take up their assignment in Australia.
Employers should avoid any attempt to use a short-term visa (e.g. category 400) to “get around“. There are tight restrictions regarding short term visas. A breach of these will result in negative effects on subsequent applications for visa category 457.

Even if immigration rules are becoming more complex and complicated, the ICUnet.AG will accompany you by every step of your international processes.

Please feel free to contact our expert Gesa Lipke, if you have any questions:

E-mail: gesa.lipke(at)icunet.agPhone:+49 (0) 221 97661-0