Migration Point-in-Time Service Updates

The Migration Point-in-Time Service has been updated to include the Migration Amendment (Bridging Visa Conditions) Act 2023 (Cth) (Act 93 of 2023).

Act 93 of 2023

This Act amends the Migration Act 1958 (Cth) (the Migration Act) and the Migration Regulations 1994 (Cth) (the Migration Regulations) to ensure non-citizens for whom there is no real prospect of removal from Australia becoming practicable in the reasonably foreseeable future and who are therefore not capable of being subject to immigration detention under subsections 189(1) and 196(1) of the Migration Act following the High Court’s orders of 8 November 2023 in NZYQ v Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs (NZYQ) and who do not otherwise hold a visa, are subject to appropriate visa conditions on any bridging visa granted to them following release.

The objective of the Act is to keep the community safe, and to strengthen relevant migration laws to respond to the decision in NZYQ. The Act aims to recognise that non-citizens with a history of serious criminal offending, including but not limited to serious offences committed in Australia, require appropriate and proportionate management while their migration status is being resolved.

The Act includes amendments to:

• amend a number of existing visa conditions and establish a number of new visa conditions that will be imposed as mandatory conditions on a Bridging Visa R (BVR);
• establish new criminal offence provisions, in relation to certain conduct by non-citizens in the NZYQ affected cohort that constitutes a serious breach of visa conditions, relating to the failure to comply with certain requirements to notify, report to the Minister or the Department, where required to do so under certain mandatory conditions imposed on the BVR;
• address those of the NZYQ affected cohort already granted the BVR to cease those visas and replace them, by operation of law, with new BVRs with apply stronger mandatory conditions; and
• make other necessary consequential amendments to the Migration Act and the Migration Regulations to provide for the grant of further BVRs to members of the NZYQ-affected cohort on subsequent occasions and to make it clear that a replacement BVR the preceding BVR.

These amendments have been updated in the Point-in-Time Migration Service current to 22 November 2023. (NB: Subscription required).

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