EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
Migration Regulations 1994
- This Notice is made under regulation 1.17 and paragraph 417.211(3)(a) of the Migration Regulations 1994 (‘the Regulations’).
2. Section 1.17 of the Regulations provides that the Minister may, by notice published in the Gazette, specify matters required by individual provisions of the Regulations to be specified for the purposes of those provisions.
Section 417.211(3) of the Regulations provides that, if the applicant holds a valid passport of a kind specified in a Gazette Notice for the purposes of paragraph 417.211(3)(a), the application may be made in any foreign country.
3. The purpose of the Instrument is to specify the kind of passport an applicant must hold in order to be eligible to apply for a Working Holiday visa. The kinds of passports specified by the Gazette Notice are those of Belgium, Norway, Canada, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Finland, the Republic of Ireland, France, the United Kingdom, Italy and Estonia.
4. The instrument operates to allow applicants who hold a kind of passport listed in the Gazette Notice to apply for a Working Holiday visa. Those kinds of passports listed are countries with whom Australia has a reciprocal Working Holiday visa arrangement. Holders of a kind of passport not listed in the this Gazette Notice and not listed in the separate Gazette Notice for the purposes of paragraph 417.211(3)(b), are not eligible to apply for a Working Holiday visa.
6. Consultation was undertaken before the instrument was made as follows:
- Consultation occurred with the Estonian Government and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
7. The instrument commences on 20 May 2005.