EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
Migration Regulations 1994
STUDENT VISA ASSESSMENT LEVELS
(REGULATION 1.41)
- This Legislative Instrument is made under subregulation 1.41(1) in Part 1 of the Migration Regulations 1994 (‘the Regulations’).
2. Regulation 1.41 of the Regulations provides that the Assessment Levels be specified by the Minister. Relevantly, subregulation 1.41(1) provides that the Minister must specify by Gazette Notice an Assessment Level for a kind of eligible passport, in relation to each subclass of Student visa, to which an applicant for a Student visa who seeks to satisfy the primary criteria will be subject. Subregulation 1.41(4) provides that the Assessment Level specified for a kind of eligible passport must be a number from 1 to 5, with Assessment Level 1 specified for passport holders who pose a very low immigration risk and Assessment Level 5 specified for passport holders who pose an extremely high immigration risk. Assessment Levels are not required to be the same for each of the countries specified as issuing eligible passports, nor must they be the same for each subclass of Student visa.
3. The purpose of the Legislative Instrument is to lower the Assessment Levels of 38 countries across one or more Student visa subclasses. This will lower the minimum evidentiary requirements needed for the grant of a Student visa for these selected countries and education sectors.
4. The Legislative Instrument operates to specify the Assessment Levels applicable to applicants for Student visas from different countries in relation to each subclass of Student visa (education sector).
5. Consultation was conducted with relevant internal and external stakeholders from the international education sector and other Commonwealth government agencies.
6 The Office of Best Practice Regulation has advised that a Regulatory Impact Statement is not required (OBPR Reference 11542).
7. The Legislative Instrument, IMMI 11/011, commences on 2 April 2011.