Australian visas and immigration: Changes from July 1

Longtime in the works, Australia is changing their immigration laws, reducing the overall number of Visas being handed out, but allowing for migration to its rural areas. This will allow the cities to shed some of their growing population, but also encourage economy and development in relatively un-populated areas.

Immigration cap lowered

Following months of posturing on the issue of growing congestion in Sydney and Melbourne, the Federal Government announced in March this year that it will cut back Australia's annual permanent immigration intake to 160,000. The intake has been capped at 190,000 since 2011 but the actual intake fell to just over 162,000 in 2017-18 for the first time in over a decade.

The impact of the overall cut will be absorbed by Skilled Independent visas that allowed people to live and work anywhere in Australia. The annual quota of this subclass has been slashed from over 43,000 to nearly 18,000 – a move that has temporary residents in Australia worried that it might force a prolonged temporary residency period on them.

The government said the cap will be maintained for the next four years.

New regional visas

The government also announced an increase in the number of visa places for regional Australia with 23,000 skilled visas being reserved for those willing to live and work in the regions.

The two new provisional regional visas to be introduced in November this year – Skilled Employer Sponsored Visa and Skilled Work Regional Visa will have 9,000 and 14,000 places respectively within the annual immigration cap of 160,000.

Visa holders of these subclasses will be required to spend at least three years in regional areas in order to become eligible to apply for permanent residency, instead of two years. A new regional permanent visa will be introduced in 2022.

International students will be able to access an additional year of post-study visa if they study in an educational institute in the regions, outside of Melbourne, Sydney, Perth and southeast Queensland.

The changes to the points test are to introduce:

· more points for having a skilled spouse or de facto partner (10 points);

· more points for applicants nominated by a State or Territory government or sponsored by a family member residing in regional Australia (15 points);

· more points for having certain STEM qualifications (10 points);

· points for applicants who do not have a spouse or de facto partner (10 points); and

· points for applicants with a spouse or de facto partner who has competent English (5 points).

Citizenship changes abandoned

According to media reports, the Federal Government has abandoned the legislation that would have made migrants to wait longer and prove they have competent English proficiency before they could apply for Australian citizenship.

New parent visa

The new Temporary Sponsored Parent visa applications are being accepted from 1 July 2019. The visa – first promised ahead of the 2016 federal election – is being made available this year after the legislation it was tied to passed through the federal parliament in October last year. The new visa is linked to a sponsorship framework under which Australian citizen or permanent residents have to first apply to become approved sponsors. Once they are approved as sponsors, their parents will be able to apply for the visa that will allow them to stay in Australia for a continuous period of up to five years with a single opportunity for renewal. The total number of visas issued is capped at 15,000 per year.

What this means

The decrease in total number of Visas is clearly aimed at decongesting Australia's cities, where immigration has been a hot debate topic for years, as that is where most of the skilled migrants end up. The increase of geographically restricted visas outside the capitals  is aimed to moving some of the incoming migrants to the parts of the country most in need of help. The points system for migrants to these rural areas has also ben revamped so that immigrants qualify with enough points inorder to get through the set thresholds. Already the minimum points required to qualify for a 189 skilled migrant visa is 85 , a far cry from the minimum requirement of 60 from just two years ago.

Forrest Fenn's treasure

Its surprising what one can find online, when one has the time. I was ill for a day, and started going through youtube for things to keep my brain active. One thing lead to another, and I came across a video about Forrest Fenn's memoir and the treasure he has supposedly hidden in the rocky mountains of America. Also about the more than 350,000 people who have searched for the treasure so far, unsuccessfully.

I was hooked.

Now there is no way I could go up to those mountains in the US to look for the treasure, valued anywhere between 1 and 5 million USD. This story is remarkable in more than one way.

Forrest Fenn himself has an enviable career and past. He grew up near the mountains, and spent much of his childhood there, wandering the forests. He served in the air force, and travelled abroad on missions. Probably picked up some history while he was there. Retired, and became a collector, of all things, and setup an art gallery. How does one go from the airforce into art ? He earned his riches selling his art to Hollywood and the rich. There were cases registered against him for stolen art. He fought off cancer.

And he says his motive of hiding the treasure was to give people hope. And to get them outdoors, looking for the treasure.

Well, that definitely worked. Today, there are dozens of online groups and communities were enthusiasts meet and share information and their interpretation of the poem. What poem, you ask? Fenn left a poem in his memoir, which has 9 clues which leads to the exact spot the treasure is buried. The problem is, that poem itself can be interpreted in hundreds of ways, leading to thousands of spots across four states in the US. It all depends on one's local knowledge.

In the decade that followed his memoir, fans and treasure hunters have pestered and question him for more clues, a request he has till date denied. But he has maintained that all that one needs is the poem, a map, and a sandwich! Still, people go to great lengths to try and decipher the poem to some place off the beaten track.

Some people have already died.

While Fenn himself has accepted that a few have got to 200 feet of the treasure.

Its fun to see people using new gen technology, like google maps and google earth to chart hidden pathways. Then using weather and elevation maps to cross reference points. Everyone is disappointed when their predictions fail, but they return with renewed energy. Some have even spent tens of thousands of their own money to find the treasure. But they still persist.

It’s a story of sheer determination, of being outdoors, of trekking in the wild. Treasure hunting ! Without a map. Solving clues, deciphering maps. The stuff of kids movies.

The hunt is still on.

Don't fight. We have so little time.

Our universe is 13.772 billion years old. Earth is 4.5 billion years old. We humans occupty such a short sliver of time in the grand scale, its actually insignificant. We take our life and time for granted. But once in a while, something happens which leads us to sit up and take notice. And that event is…

a death in the family.

Or it could be someone you have interacted with closely, a friend from the past. The passing awa of someone dear or near leads humans to contemplate their own time in this universe.

This is me contemplating.

I lost an uncle in the family. He and his family was long estranged from the rest of us. His son lead him to take a series of bad decisions, which inluded lies and deceit. When the others found out, everyone decided to cut ties with him. It did not matter to them he was their eldest brother, and that his hand was forced by his own son. In India, pride of the family, and respect within society is more important than personal ties. I was too young to understand, and I still do not understand how people can simply write of relationships.

Anyway, we came to know of his death from the papers, sort off. And now , decades later, people are overcome with guilt, I think ? As they say in the ancient fables, blood relations are special. Its easy to say a decision was right to save 'honour', but conscience does ultimately weigh in. We now have to live with that feeling that we were probably wrong.

Relationships could have been saved, wounds would have mended. A few day's anger could be overcome after some second thoughts.

We are all not going to live forever. There is no point in making enemies for life. We have so little time.

A quote says: "we live a long as we are remembered". That would mean the recently departed is still among us, as we reminsce the good old fun days we had back in the day.

Ebola and Chernobyl

Cannot believe what's trending on TV now. After the finales of Big bang theory and Game of thrones (two big loads of bullshit), some of the other smaller TV programmes are finally getting airtime, and attention. For some reason, people now enjoy watching past disasters.

One of the recommendations I got was to watch 'The Hot Zone', a 6 part fictional telling of  what was supposed to be a real Ebola outbreak on the US East Coast in 1989. This even was not well covered by media, not because the outbreak was contained in time, but because the strain of Ebola involved was not harmful to humans. But that has not stopped the makers of the show to exxagerate events, and add a layer of cheap horror movie thrills and sounds to what was supposedly a highly scientific operation.

The other TV event of the year is the simply named Chernobyl. Airing on HBO, it re-enacts the events immediately after the 1986 explosion at the doomed Soviet nuclear power plant. The show is now the highest rated TV show, scoring points for its authenticity in story and its sets. The attention to detail to the people, places and things is so high, it confused people from that era. It’s still debated how many people died due to radiation and long-term health effects as a result of the nuclear accident, with estimates ranging from 4000 to a whopping 90,000.

It truly baffles me why the audience loves to watch stories on these past disasters. These are important events of reckoning, no doubt, and humanity has learned from this mishaps. But when the story moves to the TV format, it suffers the hollywood treatment. Times are compressed, multiple people are merged, and there is always the one person who saves the day. In reality, the mistakes are made as a team, and the world is saved as a team. There have been multiple documentaires on events like these, but none of them get the attention they deserve. Its one of those unfortunte cases where fiction triumps facts.

Dry Chennai

The trending news in my part of the news cycle is the utter shortage of water in Chennai city. People are struggling without potable water, private companies have asked employees to 'work from home', and clashes have erupted. The government does what it always does; it has gone into denial mode, asking people not to spread fake news, and asking temples to arrange for special prayers for rain.

Typical Chennai.

I should know, because I have lived in that hell hole for 3 years. Even 10 years ago, the sight of bright , colorful, plastic pots arranged in a line in front of public water taps was common sight. It rained only for a few weeks in a year, and people and places are not used to rains. The slightest rain would cause roads to flood up. But a few soon drying rivers supplied the city with much needed water. The apartments we lived in , on the east coast of the city, was too close to the beaches, so the ground water was brine. Undrinkable. Unfit for cooking, but maybe usable for some cleaning and washing. Fresh water

Uncontrolled population growth, and lack of planning has led to the water tables in the state further depleting. But this never stopped the uncontrolled 'development' in the city. Finally , after decades of negligance,  the city is now dry. Harsh reality.

In the past, the city used to fight for rubbishness like jallikuttu, and 'superstars' of movies, and even language.

But it is now a dry city.