Australian Government announced change of hands in handling immigration matters with private companies being given reign to operate visa system and immigration charges so as to avoid getting stuck with cost blow outs and also deal with influx of visitors and immigrants alike. With the country’s in season just round the corner and tourists planning for their holiday spirit the immigration department has decided to involve private companies excelling in immigration processes to tackle the tasks related to tests, corner any fraud committed and overall decision of granting the visa or not.
This shift of handling visa and its related processes over to private space is narrowed down to 10 year contract with cost of about $9 billion. The same cost is said to be distributed to some extent over immigrants and tourists via user charges, which means that cost under immigration is bound to change in near future. Another reason for this change is to streamline processes before the immigration application size increases about 50% more, as predicted, in another 9 to 10 years. As of now private sector is already involved in visa processes to an extent of 20% in total and they are likely to shoulder more responsibility in the near future.
