VEVO is a free online service that gives holders of Australian visas, employers and other registered organisations easy and quick access to visa entitlements and status information 24 hours a day. Visa holders can use VEVO to check their visa conditions, such as grant and expiry dates, and class and subclass.
Visa holders can also print and forward their Australian visa details to anyone at any time, from anywhere using VEVO.

In response to one of my recent articles on the Post Study Work Visa (mentioned in Visa News), the CEO of ACACIA, Mark Webster, contacted me regarding some points that needs further clarification.   Specifically restrictions that are not that evident, excluding many from qualifying for this visa.

Specifically the Post Study Work Visa (PSWV) is only available to students who applied for their first student visa after 5 November 2011. If a person has applied for a student visa prior to 5 November 2011, they are not eligible for the PSWV. The reasoning behind this is that from 5 November 2011, students were assessed under the Genuine Temporary Entrant (GTE) requirement as recommended by the Knight Review.

ACACIA provides a practical example of the inequitable consequences of this policy.

If a student who started a PhD in Chemistry in January 2012 will be able to obtain a 4-year PSWV on completion of their course in Australia. A student who started the same course in January 2011 would be ineligible for the PSWV because they would have applied for their student visa prior to 5 November 2011. The student would not even be eligible for a 485 visa because the occupation of chemist is not on the Skilled Occupations List.

There would be no way for the student who commenced study earlier to qualify for either the PSWV or the Graduate Work Stream visa – simply because they had applied for a student visa before the cutoff date.

As the PSWV does not have a skilled occupations list or require skills assessment, there is no guarantee that the students obtaining Post Study Work Visas will have the skills and backgrounds required by employers. A student completing a masters by research in basket-weaving would theoretically be eligible for a 3-year work visa on completion of the course.

Additionally even if a student has applied for an extension to their student visa after 5 November 2011, they will not be eligible for a PSWV if they held any type of student visa prior to 5 November 2011.

Mark has started up a petition with a letter that you can print off and send to the Minister if affected by this change or feel strongly about it, I have.

Below are the links to the petition and letter to the Minister requesting a change to the legislation…if you want to make a difference and correct this inequitably.

 Petition:

https://www.acacia-au.com/pswv_petition.php

There is a sample letter that students can send to the Minister if they are affected:

https://www.acacia-au.com/minister_letter_pswv.php

Below is directly from the immi.gov website.  This came up in my google alerts and therefore must be something that the department of immigration wishes to inform those on a student visa that is about to expire.  It is good solid information; regardless it never hurts to be aware of such things. I hope that you find this useful (here is the direct link www.immi.gov).

Warm regards Barry

Temporary Graduate Visa (Subclass 485)

About this visa

The Temporary Graduate visa (subclass 485) lets you live and work in Australia temporarily after you have finished your studies.

This visa has two streams:

• Graduate Work stream – for international students who graduate with skills and qualifications that relate to an occupation on the Skilled Occupation List (SOL): Schedule 1. A visa in this stream is granted for 18 months.
• Post-Study Work stream – for international students who graduate with an eligible qualification. This stream is only available to students who applied for and were granted their first Student visa to Australia on or after 5 November 2011. A visa in this stream can be granted for up to four years, depending on the qualification.

You must be in Australia when you apply for this visa and when your visa is decided.

The below information is directly sourced from the immi website

Automatic and mandatory student visa cancellations are being abolished from 13 April 2013. A discretionary framework will come into effect, which means that if an international student breaches their visa conditions, the department will consider the individual circumstances of the breach.

All student visa holders must abide by the conditions that apply to their visa or risk having their visa cancelled. Until 13 April 2013, student visa holders who fail to abide by their visa conditions are subject to automatic and mandatory visa cancellation processes.

Why are these changes happening?

These changes address recommendations 24 and 25 of the Hon Michael Knight AO’s Strategic Review of the Student Visa Program 2011 (the Knight Review).

The removal of automatic and mandatory cancellation requirements will provide fairer outcomes for students by allowing the department to take into account the individual circumstances of a student when considering a breach of visa conditions. This in turn will allow the department to commence targeted and strategic analysis of non-compliance and risk in the student visa cohort.

What is automatic cancellation?

Automatic cancellation occurs when a student visa holder is reported by their education provider for not maintaining satisfactory course progress or class attendance. The student visa holder will receive a notification from their education provider about this breach. A student must attend a departmental office within 28 days of receiving this notification, to discuss the possible ceasing of the visa cancellation process. Students who do not contact the department within the 28 days have their visa automatically cancelled.

What is mandatory cancellation?

Mandatory cancellation primarily occurs when a student breaches visa conditions relating to work restrictions. This includes working for more than 40 hours per fortnight or working before their study commences. Mandatory cancellation can also occur for failing to maintain satisfactory course progress or class attendance.

What will stay the same?

Student visa holders will still need to abide by the conditions of their visa, including maintaining course progress and attendance. Education providers are still required to advise a student if they breach their visa conditions and to report this information to the department for action.

Will the changes mean that student visa holders will no longer face visa cancellation?

No. The ability to maintain satisfactory course progress and attendance is considered to be an indicator of a student visa holder’s genuine commitment to their studies. Under these changes education providers are still required to report a student visa holder who has failed to maintain satisfactory course progress and attendance. Each report will be assessed by immigration officers.

What is discretionary cancellation?

Discretionary cancellation involves an immigration officer examining a report and taking the individual circumstances of the breach into account when making a decision on whether or not to cancel the visa.

What are the benefits of the change?

Discretionary cancellation for student visas gives immigration officers discretion in cancelling visas for reported breaches of course progress or attendance requirements. This allows the department to distinguish, for example, between a student visa holder who never genuinely intended to study in Australia, and one who may be struggling with particular unit choices and could benefit from a change in course or education provider. This leads to fairer outcomes for student visa holders.

I am a student visa holder and have received a section 20 notice–what do I do now?

Education providers currently issue students a notice under section 20 of the Education Services for Overseas Students Act 2000 (the ESOS Act), known as a ‘section 20 notice’. A section 20 notice is issued to a student who breached their visa conditions. If you received a section 20 notice on or before midnight 12 April 2013 you must comply with it by attending a departmental office within 28 days of the date specified in the notice. Failure to contact the department will result in your visa being automatically cancelled.

My visa has been automatically cancelled–what do I do?

If your visa has been automatically cancelled, you should visit a departmental office as soon as possible to discuss your visa status. You may be eligible to apply for a revocation of the automatic cancellation.

Any eligible student visa holder who has had their visa automatically cancelled can still apply for a revocation of the cancellation, even after 13 April 2013.

What impact will the changes have on education providers?

From 13 April 2013, a student’s visa will no longer be able to be automatically cancelled and education providers will no longer be required to issue students a section 20 notice.

Education providers will be required to report students who breach course progress or attendance requirements to the department and must still advise the student that they intend to report the visa condition breach.

Breaches of student visa conditions will be assessed at the discretion of immigration officers.

Where do I go for more information?

More information is available on the department’s website.
See: Knight review of the Student Visa Program

I am currently reading a book; it is many cited books; Man’s search for meaning’ by Victor Frankl, written around the end of the war. It is a book that I would highly recommend, I am reading it for the second time in as many days. Contained within is an idea which I like very much ‘do not ask what is the meaning of life rather ask what is life asking of me’. The article below reminds me of that statement. 

It is about one person taking a chance and seeing where fate will take them. They put into practice the question ‘what is life asking of me’ and embarked on a journey of courage and trust. Anne Kreamer, who writes for the Harvard Business Review, presents her experience at the receiving ends of someone who asks of life this question as well as providing some useful tips…I hope you enjoy this article.

Make a Stranger Believe in You

by Anne Kreamer, blogs.hbr.org

February 19th 2013

I recently received an e-mail sent to my business address that began with the salutation “Dear Ms. Anne,” — the kind of greeting that suggested that the rest of the note would offer me riches from some recently deceased Estonian cousin I didn’t know I had. It continued, “I know you have no idea who I am, however, I will try to keep this as short and to the point as possible” — words destined to cause a further sinking feeling about what was to come. But in the seconds I skimmed the note, a few words jumped out at me and I was intrigued. In three short paragraphs, Zanele Mutepfa, a junior at Portland State University in Oregon, told me that she was an immigrant Zimbabwean-born orphan and youth advocate who aspired to be a television talk show host. With a bravado that might have been off-putting, she said, “I assure you, my dynamic life story will one day hit headlines…but most importantly change lives, it just needs to be shared with the perfect person.” She was coming to New York City — might I have time to meet with her?

I had moved from the hinterlands to New York myself, 35 years ago, with virtually no professional contacts, so when she closed her note by saying, “Some may think one of the strangest things to do is believe in a stranger, but if not one stranger believed in us, once upon a time, where would we all be today?… someone did it for you.”

Yes. Yes they did. So I Googled Zanele, found a link indicating she was who she said she was, and agreed to meet. And as I discovered, so did several other media professionals whom Zanele had e-mailed cold. In this challenging job market, I think it’s worthwhile to explore why these busy professionals took the time to respond and help Zanele. I contacted a few of them to find out, and have come away with some ideas that might help other people looking for work — and not just those entering the workforce for the first time.

Have clear professional goals

Before she e-mailed anyone, Zanele sat down and wrote an outline for herself, articulating her several goals: to become a talk show host, establish a women’s empowerment organization, become an author — and maybe become a plus-size fashion model as well. While these are crazily ambitious and at first glance unrealistically expansive goals for a college student, two unifying themes — to work in the media and be a catalyst for helping other women — helped her target her search.

Cast a wide but focused net

Zanele’s focus on media professions (she wasn’t exploring legal or financial positions, for instance) allowed her to channel her search towards those operations (Oprah Winfrey Network, Oxygen Network, Essence, Ebony, YWCA) whose missions seemed to align with her dreams. “It was important for me to truly believe in what they do,” she told me, “in order for my letter to have truth.” Like any modern day sleuth, she used every tool to find the right contacts, web-searching terms such as “corporate women authors,” “women in magazines,” scouring sites like LinkedIn, company websites, Twitter, and executive profiles. Since most companies have standard e-mail formats, she sent multiple emails in every conceivable format until she didn’t get a “mail delivery error.” Within her relatively narrowcast objective, she contacted as many people as possible — eventually writing to 2,000 people. Thirty responded to those e-mails and six agreed to meet with her in person. With that kind of a response rate, the benefits of going wide are obvious.

Be authentic — tell a personal story

Dina Gusovsky, a broadcast journalist and columnist, was one of the media professionals who responded. While most people would think that being as brief and to the point in their cover note as possible would be the most professional and likely to succeed approach, Dina’s response indicates that the opposite may true. She told me that she agreed to meet with Zanele “because I think at one point we were all Zaneles. Sometimes I feel like I still am. For creative people…the journey never ends. Whatever success I have had so far is directly correlated to all the people who gave me a chance. Not just those who decided to put me on television, but those who listened, those who gave me advice, and those who mentored me.” But as an emigre from the Soviet Union, for Dina it was Zanele’s immigrant background that resonated most. Her meeting with Zanele was “probably less pay-it-forward and more pay-it-backward. I think all those people who had helped me and continue to help would be proud that I was in some way continuing this wonderful trend.”

Offer a variety of connection points

Janice Huff, the chief meteorologist for WNBC TV in New York, responds to lots of inquiries from young people interested in becoming meteorologists, but rarely takes the extra step to meet with them. However, Zanele had susssed out that Janice was a fellow Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority sister, and personalized her note referencing that shared connection. For Janice, “that’s what made me decide I’d love to meet her and help her.” Zanele took the time to find shared interests for about 20% of her targets and mentioned them in her notes. So before you reach out it pays to research, and determine where your connection points might lie.

Don’t be afraid to show vulnerability

Ellianna Placas, a fashion consultant and another immigrant (from Australia), and the former Fashion Director for Essence Magazine, was impressed by Zanele’s ability to “show honesty and vulnerability and risk, putting her faith in human nature first — a brave and open beginning. ‘Believe in a stranger’ was so romantic, yet realistically appealing to me. Maybe I am imbuing it with more than Zanele intended, but it held universal appeal. We should all be helping each other. Zanele came to me for advice, she left as a new friend.”

Be open about where the path takes you

After several people in New York City had responded to her letter, Zanele decided she had reason enough to make the trip from Portland. And while she did not leave New York with a firm job offer, she will be returning to follow up on the leads developed in her first round of conversations. “I learned so much about myself and exactly what makes me tick,” Zanele told me after her trip. “I believe it is so important to know or hold a conversation with people who have career positions you aspire to have someday. The value of relationships and conversation is incredibly important to me. Those conversations will not magically appear on my phone and g-mail, I have to go and get them. No, not everyone will respond and not everyone ‘needs’ to — only the people who are meant to.”

Ellianna Placas put it best: “No one knows how we arrive in the places or jobs we do. We did not do it by ourselves, we were surrounded by people along the way who gave tiny bits of advice, who we watched, who helped us make and not make choices.”

That’s something we should all keep in mind, especially as we make the upward and sideways journeys in our own careers. To paraphrase Sir Isaac Newton, at some point in our lives we have all stood on the shoulders of (seemingly gigantic) strangers, and there comes a time when we need to give others the chance to stand on ours.

I have become a big fan of the Harvard Business Review or HBR for short.  I have it as a iPad app as well as a favourite on Flipboard (which would have to be my all time favourite applications for both iOS devices.

When you utter the just the words Harvard Business you instantly think that this is not for me.   However I am telling you that this is not true.  It has articles for everyone.  Sure there are items exclusively for CEO’s and executives, however at the same time there is some extremely relavent and interesting information for the average working person.

Will reading the Harvard Business Review give you an advantage? Personally I feel that it will.  Why? Because it is based upon professional development, it provides the reader with new ideas and skills in managing todays challenges. Do not be shy, click the link to Harvard Business Review you do not have to subscribe just read, enjoy and grow, after all this is what being human is all about – growth.

Below is a link to an article from HBR that I particularly enjoyed and I hope you get something from it as well…(be sure to read ‘a little story that offers big lessons’ & ‘a lecture delivered two years ago by Jeff Bezos’ linked in the article below)

It’s more important to be kind than clever

by Bill Taylor

One of the more heart-warming stories to zoom around the Internet lately involves a young man, his dying grandmother, and a bowl of clam chowder from Panera Bread. It’s a little story that offers big lessons about service, brands, and the human side of business — a story that underscores why efficiency should never come at the expense of humanity.

More blog posts by Bill Taylor

More on: Customer service, Customers, Social media

BILL TAYLOR

William C. Taylor is cofounder of Fast Company magazine and author of Practically Radical: Not-So-Crazy Ways to Transform Your Company, Shake Up Your Industry, and Challenge Yourself, published January 4, 2011. Follow him at twitter.com/practicallyrad.