The Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP) posted an update to the White Paper on Developing Northern Australia: Our North, Our Future.

The White Paper includes a range of visa initiatives to encourage tourism to northern Australia, and to support development in the north.

For further information see the White Paper on Developing Northern Australia: Our North, Our Future.

The visa initiatives will include:

Visitor visa (subclass 600) initiatives to support tourism from China and India:

The following announcements set out our forward plan to manage growth in China and provide better, faster and easier Visitor visas into the future. Generally, these will be introduced over the next few years in a staged and orderly manner to maintain our existing high levels of service.

• Trial of 10 year validity Visitor visas (subclass 600) for Chinese tourists
• Trial of a visa fast-track service in China
• Trial an online visa application product to allow Chinese tourists to complete a Visitor visa application form in Simplified Chinese
• Further expand online lodgement for Visitor visas to Chinese and Indian nationals, with full roll-out in China by the end of 2016, and India in 2017. See: Visitor visa (subclass 600) initiatives to support tourism from China and India.

Work and Holiday visas initiatives to support northern Australia:

• Working Holiday Maker visa holders (subclass 417 and 462) who work for six months with one employer in certain industries in northern Australia will be able to apply for an employment extension of six months length, enabling a 12 month consecutive period of work with the one employer
• The establishment of a second Work and Holiday (subclass 462) visa initiative for northern Australia. Under the initiative, first time Work and Holiday (subclass 462) visa holders who undertake three months (88 days) work during their stay in either the agriculture or tourism and hospitality industries within northern Australia, will become eligible to apply for a second Work and Holiday visa. This will allow Work and Holiday participants to potentially remain in Australia for two years rather than the current limit of one year. See: Work and Holiday visas initiatives to support northern Australia.

Designated Area Migration Agreement:

• The DAMA programme supplements the workforce strategies of states, territories and regions to support economic performance and help them adjust to changing economic conditions.
• For further information about the operating requirements of DAMAs please refer to our website: Labour agreements – Designated Area Migration Agreement.

Source: White Paper on Developing Northern Australia: Our North, Our Future. 

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