Immigration Minister Peter Dutton says his department is working on the details of the long stay visa for sponsored parents but he was unable to give a time-frame for implementation of the program.
“The department is working through how that practically would work at the moment... how we can have the right sort of measure in place so that we can have proper compliance with the program,” he told the SBS Punjabi radio program.
The Coalition, in the run-up to the July 2 Federal election, had announced a visitor visa for the parents allowing a continuous stay of up to 5 years. This announcement followed Labor’s announcement of a parental visa with a continuous stay of three years.
‘Everybody wants to bring their family’
The Coalition promised an 'Enhanced Visitor Visa for sponsored parents', allowing them a continuous stay of up to five years. Source: Liberal Party
Mr. Dutton says it’s important to have a sustainable program in place.
“One of the difficulties we have is the record number of students we are bringing in, the people we are bringing in through the skilled program. Everybody, if you multiply that, wants to bring their family, not only from the Indian community but from the Chinese community and every nationality that’s present here wants to bring a grandmother or a grandfather, a cousin, an aunt, an uncle and very quickly we expand the number beyond manageable level,” he said.
“We need to have a program which is sustainable which is going to provide those opportunities on a temporary basis to provide support to families to bring somebody out. So we will work through to make sure that we get the program right,” he added.
Mr. Dutton said the government will make an announcement “as soon as we can”.
Immigration Minister Peter Dutton during the India Day Fair at Brisbane. Source: SBS Punjabi
The issue of a Long Stay Parental Visa gained currency in the run-up to the federal election following a sustained campaign by a few members of the Indian community.
Arvind Duggal, the convener of the Long Stay for Parents Campaign, said he and other community members want this announcement to be implemented very soon. He also said that the finer details of the program will be crucial.
“We welcome what Mr. Dutton has said on this. But we want to know what are the finer details, the conditions of the visa, the bond money etc. It should stay within the means of the hardworking migrants who want to have their parents here with them.”
Mr. Duggal had told SBS Punjabi last week that he was struggling to get a response from Mr. Dutton's office to his queries about the implementation of the program.
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