22 May 2009

Australian visa application computer system to be upgraded

The system to grant an Australian visa application may need upgrading after the Australian National Audit Office conducted a review. The Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) has agreed to upgrading the management system so that Australian visa application process can be more streamlined.

The Australian visa application granting system has for some months created tension in the Department, and staff had "universally expressed frustration" because of regular failure in the system at crucial stages of the Australian visa application process.

For example, in the space of 8 weeks, 38 failures to the system were reported, meaning that Australian visa application grants had to be completed offline.  State and Territory governments who needed Australian visa application grant reports also needed to apply to the technical support team to individually input each form.

The audit recommended in its report that the Department seriously considers replacing the Australian visa application system, and the Department has responded saying that a new system would benefit the granting management process but that any changes would be subject to availability of resources.

"GMS was built to manage a single grants program which met our business objective at that time. As the program has evolved and improvements have been introduced, the system has not had the capacity to deal with these changes," DIAC said.

According to ZD Net, the audit office also recommended that the Department investigate the quality of data compiled on people emigrating to Australia considered to be a danger to Australian society.

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The Australian Visa Bureau is an independent consulting company specialising in helping people with their Australian visa application.