By Lindy Suharupa
The Visa Processing Centre for Papua New Guinea in Fiji will be returned to Port Moresby with the aim of approving seventy-five percent of incoming visa applications within two weeks.
This has been described as a major milestone in Australia-PNG relations.
The announcement was made by Australian Foreign Minister Senator Penny Wong during the 29th Australia-PNG Ministerial Forum in Canberra, Australia, last week.
One of the main discussions during the forum was on visa related issues with both Foreign Ministers of Australia and PNG acknowledging that quality of timely visa were an important underpinning of our bilateral ties hence the agreement to open in country visa processing in PNG.
This was alluded to by PNG’s Foreign Affairs and National Events Minister, Justin Tkatchenko.
This agreement is in line with both countries Prime Ministers’ earlier discussions.
Issues relating to immigration were also discussed between Australian Minister for Immigration Richard Giles and his PNG counterpart and PNG’s deputy Prime Minister John Rosso.
The Australian Government has reduced the visa processing time for PNG nationals coming into Australia however there is more work still to be done.
“I’m very pleased that since coming into government we have brought down the visa processing time for PNG nationals coming into Australia but there’s more to be done and we realize that closeness of that relationship of how it must be reflected in the visa standards and services, in particular we will aim to process 75% of visitor applications within 14 days, it’s a big step forward towards facilitating efficient relationships towards individuals and between both countries”, Minister Giles said
In thanking the Australian Government, Deputy Prime Minister and Labour and Immigration Minister John Rosso also announced that PNG will issue multiple-entry of short term visas for 12 months to Australian businesses who wish to enter the country.
“We will also, on a reciprocal treatment, for visa processing for Australians, do 14 days and we’ll also do 76% of visa achievements and we’ll work on strengthening this a lot more to make it easier for Australians traveling to PNG,” Deputy Prime Minister Rosso said.
