Explanation of Australian visa changes in the 2022-10 October 2023 federal budget
The Albanian government has already increased the number of migrants to Australia, but there is hope among migrants and potential migrants that more changes will be revealed in next week’s budget.
What do we know so far?
Immigration Minister Andrew Giles told the summit that there were nearly a million visas waiting to be processed when Labor took power in May. The median processing time for temporary skill visas has been reduced from 53 days in May to his 42 days in July.
Home Secretary Claire O’Neill and Immigration Secretary Andrew Giles at the Jobs and Skills Summit on Sept. 2. sauce: AAP / Mick Tsikas
In a statement on October 14, Mr Giles said the department was currently processing more than 2 million applications, but had to wait until the border opened after it was closed to international arrivals. It said it still has about 872,000 pending applications as demand has increased dramatically since it was launched. during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Giles said the Home Office has already added 260 staff to support visa processing and is recruiting and training more staff in the coming weeks and months.
How does the federal budget affect visas?
Former immigration commissioner Abul Rizvi said the government needed to provide much more than the $36.1 million already pledged to the Home Office to keep up with the workload. However, he said whether the new government would fully reverse the $875 million cut would depend on why it was done in the first place.
The Department of the Interior’s budget was cut by the Morrison administration. sauce: AAP / James Ross
“Some of the reasons may make a lot of sense and you wouldn’t want to overrule them,” Rizvi said. “But with the massive impasse in the visa system that they have now, any cuts would be a disaster.”
“Decision makers end up rejecting applications for sometimes very trivial reasons.”
The government has also flagged plans to raise the income threshold for temporary skilled immigrants. The threshold was pegged at $53,900 a year, but the government says that’s too low, and her salary for more than 80% of full-time jobs tops it.
Will more visas become available?
Rizvi said he would be very surprised to see any further increases, but the budget will likely reveal a breakdown of the number of visas available in each category.
Meanwhile, no decision has yet been made on the number of visas refugees can obtain as part of the humanitarian aid programme.
Jim Chalmers will submit the October budget on October 25th. sauce: AAP / Mick Tsikas
In the election, the Labor Party promised to abolish temporary protection visas and move those found to be legitimate refugees to permanent visas.
The current humanitarian program allows 13,750 sites through 2022-2023. A further 16,500 places were provided over four years for Afghan refugees.
This article will be updated as more information is released.
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/visa-changes-in-australia-federal-budget-explained/f9ipn0r1z Explanation of Australian visa changes in the 2022-10 October 2023 federal budget
