Explanation of Australian visa changes in the 2022-10 October 2023 federal budget

userOctober 19, 2022

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?

The Morrison administration cut immigration program funding to the Department of the Interior by $875 million over four years, but kept the number of skill and family visas at 160,000. Visa processing times have since dropped significantly, and Australian businesses are complaining that they are unable to hire enough people with the right skills.

and the Albanian government promised to reduce visa processing times and announced an additional budget of $36.1 million to hire up to 500 people for nine months to deal with waiting times.

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.

“In Australia…visa applications are recovering rapidly. There have been around 2.22 million new applications since 1 June 2022, compared to around 495,000 in the same period in 2021.”

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?

It is unclear whether the government plans to put more money into the Department of the Interior to recover the $875 million lost in this year’s budget under Morrison.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers will submit the October budget for 2022-23 on Tuesday, Oct. 25.

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.

A sign on the building that reads: "Australian government. Ministry of the Interior."

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.”

Rizvi said money is only part of the problem, and other issues have developed over the past decade. This includes the visa design, which he said was changed to make it more bureaucratic.

“There is also the issue that the culture of the department is fundamentally changing and that is affecting how visas are processed,” Rizvi said.

“Decision makers end up rejecting applications for sometimes very trivial reasons.”

The Albanian government has announced a comprehensive overhaul of its immigration system to guide future reforms, with a focus on productivity, sponsorship opportunities and an internationally competitive visa process. Reporting he is due by the end of February 2023.

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?

The government will increase the permanent immigration program from 160,000 to 195,000 from 2022-2023. This includes visas available to skilled immigrants and families.

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.

Rizvi said he expected this would have to be counted as part of the humanitarian aid program and could require an increase in visas for the program.

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

userOctober 19, 2022