The Australian Immigration Minister announced that offshore applications would be prioritised in order to allow more migrants to contribute to the country’s economy.
Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs Andrew Giles says processing the backlog of visa applications is a priority for the Albanese government.
“The processing of visas will continue to be a major priority for this Government—but reducing the backlog of applications can’t happen overnight,” Giles said.
“People reallocated to dealing with the visa applications on hand need to be trained and skilled before they can go about this important work.”
The Australian tourism industry has called on the department to speed up tourist visa processing, saying that some visitors face lengthy delays upon arrival in the country after its reopening to the world in February.
“If we make it difficult for them to get a visa and it takes forever, they’ll take their money and trip elsewhere,” Margy Osmond, chief executive of the Tourism and Transport Forum, told the 7.30 program of ABC.
“It is actually damaging our brand not to be able to get those visas out the door as quickly as possible in the most appropriate way.”
It is estimated that 610,000 jobs were lost in the $60 billion Australian tourism industry during the pandemic.
Since parts of Australia’s borders were opened in November 2021, the number of visa applications has jumped 427 percent. The resulting backlog is being cleared as quickly as possible; 90 percent of tourist visa processing times have improved from 20 months to 37 days.
The Department of Immigration and Citizenship has deployed 140 extra staff since May to handle the caseload from offshore visa applications, including temporary skilled migrant, student, and visitor visas. The department is currently prioritising key offshore applications in the hope that more overseas workers will support Australia’s tight job market and boost economic growth.
“The number of applications received in June 2022 is 6.5 percent higher than May 2022 – over the same period, there was a 10.6 percent increase in applications finalized,” Giles said.
The Department has approved 745,000 visa applications since June of 2022, more than 645,000 of which were made offshore. Of those offshore applications, 388,000 were for visitor visas, 62,000 were for study visas and 9,550 were for temporary skilled migrant visas.
According to the Minister, the Morrison Government’s devaluation of immigration has led to a backlog of approximately 1,000,000 visa applications.
“The Albanese Government is determined to reduce the backlog and restore the importance of the immigration function of our Government,” he said
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