Faster Visa Processing Promised by Australian Government

The Australian Government has pledged to process the backlog of visa applications as an urgent priority to address this severe labour market shortages being faced across all sectors of the Australian economy.

Under the new Government, the Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs, The Hon. Andrew Giles, has instructed the Department of Home Affairs to devote more staff and time to addressing the current visa backlog. The Department has embraced a particular focus to key offshore caseloads such as temporary skilled, student, and visitor visas.

Since May 2022, the Department has advised that 140 new staff have been trained and allocated to visa processing roles. In addition to this, a surge capacity to work overtime has been introduced, drawn from across the Department and the Australian Border Force.

So far, we can see improvements in the Departments efficiency and effectiveness. Even though there was a 6.5% increase in the number of visa applications between May-June 2022, the Department, over the same period, increased their case load by 10.6%.

Following this, in one month since the beginning of June 2022, 745,000 visa applications have been finalised. This includes 645,000 offshore visa applications, 388,000 visitor visas, 62,000 student visas and 9,550 temporary skilled visas. 

At Ethos Migration Lawyers we enthusiastically applaud the change, and are looking forward to greater efficacy in the Department for our clients given the significant backlogs currently being faced.