The Department of Home Affairs has revealed Australia is experiencing a current backlog of close to 1 million visa applications, yet to be processed.
This current visa situation is soon to be remedied by 60,000 permanent resident visas being prioritised. Overseas Skilled Worker visa applications will be first on the list to assist with current staff shortages around the country. With a particular focus on health, education and aged care applications.
“The change is prioritising people who are offshore who are wanting to come here to work and working through those applications as quickly as we can.”
The excess of applicants is largely repercussive of international border closure throughout the pandemic.
“New government figures have revealed that the current visa backlog is 961,016 visa applications across all categories with some 560,187 lodged by people outside Australia.
This includes 57,906 skilled workers seeking permanent visas. Another 13,806 offshore visa applicants are seeking temporary visas.”
Whilst this is only a short term response to the ongoing visa crises, the government intent to discuss how the migration programs can be edited to address all of the long term challenges to, at the job summit on 1-2 of september.
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https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/skilled-workers-prioritised-amid-backlog-of-almost-one-million-visa-applications/xi6uoobic?fbclid=IwAR2CnkD6_ZOe0ZBrXpTo43WskNef6SaIXlt3ilfHWKecebsgoQHVxtWngTU