Article by: Ai Ou (Click to view the original article [https://www.sydneytoday.com])
Interview guest: Kirk Yan(Head of Newstars Education & Migration’s Melbourne office, MARA-registered migration agent with years of in-depth experience interpreting migration policy and forecasting regulatory changes, Editor-in-Chief of Australia Weekly Migration Report, affectionately known by clients as “K-God”.)
Processing of the Subclass 887 Skilled Regional visa — the pathway to permanent residency — currently remains stalled on applications lodged before September 2020. For these applicants, 90% must endure a wait of more than two years. Last weekend, hundreds marched through Adelaide in protest, calling for approvals to be fast-tracked — a cry that has reverberated throughout the migration community. Many are Chinese applicants whose lives have been put on “pause” while they wait with no end in sight.
Searching for work while on a bridging visa — “defeated at the very first step”
At noon on 14 August, Lora, a Chinese-Australian resident of Adelaide, arrived at Victoria Square and joined the hundreds already assembled.They had all come for one purpose — to urge the Department of Home Affairs to grant Subclass 887 visas without further delay.
The rally was organised by the administrator of a Facebook group called “887 Visa” and had been formally notified to police. Following the main group, Lora and her fellow applicants marched to State Parliament House, chanting “We want justice” and “Immigrants make Australia great” along the way. For that moment, she felt she was no longer alone.
Two years of pressure, frustration and uncertainty poured out in tears. “It has been too long — I can’t hold on any longer,” she told a reporter from Today Australia app.
In 2018, after graduating with an accounting degree from the University of Adelaide, Lora applied for a four-year Subclass 489 Skilled Work Regional (Provisional) visa. In November 2020, she then applied for the Subclass 887 to transition to permanent residency.
To this day, after 21 months of waiting, her 887 has still not been granted — far from the expectation of approval within a year that most applicants hold.
The uncertainty over permanent residency has also repeatedly blocked her from finding work.
“Some job advertisements state that candidates must be PR holders or citizens — I’m knocked out at the very first step. When an opportunity arises, I don’t even have the right to try.”
“Employers don’t believe that employees on temporary visas are stable.” Lora interviewed for five or six jobs last year, only to be turned down each time because of her visa status. She remains in work unrelated to her field to this day.
Over 600 days of waiting have led to mild depression, and she has had no choice but to attend weekly psychological counselling to manage her anxiety.
“Life has been stuck — never able to get on track”
At the same time, Hanna and her husband in Dubbo, New South Wales, were watching a livestream of the march online.
“We’re paying very close attention. They’ve said what’s in our hearts — we hope the authorities will listen and speed up the processing,” Hanna told reporters.
The couple obtained their regional visa in 2019 and lodged their Subclass 887 application in January 2021, having first submitted an EOI (Expression of Interest) for regional skilled migration. They have now waited 19 months, with their application still unresolved.
“In 2019, a friend of ours was granted within two months, yet we’ve been waiting nearly two years.” They described those 19 months as an extremely difficult ordeal.
Hanna’s husband is an electrical engineer who found relevant work in Dubbo, but because he is not a permanent resident, he has been unable to obtain a full-time position.
“Same skills, just one extra green card — and the full-time weekly salary would be 50% higher, with better prospects for advancement,” he said.
Hanna was also a white-collar professional back in China, but now finds herself trapped on a temporary visa, able only to take casual work.
“We have the skills, yet we’re treated as second-class just because we’re on a TR.” Hanna said, “Even now, we’re too scared to buy a home or have kids.”
“Without PR, buying a house means paying the overseas buyer surcharge — when you run the numbers it’s just not worth it. We’ve watched property prices keep rising year after year.” As for the plan to have children once the visa was granted, that too has been pushed back again and again by the sluggish processing pace.
And so, in middle age, waiting for that single letter of approval, this couple’s every plan has been put on hold.
“Our lives have been stuck — we just can’t seem to get on track.”
Is Home Affairs fast-tracking visa processing? “This has made us even more devastated”
Newstars Education & Migration partner Kirk Yan told reporters thatin his nearly 10 years of professional experience, “the 887 situation right now is truly extraordinary.”
According to him, visa processing for this subclass has “barely moved” over the past year and a half. Occasionally around 20 approvals are granted in a month, but the backlog has grown to nearly 20,000.
“We have several hundred clients who have been waiting one to two years, and many come to us every week asking for updates. Sending letters to the Department on their behalf makes no difference — we feel completely helpless.”
On the Department of Home Affairs website, reporters noted that the Subclass 887 is currently processing applications submitted before September 2020: 25% of applicants wait 18 months; 50% wait 19 months; 75% wait 21 months; and 90% wait 25 months.
Kirk noted that prior to 2020,the waiting time for this visa category was just three to six months — “quite a stark contrast.”
Many applicants have uprooted their families and lived in regional areas for four to five years while waiting for their 887 to be granted. Holding only a temporary visa, they cannot access the same benefits regarding school enrolment, school fees and property purchase that permanent residents enjoy.
Kirk told reporters that processing of the Subclass 887 does not draw on the annual permanent residency quota. “The processing itself isn’t complicated and shouldn’t take so long,” he said. “The slow pace is mainly down to insufficient staffing — but that explanation offers little comfort to those who have been waiting and waiting.”
He also revealed that over 60% of all regional skilled migration applicants in Australia reside in Adelaide — “which is precisely why this rally took place in Adelaide.”
Home Affairs: processing speeds are being ramped up
The ABC has reported that a spokesperson for the Department of Home Affairs recently stated that the Department is accelerating visa processing speeds, “while also considering legislative and policy adjustments to streamline the visa processing procedure.”
They are also drawing on the “global visa officer network” to handle applications, in line with the government’s priority of supporting economic recovery and addressing skills shortages.
In addition, staff previously handling travel exemptions have been reassigned to visa processing in order to speed up approvals.
None of these measures, however, have been enough to restore confidence among the 887 applicants featured in this article.
Just a month ago, the Department announced it would prioritise certain critical offshore visa applications — including temporary skilled visas, student visas and visitor visas — but the Subclass 887 was not among them.
“This has made us even more devastated,” said Lora.
