Highlights in this week’s migration bulletin —
1. “Australia is planning a return to high migration numbers ”
2. This financial year’s Subclass 143 PR quota is exhausted — family visa holders can apply for an exemption from the initial entry deadline
3. Canberra state nomination has issued invitations for 12 consecutive weeks!
4. Borders are expected to reopen gradually from 2022, with full recovery not until 2024.
5. This week’s roundup of visa grants, invitations, skills assessments and citizenship processing
1. “Australia is planning a return to high migration numbers”
Judith Sloan, an economist who has held several government roles and is also a well-known commentator, says the signs already point to Australia planning a return to high migration numbers to drive population growth. The first signal is the assumption about future net overseas migration set out in the population report the government released recently, which states that within just a few years, Treasury expects net overseas migration to return to pre-pandemic levels, averaging around 240,000 people a year. The other signal is the skilled migration inquiry report from the Joint Standing Committee on Migration — most groups, organisations (including some state governments) and individuals broadly argued in favour of attracting migrants, and committee chair Julian Leeser, who led the report, largely echoed that view, saying “we need to restore skilled migration to fill essential gaps and help create more jobs for Australians.”
There’s also the fact that both the Prime Minister and the Immigration Minister publicly signalled in February and March that Australia’s post-pandemic recovery needs migration, expressing hope that migrants can return as soon as possible to contribute to Australia.
Of course, for applicants dealing with the reality on the ground, signals alone aren’t enough — everyone is hoping real action, large-scale action, comes sooner rather than later, after all, Australia currently has more than 300,000 bridging visa holders in the backlog, and clearing that backlog first would help a great deal! In mid-May, the federal government is expected to hand down the 2021-22 Budget, which usually also reveals the new financial year’s PR quota, so hopefully there’s good news to come.
For more detail, see: “The Australian Government is clearly planning to restore high migration numbers!” “Australia needs a large, selective migration programme more urgently than other countries!”
If you’d like a consultation to assess your migration options — whether you’re applying from offshore or onshore — feel free to add our customer service contact below.
2. Family visa holders can now apply directly for an exemption from the initial entry requirement
This week we received an email reply from the Department of Home Affairs confirming that this year’s Subclass 143 Parent visa PR quota has been exhausted, and backlogged applications will need to wait until the new quota opens on 1 July of the next financial year before processing and grants can continue.
This financial year the government’s Parent visa quota (covering Subclass 103/143/864 etc.) is only 4,500 places, and processing has been stuck at applications lodged in early-to-mid June 2016 for some time now. In the visa processing data updated on 18 March, there appear to have been no Subclass 143 grants in February, so no data can be found for that month.
Also, with the Subclass 143 quota exhausted, Subclass 864 should be out of quota too — very few 864 grants have been seen this financial year. Over the past year or so, the Department has been gradually narrowing the processing gap between 864 and 143 (864 used to be more than a year ahead of 143). A reminder — because of the pandemic, Parent visa categories such as Subclass 143, which previously could only be granted while the applicant was offshore, have been able to be granted onshore since earlier this year.
Applicants who have already provided all requested documents and reached the final stage, and who are onshore, can choose to keep renewing a bridging visa while waiting for their parent visa to be granted. If you were previously queued under Subclass 103 and now want to switch to 143, or want an assessment of the fastest way to reunite in Australia, feel free to contact us with any details on parent visas or migration. For children who have recently had their PR granted, there isn’t really any special advice beyond lodging as soon as possible — every day earlier counts, so get your parents’ application underway straight away
Also, many Australian PR or provisional-PR visas carry an 8504 condition — the so-called Initial Entry Date requirement — which is spelled out in the grant letter. This is generally the requirement to make your first entry into Australia within a year of the grant in order to activate the visa; if you don’t enter Australia by that initial entry date, there is in theory a risk the visa could be cancelled.
From early 2020 to now, everyone knows entry and exit have been heavily affected by the pandemic — even where a PR visa allows entry to Australia, the risk of infection, plus the requirements and costs around flights and hotel quarantine, have understandably made many people hesitant, including holders of the Subclass 143 Parent visa. The Department of Home Affairs has partially relaxed this requirement. Previously this mainly applied to skilled visa applicants, where clear official documentation stated that the Department understands you or your family members may be unable to make your initial entry before the deadline, and that this alone will not be used as grounds to cancel a skilled visa.
Now, similar arrangements have arrived for family-stream visas (mainly covering Parent, Partner and Child visas) — the Department’s website has published an application link for family visa holders to request an exemption from the initial entry requirement.
Link: https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/help-support/departmental-forms/online-forms/travel-facilitation-letter-request-form
A few things to note:
First: this link is only for family visa holders (including both temporary and permanent visas), covering Parent, Partner and Child visas
Second: it does not cover Subclass 300 Prospective Marriage visa holders (the Department does not consider a fiancé(e) a family member)
Third: for the exemption application, the Department’s current position is that no supporting documents are required (it’s unclear whether this will change later) you mainly just need to fill in basic personal details, your current location, passport number, and your expected date of arrival in Australia. If there are multiple family members, they can all be lodged on the same application.
Fourth: the Department has stressed that you should only fill in this form once your travel arrangements to Australia are confirmed, and only if your planned first-entry date is past the initial entry deadline, or is due to expire within 3 months. In other words, even if your deadline has already passed, if you have no plans to come to Australia in the near term, there’s no need to rush to apply just yet.
3. Canberra state nomination has issued invitations for a 12th consecutive week!
Canberra (ACT) state nomination continues to issue matrix invitations, now for 12 consecutive weeks! This round, general applicants received 26 Subclass 190 and 37 Subclass 491 matrix invitations:
Accountant: minimum 100 points for a 491 (lodged Feb ’21), 110 points for a 190
Civil Engineer: minimum 60 points for a 491
Marketing Specialist: minimum 80 points for a 491
Early Childhood Teacher: minimum 80 points for a 491
ICT occupations 2611/2613/2621/2631/2632: among those invited, the lowest score to receive a 491 was 60/65 points, and the lowest score to receive a 190 was 85 points
Chef: minimum 60 points for a 491, 85 points for a 190
Registered Nurse: minimum 80 points for a 491, 90 points for a 190
Accounting/ICT/Civil/Nursing/QS/Graphic Design/Social Work/Cost Engineering… popular or niche, Canberra is inviting across the board! To find out the latest requirements or get a specific assessment of your occupation, contact our customer service team below.
Formal state nomination approvals are also being fast-tracked — see the weekly data roundup below for full details. Separately, regarding the ongoing genuine local residence review for applicants who have already been nominated (integrity check) has now progressed to applicants nominated in August/September 2020.
4. Borders expected to reopen gradually from 2022, with full recovery not until 2024
Australia’s vaccine rollout is currently looking somewhat slow and disorganised. National Cabinet, meeting next Monday, will try to resolve the vaccine rollout delays on a “wartime footing” — a sign of just how important and urgent the issue has become.
Deloitte’s quarterly economic outlook report, in its analysis of Australia’s post-pandemic economic recovery, finds that the Morrison Government’s current vaccine rollout is disorganised and slow, and expects international borders to reopen only gradually. At the same time, Deloitte economist Chris Richardson expects that some form of quarantine will still be required for arrivals for some time to come. As a result, international travel in 2022 — both inbound and outbound — will remain relatively low, and won’t return to pre-pandemic normal levels until 2024. (Note: this means full recovery isn’t expected until 2024 — not that the border itself won’t open until 2024.)
Whether the border reopens is also closely tied to many people’s visa grants — especially for offshore applicants, and for the Subclass 491 category, where the long-awaited wave of grants has yet to arrive.
Subclass 489 (former Regional) state nomination data as at end of February 2021: 5,022 applications are backlogged awaiting processing, the vast majority — 4,337 — offshore, with 685 waiting onshore. Of the 4,841 applications that have been waiting more than six months, 4,192 involve applicants currently offshore.
Subclass 491 (current Regional) state nomination data as at end of February 2021: 6,014 applications have been waiting between 6 and 24 months, of which 2,995 are onshore and 3,019 are offshore.
Subclass 190 data as at end of March 2021: Backlogged applications total 12,942, of which 7,356 are onshore and 5,586 offshore; the number granted so far this financial year is 7,662, of which 6,430 are onshore and 1,232 offshore.
For more data on Subclass 189/190/491/489, see: Is Australia’s border really not opening until 2024?? NO! Here’s what different parties are saying! Updated 190/189/491 processing wait-time data!
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5. This week’s roundup of visa grants, invitations, skills assessments and citizenship processing
A roundup of recent visa grants and invitations handled by NewStars — press and hold below to view; the page is continually updated, so we’d strongly recommend you save it to your favourites!
State nomination invitations / GTI invitation data
Canberra (ACT) state nomination
Lodged 190 on 19/03/2021, invited 10/04/2021, 351311
Lodged 190 on 01/04/2021, invited 10/04/2021, 261312
Lodged 491 on 16/03/2021, invited 10/04/2021, 221111
Lodged 491 on 26/03/2021, invited 10/04/2021, 233213
Lodged 491 on 26/03/2021, invited 10/04/2021, 225113
Victoria (VIC) state nomination
(previously received an ROI pre-invitation, now formally nominated) lodged 22 February 2021, invited 15 April 2021 (Aged Care Nurse)
Tasmania (TAS) state nomination
Lodged 190 state nomination 01 February 2021, invited by the state government 12 April 2021, Materials Engineer, 233112, 85+5
Lodged 190 state nomination 05 February 2021, invited by the state government 16 April 2021, Accountant (General), 221111, 80+5
New South Wales (NSW) state nomination
(previously received a pre-invitation, now formally nominated) lodged 190 nomination application 03 March 2021, approved 12 April 2021 (95+5, Software Engineer)
South Australia (SA) state nomination
Lodged 17 February 2021, invited 491 on 16 April 2021, Multimedia Specialist, 65+15, single, onshore
Lodged 8 February 2021, invited 491 on 16 April 2021, Accountant (General), 65+15, with spouse, onshore
Lodged 8 February 2021, invited 190 on 16 April 2021, Landscape Architect, 65+5, with spouse, onshore
Lodged 8 February 2021, invited 190 on 12 April 2021, Architect, 85+5, single, onshore
Queensland (QLD) state nomination
(pre-invitation) lodged 1 February 2021, invited 15 April 2021, IT (2613)
Western Australia (WA) state nomination
None this week
Northern Territory (NT) state nomination
None this week
GTI invitations
None this week
This week’s grant progress and analysis
Subclass 189 Skilled Independent
Lodged 17 March 2020, granted 14 April 2021 (90, Civil Engineer, with secondary applicant, onshore)
Lodged 26 March 2020, granted 14 April 2021 (90, Civil Engineer, onshore)
Lodged 15 April 2020, granted 14 April 2021 (90, Electrical Engineer, onshore)
Lodged 2 March 2020, granted 14 April 2021 (90, Civil Engineer, onshore)
Lodged 10 April 2020, granted 18 April 2021 (secondary school teacher, onshore)
Lodged 21 July 2020, 2granted 18 April 2021 (civil engineering, onshore)
Lodged 23 July 2020, granted 18 April 2021 (electrical engineering, onshore)
Lodged 28 July 2020, granted 18 April 2021 (chemical engineering, onshore)
Lodged in July 2020, 22granted on 18 April 2021 (materials engineering, onshore)
Subclass 190 State Nominated Skilled
Lodged 15 January 2019, granted 15 April 2021 (Accountant – 221111, with spouse, onshore)
Lodged 16/12/2020, granted 16/04/2021, 261312, main applicant onshore
Lodged 17/09/2020, granted 15/04/2021, 261111, main applicant onshore
Lodged 24/06/2020, granted 10/04/2021, 221111, main and secondary applicants onshore
Lodged 24/06/2020, granted 10/04/2021, 221111, main applicant onshore
Lodged 20/05/2020, granted 10/04/2021, 221111, main applicant onshore
Lodged 15/06/2020, granted 10/04/2021, 221111, main applicant onshore
Subclass 491 (new Regional) / Subclass 489 (former Regional) nominated visas
Lodged 12 March 2021, granted 13 April 2021 (TAS, 65+15, Social Worker, main and secondary onshore)
Lodged 10/02/2021, granted 16/04/2021, 254499, main applicant onshore
Subclass 887 Skilled Regional (permanent) visa
None this week
858GTI Program
None this week
Employer sponsorship
None this week
Subclass 600 Visitor visa (onshore)
Lodged 14 January 2021, granted 12 April 2021 (onshore)
Lodged 19 January 2021, granted 13 April 2021
Lodged 20 January 2021, granted 14 April 2021
Subclass 500 Student visa
Lodged 2 February 2021, granted 12 April 2021 (onshore)
Lodged 1 March 2021, granted 13 April 2021 (onshore)
Lodged 1 April 2021, granted 13 April 2021 (offshore)
Lodged 11 January 2021, granted 13 April 2021 (onshore)
Lodged 6 November 2020, granted 14 April 2021 (onshore)
Lodged 10 February 2021, granted 15 April 2021 (onshore)
Lodged 16 December 2020, granted 15 April 2021 (onshore)
Lodged 4 November 2020, granted 16 April 2021 (onshore)
Lodged 30 September 2020, granted 13 April 2021 (offshore)
Subclass 485 Graduate Work visa
Lodged 16 September 2020, granted 12 April 2021 (offshore)
Lodged 22 February 2021, granted 13 April 2021
Lodged 13 March 2021, granted 13 April 2021
Lodged 4 October 2020, granted 14 April 2021 (offshore)
Lodged 1 February 2021, granted 15 April 2021
Lodged 16 October 2020, granted 16 April 2021 (offshore)
Partner migration
Lodged 820/801 visa application 16 March 2020, 820 granted 13 April 2021
Lodged 820/801 visa application 21 June 2019, 820 granted 13 April 2021
Lodged 309/100 visa application 4 October 2019, 309 granted 14 April 2021
Lodged 820/801 visa application 4 February 2019, both 820 and 801 granted simultaneously on 15 April 2021
Lodged 820/801 visa application 6 May 2019, 820 granted 16 April 2021
Lodged 820 visa 3 March 2020, 820 granted 13 April 2021
Lodged 820 visa 11 April 2019, 820 granted 13 April 2021
Lodged 820 visa 29 March 2019, 820 visa&801 visa granted 13 April 2021
Lodged 820 visa 24 June 2019, 820 granted 14 April 2021
Lodged 309 visa 25 March 2020, 309 granted 15 April 2021 (with two children)
16 December 2019 lodged 820, granted 12 April 2021
Subclass 802 Child visa
None this week
Parent migration / visa
None this week
Subclass 155 Resident Return visa
Lodged 22 January 2021, granted 12 April 2021
Lodged 14 April 2021, granted 14 April 2021 (met the two-year requirement)
Subclass 408 visa
Lodged 19 October 2020, granted 15 April 2021
Lodged 4 March 2021, granted 10 April 2021 (with work rights, early childhood education)
Travel exemption applications
Applied for a travel exemption 9 April 2021, exemption received 12 April 2021
Applied for a travel exemption 11 April 2021, exemption received 13 April 2021
Applied for a travel exemption 12 April 2021, exemption received 14 April 2021
8503/8534 condition waivers
None this week
This week’s skills assessment processing progress
CA (accounting-related)
Lodged 1 April 2021, completed 13 April 2021
CPA (accounting-related)
Lodged 30 March 2021, completed 12 April 2021
Engineers Australia (EA) (engineering-related)
None this week
VETASSESS
Lodged 31/3/2021, additional documents requested 9/4/2021, completed 15/4/2021
Lodged 8 April 2021, completed 16 April 2021, marketing specialist (225113), expedited
AITSL (teaching-related)
None this week
ACS (IT-related)
Lodged 9 March 2021, completed 15 April 2021
Lodged 22 March 2021, completed 15 April 2021
Lodged 12 March 2021, completed 12 April 2021
ANMAC skills assessment (nursing-related)
None this week
NAATI Recertification (translation-related)
None this week
AIQS (Quantity Surveying-related)
None this week
AACA (architecture-related)
None this week
If you can’t find the data category you’re after — i.e. it shows “none this week” — you can click through to the [Migration Weekly Bulletin Album] at the top of the article to check past bulletins for the relevant data.
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Is Australia’s border really not opening until 2024?? NO! Here’s what different parties are saying! Updated 190/189/491 processing wait-time data!
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