The sudden pandemic in March 2020 didn’t just affect many people’s ability to leave and enter the country — more importantly, it delayed many people’s visas. Australian visa processing, which wasn’t fast to begin with before the pandemic, ran into major delays across the board during the pandemic period. Estimating visa grant timeframes has genuinely become almost impossible…
The government often says that due to the impact of the pandemic, visa processing……
So whichvisa grants were most affected by the pandemic?
Below is data pulled from the Department of Home Affairs, from before the pandemic —the 2016-17, 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20 grant numbers,compared against the situation from 2020-21 up to 31 December 2020 (including primary and secondary applicants, both onshore and offshore).
Next, I’ve picked out a few key visa categories:
189 (which should include the New Zealand Stream and the points-tested stream) and 190
State-nominated 491/489
The Subclass 491 visa only came into existence after 16 November 2019, so the 19-20 grant figures really only cover one to two months’ worth of grants — it’s normal that the total is lower than 20-21. In fact, once averaged out per month, the decline is actually quite steep.
*Subclass 489 has been replaced by Subclass 491 — there will be no new invitations; grants now being issued are from the backlog of applications lodged under old invitations
489 transitioning to 887
887 grants moved fairly quickly for a while, but have slowed again recently
Parent migration 103 and 143
155 Resident Return
This category might not usually get much attention, but due to border lockdowns and quarantine measures, it was also significantly affected.
Employer-sponsored 482/494/186/187
187 and 494 were also partly affected by new policy changes, while employer sponsorship under 482 and 186 stalled for a period during the pandemic, but processing and nominations have since resumed.
*187Has been replaced by Subclass 494 — there will be no new invitations; the grants being issued come from the backlog of applications lodged under old invitations
Subclass 407 Training and 408 Temporary Activity visas
Subclass 408 was originally designed for short-term entry into Australia for various activities. The pandemic led to many activities being cancelled, so most of the 20-21 grants were under the newly added pandemic event stream.
189 EOI by occupation
Latest backlog data
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Onshore partner migration 820/801
Onshore partner migration, which we’ve always seen granted quickly, has actually been affected too
Offshore partner migration 309/100
Business and investor migration 188/132/188-888
The 188 category only saw a slight decline, while 888 grants actually rose rather than fell — largely thanks to favourable policy treatment
GTI858
Subclass 858 grant numbers also rose rather than fell, again due to targeted government support — but the number of applicants lodging in 20-21 surged, so most applicants feel their wait times have become even longer.
Student visas
Is the Prime Minister still staying calm about this?
Visitor visas…
In terms of both the drop in total numbers and the size of the decline, nothing comes close to the losses suffered by visitor visas.
The visas we’re familiar with —189/190/491/482/186all require an invitation or a successful nomination before they’re granted, so the differences in grant numbers between these visa types aren’t purely down to processing,they also reflect, to some extent, the fluctuations in invitations and nominations caused by the pandemic.
Then, we can also see that many other visas that can be lodged directly,held fairly steady over the previous four years, even trending upward, before falling off a cliff last year,which makes the impact of the pandemic on application volumes and processing delays even more obvious.
The situation at the start of 2021 seems to be improving — especially over the last couple of weeks, when 189 and 190 finally saw a few rounds of grants come through. Of course, we know there’s still a large backlog that won’t clear any time soon, particularly for offshore applicants, so we’re hoping this run of grants keeps going for a while longer.
A recent summary of Newstars’ grants and invitations across all visa categories: press and hold below to view it,the webpage is continuously updated, so we highly recommend yousave and bookmark it!
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