Kirk Migration Column

Kirk Migration Column February 25, 2026 Qiqi CHEN

Australian Visas Tightening Across the Board — Are International Students Being Forced into Unlawful Stay? A Must-Read Warning

Historical Official Data Trends on Unlawful Stay in Australia I recently came across data pulled from the Department of Home Affairs showing that as of 30 June 2011, the number of unlawful non-citizens inside Australia reached 58,400 — nearly 60,000 people. That prompted me to dig into the data from the past few years to see where Australia’s unlawful-stay numbers

Kirk Migration Column February 21, 2026 Qiqi CHEN

State nomination quotas still have plenty left — please release more, fast 🙏

The Department has updated 190 and 491 state-nomination quota usage as at end of January (header image) This year’s quotas were announced late, and with the Christmas and New Year holidays on top of that, every state feels slow to restart — a lot of places are still sitting on plenty of quota A state-by-state look: Canberra (ACT) Both 190

Kirk Migration Column February 20, 2026 Qiqi CHEN

Done — Early Childhood Teacher Subclass 190 granted in two weeks

Sharing a recent lightning-fast Subclass 190 grant, with some takeaways for fellow Early Childhood Teachers I shared an update when the client received their invitation — see the earlier note for background (Image 2). In short: Early Childhood Teacher, 80 points before state nomination. Midway through last year, watching 189 cut-offs keep climbing, he decided to move to Western Australia

Kirk Migration Column February 12, 2026 Qiqi CHEN

Parent migration half-year grants and backlog data are out — please check 🤝

Recently we obtained exclusive access to some case-file data from the Department of Home Affairs on Parent migration. Let’s first take a look at the half-year grant figures and the current full backlog — many applicants whose cases are already being processed (or are about to be) are still very keen to know how many places are left for this

Kirk Migration Column February 11, 2026 Qiqi CHEN

Subclass 189 Q3 — could there be reason for cautious optimism?

We now have the data up to the end of 12189 190 491, the half-year report card across the three main skilled-visa categories. Combined with the news of the past few days, here is my read on the next round of Subclass 189 invitations. Summary first – Subclass 189 may still issue another 3,000–5,000 invitations – Top 10 occupations invited

Kirk Migration Column February 10, 2026 Qiqi CHEN

From the Fringe to the Mainstream: Is Australia Swinging Hard Right, Fast?

Australia’s One Nation Party is well known as a highly traditional, conservative and anti-immigration political force. But lately, their support has been surging (see cover image). According to recent polls, Labor sits at 34% and One Nation at 26%. What does that mean? At last year’s federal election, their preferred-party support was only 6% — a several-fold jump (see image

Kirk Migration Column February 9, 2026 Qiqi CHEN

189 February invitation round will be much smaller 😭

Iscah has just shared an update from the Department of Home Affairs regarding the Subclass 189 — the full statement is in the header image A complete direct translation is as follows: the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) has confirmed that the November 2025 Subclass 189 Skilled Independent invitation round was conducted under the new occupation tiering system. [Already announced]

Kirk Migration Column February 5, 2026 Qiqi CHEN

Student-visa ART appeals: hearings scrapped, processing set to speed up

The amendment removing the hearing requirement for temporary-visa ART appeals was formally passed by Parliament today, following multiple rounds of debate in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Today the Senate committee conducted its third and final full reading, officially passing the amendment, which will primarily affect student-visa appeal applicants. Background: Previously, whenever a temporary or permanent visa

Kirk Migration Column February 1, 2026 Qiqi CHEN

Over 1,000 Applicants Above 85 Points — Is the Early Childhood Education Migration Path Narrowing?

Last week our feeds were flooded with news about the early childhood education chain Goodstart. I also wrote to the teacher-registration authorities in each state and received some replies, so let’s talk about what impact this really has and which way the wind is blowing. We’ll look at each state’s teacher-registration requirements alongside the end-of-January EOI data update to see

Kirk Migration Column January 27, 2026 Qiqi CHEN

Department issues bulk Queue Letters, with a processing-progress update

Over the past couple of days, the Department has issued a large batch of Parent visa Queue Letters for applications lodged in 2023, and we received dozens over the weekend. Taking this opportunity, let us walk through it all systematically: Queue Letter and Queue Assessment processing progress The latest Parent visa processing progress What is a Queue Letter / Queue Assessment