Australia to issue more parent and skilled visas with increased budgets

Listen to this article

KATHMANDU: The Australian Government has unveiled its first Federal Budget making announcements about a significant increase in parent and skilled visas, relaxed work restrictions for international students, funding to resolve visa processing times, and more opportunities for high-skilled migrants while aiming to provide more pathways to permanent residency.

With a strong focus on skilled migration to ease current workforce shortages, the Albanian Government plans to provide clear pathways to permanent residency as per the new federal budget for 2022-23.

The permanent Migration Program planning level will be increased from 160,000 to 195,000 in 2022-23.

Over 90 percent of new places will go to skilled migrants, and over a quarter will be targeted for regional areas.

The Australian Government will provide an additional $42.2 million to address skills shortages more quickly by accelerating visa processing, reducing the visa backlog and increasing awareness about high-skilled migration programs.

Labor shortages will be addressed by enabling international student visa holders to work more hours in any sector. The work restrictions of students and secondary training visa holders will be relaxed until 30 June 2023.

With an increase of 4000 allocations, the government will almost double the parent visas by increasing the number from 4500 in 2021-22 to 8500 this year.

Visas for partners and children will be granted based on demand with no ceiling.

To cover a shortfall in funding for maintaining offshore processing centers and supporting refugees, $576 million will be provided over four years to the Department of Home Affairs.

After being cut by Morrison’s previous government, some funding for migration programs has been restored.