Visa queues have substantially increased in the past year. (Photo: Virginia Star)
Oz Kiwi opinion
In the past year we have seen visa and citizenship processing times increase dramatically. At play are a number of factors, including staffing cuts, uncertainty over citizenship legislation changes halting processing for many months, and more onerous requirements such as Form 80.
If you are applying for a visa look up the processing time, and ensure you provide all the required supporting documents. Requests for additional information or supporting documents can see your application delayed by many months.
Visa queues swell as Peter Dutton’s migration cuts bite
21 July 2018
David Crowe – Sydney Morning Herald
Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has overseen a cut to the permanent intake from 183,608 last year to 162,417 in the year to June 30, trimming both skilled and family visas.
The numbers:
- 12.6% drop in family stream applicants
- 17.7% drop in the number of skilled applicants
- 46% increase in refusals.
Both major parties are now hardening their language about foreign workers, with Opposition Leader Bill Shorten accusing the government of doing nothing about 1.6 million people from overseas who have work rights in Australia.
“This government does not want to talk about the growing problem of people coming to Australia with temporary work right visas and they’re doing nothing about that,” he said.
Abul Rizvi, a former Deputy Secretary of the Immigration Department said the trends were a sign of a “system in trouble”. “The cut in the program will indeed lead to a bigger queue in the family stream,” Mr Rizvi told Fairfax Media.
[Read the full Sydney Morning Herald article].
