On Tuesday 29 March 2022, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg unveiled the new budget. Here are some key snippets learned from the budget’s release:
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- Overall, the Government will maintain planning levels at 160,000 permanent visa allocations. Skilled visas will account for roughly 70% of this (109,900 places) with a strong focus on regional, general skilled and employer sponsored visas. This is as expected, in terms of the need to rebuild the economy. Family visas will account for the remaining 30%, equivalent to only 50,100 places.
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- 10,000 places from the Partner visa category have been moved to the Skilled stream, resulting in not only significantly fewer Partner visa allocations (reduced to 40,500) but also a more “demand-driven” Partner visa programme. Reading between the lines, this is likely to mean an increase in processing times for Partner visas.
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- Within the Family stream, 6000 visas will be allocated to parents, which is a significant increase from the last programme year.
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- Around 11,000 Work and Holiday visas will be available, reflecting an increase of 30%.
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- The Global Business, Talent and Investment Taskforce will become the Global Australia Taskforce, and will receive $19.5 million over 2 years to continue to attract talented individuals and international investment to Australia. In contrast, there has been a significant reduction in the allocations for Global Talent visas, down from 15,000 to 8,448.
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- Our Humanitarian programme will maintain a ceiling of 13,750 places. An additional 16,500 places have been allocated to Afghan nationals over 4 years and as previously indicated, the government will allocate the temporary subclass 786 Temporary Humanitarian Concern visas to displaced persons from Ukraine, with a pathway to permanent residence.
Overall takeaways? The Government, as expected, is very focussed on rebuilding the economy and is working hard to bring back skilled and other temporary visa holders to Australia to assist with our economic recovery. It is pleasing to see that in addition to the strong economic focus, the Afghan and Ukrainian communities have not been overlooked.
The Budget papers can be read here.
*This is general information only, as at the date of publication, and should not be interpreted as legal advice. For an accurate and current assessment of your circumstances and visa options, please contact us to receive this advice.
