The surge in applications for visas to Australia has accelerated the backlog of visa applications

Visa applications processed so far include 2.2 million visitor visas, 370,000 student visas and 64,000 temporary skilled visas. The government has deployed 400 extra staff to speed up the backlog of visa applications left over from the previous government in an effort to ease labor shortages.

The Immigration Minister said the government had processed 150,000 visa applications in just six weeks, leaving a backlog of 600,000 applications. If this pace of processing is maintained, the government will clear the backlog of visa applications by the end of April. But the government has received another 4 million new visa applications since June last year.

Some migration agents cautioned that many people were granted bridging visas and would still need to apply for a different category of visa, which meant part of the government's job was simply to move them from one visa category to another and eventually A new application must also be reviewed.

Among the new applications, there was a huge increase in the number of student visa applications, which were 40% more than the same period in 2019. International students need to submit the application at least 6 weeks before the start of the course, and do not book the flight ticket before the visa is approved.

The Australian higher education sector calls on the government to provide short-term talents with a fast way to obtain permanent residence visas, and to allow students who complete their studies in Australia and pass the character test to automatically obtain temporary graduate visas.

The Australian business community also called on the government to link immigration quotas with population growth to absorb more skilled immigrants.