Australia’s visa backlog slashed to 600,000, but new wave looms

New figures reveal there’s been a major reduction in Australia’s staggering visa backlog, but demand for workers is creating a new surge in applications.

Australia’s staggering visa backlog has been slashed by more than 350,000, but Home Affairs officers are now grappling with a new wave of applications.

Newly released data shows Labor has cut down the waiting list to just 600,000 after inheriting a visa application backlog of more than 950,000.

After hiring hundreds of new staff, the Home Affairs Department is now processing visa applications for backpackers outside of Australia in less than a day.

There are signs Australia’s migration program is recovering from the lengthy border closures during the Covid pandemic, with 2.22 million temporary visa holders recorded in Australia this month, compared with 2.34 million in March 2020.

There are a further 3.7 million temporary and migration visa holders outside the country who are free to travel to Australia.

Australia’s visa backlog has been slashed from nearly a million to 600,000 applications.

It comes as South Australia’s business community faces a huge shortfall of well over 12,000 workers across a variety of sectors.

The country’s sluggish return of overseas visitors, including backpackers and international students, has been blamed as a key driver of the crippling shortage.

A Home Affairs department spokesman said 442 new staff were hired to purge the significant backlog, and a major recruitment drive will continue over the coming months.

“Other measures to reduce the number of on-hand visa applications include prioritising key offshore caseloads (for) temporary skilled, student and visitor visas so more people can travel to Australia,” the spokesman said.

However, data obtained by The Advertiser reveals the department has been swamped with a flood of new applications towards the end of the year.

More than 150,000 visa applications were submitted in the first week of December – 37.9 per cent above the first week of June.

Immigration Minister Andrew Giles said the visa backlog would be cut back to just 600,000 by the end of the year.

Immigration Minister Andrew Giles.

“This has made a huge difference to the lives of Australians reconnected with loved ones before Christmas, and to addressing the skills shortages that have affected all of us,” Mr Giles said.

Mr Giles said backpackers were now allowed to work with a single employer for the entire length of a 12-month visa, rather than a maximum of six months.

“In line with the Australian Government’s commitment to improve processing times, visas for Working Holiday Makers applying outside Australia are being finalised in less than one day,” he said.

Mr Giles said more than 120,000 offshore backpackers had been granted visas in the lead up to Christmas.

More than four million visas have been processed since Labor took office, including more than two million for visitor visas and at least 285,700 for student visas.

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