Skilled worker visa backlog tops 16,000 applications

Tom McIlroy and Michael Read

Jun 20, 2022 – 6.43pm

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The backlog for regional skilled worker visas topped 16,400 unresolved applications, with processing timelines blowing out to more than 19 months for half of all potential migrants seeking to come to Australia.

Data released by the Home Affairs Department under freedom of information rules showed 16,467 applications were on hand for the key 887 skilled regional visa stream in March this year, including 300 applications which had been with officials for more than a year.

Tom McIlroy is the Financial Review’s Canberra bureau chief based in the press gallery at Parliament House. He was previously the AFR’s political correspondent.

Michael Read is the Financial Review's economics correspondent, reporting from the federal press gallery at Parliament House. He was previously an economist at the Reserve Bank of Australia and at UBS.