Home Affairs halts new visas for Chinese students

No new student visas have been issued to Chinese applicants since the February 1 travel ban.

The Department of Home Affairs has stopped issuing visas to Chinese students accepted for study in Australia until the travel ban is lifted.

In a new setback for Australia’s $40bn a year international education sector, the Department of Home Affairs has stopped issuing new student visas to Chinese students who have been accepted for study by Australian education institutions.

A group of education agents — whose members channel Chinese students into all major universities — says it has not seen any student visas issued to mainland Chinese applicants since February 1, the day Scott Morrison imposed the coronavirus travel ban.

“After the Prime Minister’s announcement, we haven’t seen any new visas granted,” said Gary Li, president of the Education Consultants Association of Australia, which has about 35 members.

Acting Immigration Minister Alan Tudge confirmed on Tuesday that “due to the enhanced border measures we are not finalising applications for individuals currently in mainland China”.

However Mr Tudge said the government was still processing student and other visa applications from China.

“Arrangements are in place to ensure approved visas are granted as soon as possible once the travel restrictions are revised,” Mr Tudge said.

The holdup in issuing new Chinese student visas has alarmed the sector because the visa applicants are students who were planning to study in an Australian institution this year but have not yet begun their course. They could easily decide to study in another country.

“They don’t have much of a loyalty tie with Australia,” Mr Li said.

Neither Canada nor Britain currently bans Chinese students entering their jurisdictions, unless they have been in Hubei province — the centre of the coronavirus outbreak — in the past 14 days.

Phil Honeywood, chairman of the joint government-industry global reputation taskforce that is co-ordinating the education sector response to the coronavirus crisis, said the halt in visa grants would be a priority issue at the taskforce’s next meeting on Wednesday this week.

“If the Department of Home Affairs has delayed student visa processing then the sector has a right to know the reasons why,” Mr Honeywood said. “Education providers need these students to be able to hit the ground running with their studies and not to have unnecessary bureaucratic delays inflicted on them.”

Mr Li said his company, AIDE, had about 100 Chinese student whose visas normally would have been issued but who were still waiting for them.

He said other ECAA member organisations, most of which assist Chinese students to enrol to study in Australia, also reported their students’ visa grants had been held up.

The action by the Department of Home Affairs compounds the problem caused by the travel ban for Australian universities. Nearly 100,000 of their students, already with student visas, are caught in China unable to come to Australia to begin this year’s studies.

The group of Chinese students who are still waiting for their visas to be issued are additional to the 100,000 who have visas but are caught in China.

Mr Li said the students who were clients of his company whose visas had been delayed had completed health and language requirements and normally would have their visas issued quickly.