As part of the Government’s migration program, the Family stream will provide an estimated 50,000 places to support family reunion.
The Partner and Child visa categories are estimated to deliver 40,500 and 3,000 visas respectively (delivery of Partner and Child visas will be subject to demand and visa processing requirements); while 6,000 places will be available for Parent visas; and 500 places for Other Family visas.
From 2022-23, Partner visa processing will move to a demand driven model.
Granting Partner visas on a demand driven basis will provide the flexibility to meet demand for Partner visas in a given program year and assist in mitigating future growth in the Partner visa pipeline, while maintaining immigration integrity.
100 places will be allocated for the Special Eligibility category. This stream covers visas for those in special circumstances, including permanent residents returning to Australia after a period overseas.
The 2022-23 Humanitarian Program will be maintained at the current ceiling of 13,750 places and over the forward estimates, to ensure Australia remains one of the most generous humanitarian resettlement countries in the world and can respond flexibly to humanitarian crises overseas.
This will ensure Australia can continue to support, as per recent announcements, the transition of Ukrainians onto a temporary humanitarian (subclass 786) visa and to work with international partners to respond to global humanitarian needs including Myanmar.
In recognition of our sustained commitment following Australia’s two decades of operations in Afghanistan, an additional 16,500 places will be available for Afghan nationals under the Humanitarian program and will be equally allocated over the next four years. In conjunction with previous announcements, this brings the total number of places available to Afghans across Australia’s Humanitarian and Migration Programs to 31,500 over the next four program years.
To support migrant and refugee youths to enter a competitive job market and realise their full potential, the 2022-23 Budget allocates an additional $9.2 million for a Youth Transition Support (YTS) services program. This 12-month extension builds on existing work to assist young migrants to improve their education, employment and social cohesion outcomes.
Migration lawyer Desi Hristova, Director of , discusses the increase of the numbers of visas for Australia in two categories in the 2022-2023 budget:
• Family visas
• Visas for humanitarian programs
