Australian visas: What’s changed from 1 July 2019

The level of immigration to Australia had the centre stage for the better part of the last year with the Government announcing some of the most significant changes seen in the recent years, including slashing the permanent intake for the first time in nearly a decade.

Source: Flickr/Christian Haugen CC BY 2.0

Some of the most significant changes to Australia's immigration system in recent years are going to take effect this year.

Immigration cap lowered

Following months of posturing on the issue of growing congestion in Sydney and Melbourne, the Federal Government announced in March this year that it will cut back Australia's annual permanent immigration intake to 160,000. The intake has been capped at 190,000 since 2011 but the actual intake fell to just over 162,000 in 2017-18 for the first time in over a decade.

The impact of the overall cut will be absorbed by Skilled Independent visas that allowed people to live and work anywhere in Australia. The annual quota of this subclass has been slashed from over 43,000 to nearly 18,000 – a move that has temporary residents in Australia worried that it might force a prolonged temporary residency period on them.

The government said the cap will be maintained for the next four years.

Read more here.

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