As part of a planned migration program, Australia offers a set number of permanent visas each year.
Over the years, this number has changed based on the country's social, political and economic necessities.
While Australia’s net overseas migration until 2020 has been much higher, the annual permanent intake is currently capped at 160,000.
Cherrie Wu moved to Australia in 2016 to do a Masters’ degree in Information Systems. After completing her degree, she gained some local work experience and applied for a permanent skilled visa.
"I'm originally from China, and I'm personally not really happy about how things work in China and I just like since I was really like at a really young age I’ve always wanted to kind of be able to move to democracy."
"So when I was thinking about which country to pursue my further higher education I was considering like I majorly just consider countries that will be able to provide me with a pathway to permanent residency."
Skilled migration visa subclasses 189, 190 and 491 are points-tested visas. Each of these visas requires a minimum of 65 points, counted based on different factors like the applicant’s age, work experience, English language proficiency, partner’s qualifications, etc.
Alex Petrakos, principal migration agent at Peak Migration, says subclass 189 and 190 visas are permanent visas, so they are highly competitive pathways.
Click on the player at the top of the page to listen to this audio in Punjabi.
