The government will return the planning level for permanent migration in 2023-24 to 190,000 places. It had previously been increased to 195,000 in the Albanese government’s first budget last October.
It will allocate 137,100 places (around 70 per cent) to skilled migrants, in order to address persistent skill shortages. This is down slightly from 142,400 places in the 2022-23 program.
There will be 52,000 places allocated to the family stream, which is predominately made up of partner visas.
Partner and child visas will remain demand-driven.
Skilled visa applications priority
Skilled visa applications are processed in the following order of priority:
- Visa applications in relation to a healthcare or teaching occupation.
- For employer sponsored visas, visa applications where the applicant is nominated by an Approved sponsor with Accredited Status.
- Visa applications in relation to an occupation to be carried out in a designated regional area.
- For permanent and provisional visa subclasses, visa applications that count towards the migration program, excluding the Subclass 188 (Business Innovation and Investment (Provisional)) visa.
- All other visa applications.
For all categories above, priority will be given to holders of eligible passports.
Within each category above, for provisional and permanent skilled visa applications, priority is given to visa applications where the primary applicant is located outside Australia at the time the visa application is made.