Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs Andrew Giles has announced that since coming to Government, more than two million visas have been processed in an effort to reduce the visa backlog.
Minister Giles said that while the number of visas in the backlog had reduced from nearly one million in June 2022, the number of visas on hand in the department is around 872,000 due to the dramatic rise in visa applications since the opening of the borders.
"The Albanese Government has ramped up activity to accelerate processing times and end the uncertainty for those who have been waiting a long time for a visa decision," Minister Giles said.
"We are committed to re-instating visa processing as an essential function of Government.
"The Department of Home Affairs has already added 260 more staff to support visa processing, and more are being recruited and trained in the coming weeks and months.
"There is still a lot of work to do but the Australian Government is getting on with the job.
"Australia is also experiencing a rapid rebound in visa applications. We have received nearly 2.22 million new applications since 1 June 2022, compared with nearly 495,000 for the same period in 2021."
A dedicated taskforce for the Temporary Skill Shortage visa is assessing health and education sector applications in less than a week. The number of applications waiting in the queue has fallen for 11 straight weeks, despite rising demand from employers.
The improved visa processing numbers follow the Australian Government's commitment to boost the Department of Home Affairs' visa processing capacity and reduce the visa backlog to pre-COVID-19 levels.
"This will enable more workers to enter Australia to ease labour shortages and contribute to the Australian economy."
