Every new Financial Year, the Australian government determines how many visas will be available to be granted to individuals, across the Skilled and Family Migration Programs.
For the Financial Year ending in June 2018, there will be 190,000 visas to be granted across the Programs, and this is the same amount of visas from the last Financial Year.
From those 190,000 visas, the majority of the visa grants will go to people on the Skilled Program: 128,550 visas, divided among Employer Sponsored Permanent Visas, General Skilled Permanent Independent Visas, General Skilled State-Nominated and Regional Sponsored Visas, Business Innovation and Investment Visas, and a few for Distinguished Talents individuals.
The Department of Immigration says that “The size and composition of the Migration Programme is set each year through the Australian Government’s Budget process. It is informed following broad public consultations with stakeholders, including business and community groups from all states and territories. Community views, economic and labour force forecasts, international research, net overseas migration and economic and fiscal modelling are all taken into account when planning the programme.”
Under the current climate of successive legislation changes for several visas during the year of 2017, it is actually reassuring to see that there were no changes to the visa numbers for the Migration Program this financial year.
See the table below for more numbers:
2017-18 Migration Programme planning levels
* As a percentage of the Migration Programme
Source:
www.border.gov.au
