Australia has changed its visa rules
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What new visa lottery system is being introduced for Irish backpackers in Australia?
The Claire Byrne Show on News
Talk. With Aviva Insurance.
Australia has changed its visa rules and Irish backpackers will now need to join a lottery if they want to stay there longer. Previously you could do some farm work and extend your visa for up to three years, but now you'll have to join a ballot. Here to explain it all to us is registered migration agent Andrew McDonough. Hello, Andrew. Good day, Claire. How are you? I'm very well and thank you for joining us on this. So explain what exactly is changing.
So the minister has announced a wide-ranging set of changes to try and drive down what they call net overseas migration. But for the backpacker group in particular, what is changing is that historically, as long as you did the specified work, the farm work, you could guarantee that you would get a second and a third year.
How does the new ballot affect the chances of staying for a second year versus a third year?
However, now they are going to introduce a ballot, which means that even if you do the work, Your name goes into a hat, and if you're one of the forty five thousand for year two or five thousand for year three, you get to stay.
Okay. So talk to me about how the forty five thousand for year two, the people who are allowed to stay, how does that compare with the figures up to this point? In other words, when you go into the ballot, how likely are you to get the opportunity to stay for that second year?
So this is the interesting point because last year there were fifty-seven thousand people who qualified for the second year visa. So if they bring it down to forty-five thousand, you're looking at maybe four in five, which is Not as good as five five, but not terrible. However, for the third year visa, there were thirty-one thousand people who qualified and they're cutting that down to five thousand. So you're looking at one in six.
So you're saying to people that if you're traveling there for a year, you've got to be prepared for the fact now that it will most likely be just for the year. You will not be allowed to stay beyond that in most cases.
Why are processing times for Australian visas slowing down and what does that mean for applicants?
In in a lot of cases, correct. Now, what Australia is also trying to do is they're trying to solve their economic problems and their their social problems. So if you work in construction, healthcare, teaching, agriculture, some of these key uh priority sectors, they are very keen for you to move straight to to PR. Or if you've got a job where an employer thinks that you're vital to them, they'll happily let you be sponsored to stay longer. What they're trying to do is, to be to be blunt, control the numbers of people who spent three years pulling pints and pouring coffees and that that don't add the value. They're they want to turn those numbers over faster.
You also want to let people know, Andrew, I know that the processing times now have slowed down a lot, have they?
Absolutely. And this is uh in fact I have had a number of calls over the last couple of weeks from people who are uh I was speaking to a guy this morning. He's trapped in Bali now. Terrible place to be trapped, I know. Um, but he he applied for his visa on the assumption that the visa would come through very, very quickly, as they have historically.
Which priority sectors can still lead to fast‑track permanent residency under the new rules?
He had his flight booked, and of course they're slowing down now. They're talking about taking three months to uh to process the visas. So if you're applying for your very first visa to go from Ireland to Australia, don't book a flight until you have the visa in your hand because you could be waiting a lot longer than you think.
And do you know why that processing time has slowed so much?
Yeah, we we speculate. Um the Department of uh of of Immigration is uh it's a little bit like the Wizard of Oz, everything is behind a curtain. But what we believe is they are using the slower processing task for two things. One is because they have had a jump in numbers of UK applicants. UK applicants don't have to do the regional work and we believe are going to be exempt from the ballots. They have have gone from thirty thousand to eighty thousand uh in in number, so they want to control the overall numbers.
What political pressures are influencing Australia’s tighter migration targets?
They can't stop the UK applicants, so they're throttling uh the the overall intake.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
What new visa lottery system is being introduced for Irish backpackers in Australia?
0:01–0:58
2
How does the new ballot affect the chances of staying for a second year versus a third year?
0:58–2:08
3
Why are processing times for Australian visas slowing down and what does that mean for applicants?
2:08–3:14
4
Which priority sectors can still lead to fast‑track permanent residency under the new rules?
3:14–4:08
5
What political pressures are influencing Australia’s tighter migration targets?
4:08–4:58
6
How have student visa rules changed and what impact does this have on backpackers?
4:58–6:08
7
What practical advice does the migration expert give to travelers planning to stay in Australia?
6:08–7:38