Australian Immigration News: Addendum to The Administration of the Immigration and Citizenship Programs paper released

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The Addendum to the 11th edition of The Administration of the Immigration and Citizenship Programs paper is now available.

The addendum provides an explanation of the composition and management of Australia’s immigration program in a changing international environment.

The following highlights provide an overview of the information included in the addendum, which is available in full at ​​​Addendum to the 11th edition of the Administration of the Immigration and Citizenship Programs.

Immigration Programs

In August 2023 the Australian Government announced the closure of the Pandemic Event visa. This visa will be closed from February 2024.

In May 2023 The Australian Government announced the establishment of the Aged Care Industry Labour Agreement. As of 31 August, eight agreements are in effect, providing for more than 6,000 direct care workers over five years. The first visa applications under this agreement have been received and processed by the Department of Home Affairs.

Immigration Policy

In January 2023 the Minister for Home Affairs appointed Ms Christine Nixon, AO, APM to undertake a Rapid Review into the Exploitation of Australia’s Visa System (the Nixon Review).

The declassified Nixon Review report, as well as the government response to its 34 recommendations, were released on 4 October 2023.

The Nixon Review identified gaps and areas of weakness in the migration system, with both systemic reforms and discrete measures recommended.

The Government has carefully considered the Nixon Review’s findings to inform its response – agreeing, agreeing-in-part or agreeing-in-principle to 24 of the 34 recommendations, noting eight recommendations and disagreeing with two recommendations.

The government response to the Nixon Review will work to address the identified gaps and rebuild the integrity of the visa system.

Citizenship

More than 22,500 NZ New Zealanders residing in Australia applied for Australian citizenship by conferral between 1 July and 31 August 2023, via the new

direct pathway. This represents 45% of all citizenship by conferral applications during this period. Of these, 766 had been approved as of 31 August 2023.

Great progress has been made on the citizenship backlog and processing times. On-hand conferral applications stood at 88,310 as of 31 August 2023, a 24 per cent decrease since 31 August 2022. The average processing time from lodgement to decision has decreased by 53 per cent from the same period last year, from 353 to 168 days in average.

Humanitarian program

Australia’s 2022-23 Humanitarian program was delivered in full. This included 15,875 granted in the Offshore program (including 4,125 additional places allocated to Afghan nationals) and 2,000 visas granted as part of the Onshore (Protection visa) program.

On 31 August the Australian Government announced an increase in the Humanitarian program for 2023-2024, from 17,875 to 20,000 places.

Adult Migrant English Program (AMEP)

The AMEP celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2023. It is Australia’s longest running settlement program, and has helped more than 2 million migrants and humanitarian entrants with free English language lessons.

The free English language-learning website AMEPOnline, was relaunched on 1 July 2023. This resource is available to anyone, anywhere and anytime, and has been accessed by more than 100,000 users.