How will the Federal Election affect the Visa system?

While the 2022 Federal election is coming ahead, people wonder how the election will impact the immigration policy.

Immigration is an ever-present issue in the political debate, especially nowadays, because there has been no mention of the current visa system during the election campaigns.

The current visa system is described to be out of control because of the ‘gridlock’ situation. Gridlock is when the visa applicants wait for their decision and are placed on a bridging visa to maintain their lawful status. However, as the gridlock keeps extending, the number of bridging visa holders increased to over 200,000 in 2019 and 373,109 as of March 2022.

It captures people’s interest even more because the 2022 Budget shows a dramatic reduction in the Department of Home Affairs’ resources. These include the Migration management falling from $397 million in 2021-22 to $360 million in 2022-23 and $291 million in 2023,24. Not only but the funding for the immigration functions of the Department of home affairs from $2.6 billion in 2021-22 to $1.7 billion in 2023-24, showing a decline of $0.9 billion over two years.

Despite the dramatic reduction digits on the funding for the immigration functions, the number of people in Australia waiting for their visa application results is increasing more and more.

With the travel restrictions easing, more people are expected to be coming to Australia. However, with the exiting massive gridlock in the visa system and deducted funding, the Department of Home affairs will likely reduce its ability to deliver its immigration functions.

Many people are looking forward to how the outcome of the upcoming Federal Election affects the immigration policy.

The 2022 Australian Federal Election will be held on 21 May 2022.