Australian Migration Program planning levels

2023-24 Permanent Migration Program

On 9 May 2023, the Australian Government announced that the planning level for the 2023-24 permanent Migration Program will be set at 190,000 places.

The Government has designed the 2023-24 permanent Migration Program to address persistent and emerging skills shortages and to attract people with specialist skillsets that are difficult to find or develop in Australia.

The 2023-24 permanent Migration Program also recognises the strong contribution all migrants make to social cohesion. It focuses on strengthening family and community bonds in Australia. It also demonstrates the Government’s commitment to family reunification.

The permanent Migration Program will help address the challenges of an ageing population. Migration reduces the population's average age and slows the population's ageing rate. This is because migrants are, on average, younger than the existing Australian population.

A well-targeted, skills focused Migration Program supplements the cohort of working-age people. It helps boost participation rates and the size of the labour force.

The 2023-24 permanent Migration Program has the following composition:

• Skill stream (137,100 places, approximately 72% of the program) – This stream has been designed to improve the productive capacity of the economy and fill skill shortages in the labour market, including those in regional Australia.
• Family stream (52,500 places, approximately 28% of the program) – this stream is predominantly made up of Partner visas, enabling Australians to reunite with family members from overseas and provide them with pathways to citizenship. Of this stream:
  •         40,500 Partner visas are estimated for 2023-24 for planning purposes, noting this category is demand driven and not subject to a ceiling.
  •         3,000 Child visas are estimated for 2023-24 for planning purposes, noting this category is demand driven and not subject to a ceiling.

The 2023-24 permanent Migration Program has been set at the pre-COVID planning level of 190,000.

This is a slight reduction of 5,000 places compared with the 2023-24 permanent Migration Program planning level of 195,000 places.

Skilled Independent visa category

The 2023-24 permanent Migration Program has allocated 30,375 places for Skilled Independent visas. This is comparable to the 2022-23 program allocation of 32,100 places.
 

Business Innovation and Investment Program (BIIP) visa category

The Government has reduced the planning level for the BIIP from 5,000 visas in 2022-23 to 1,900 visas for the 2023-24 permanent Migration Program.

Reducing the planning level for BIIP will ensure the 2023-24 permanent Migration Program has a greater focus on addressing immediate workforce shortages. It will continue to provide places to those business and investor migrants who can best contribute to Australia’s economic growth. It will also provide places to entrepreneur migrants whose innovations can increase the productivity of Australian businesses.

Global Talent visa category

The 2023-24 permanent Migration Program has maintained 5,000 places for the Global Talent Visa (GTV) Program.

Retaining the planning level ensures that while the permanent Migration Program focuses on addressing persistent skill shortages, we maintain our status as a competitive and preferred destination to internationally mobile exceptional talent.
 

Family stream

The Government has maintained the size of the family stream. Family migration is an important element of Australia’s migration system. It allows Australian citizens and permanent residents to reunite with their family members and contribute to stronger social cohesion outcomes. The Australian Government recognises that immigrant parents can make valuable social contributions to their families and local communities.

The Partner visa category is the largest within the family stream. From 2022-23, the Partner program moved to a demand-driven model.

In 2022-23, the size of the Parent program increased from 4,500 to 8,500 places while the Other Family (the Aged Dependent Relative, Remaining Relative and Carer programs) visa category was maintained at 500 places. The Government has maintained these planning levels in the 2023-24 permanent Migration Program.

The Child visa program allows persons to sponsor their dependent or adopted child or an orphaned relative. The Child program has been demand-driven since 1 July 2019 and remains set at 3,000 places for planning purposes. The Australian Government prioritises the reunification of a child with an Australian parent or family sponsor. This ensures we uphold our international obligations to consider the best interest of a child as a primary consideration.

Delivery of the 2023-24 Migration Program

The Government will continue efforts to manage the number of visas on-hand by extending funding for 500 visa processing officers. It will provide an additional $48.1 million over 12 months.

The efforts of a large number of additional trained visa processing staff that commenced in 2022 and early 2023 have significantly increased visa processing capacity. In 2023-24, the Government is also investing $27.8 million over two years to upgrade existing visa ICT systems. This will improve visa service delivery efficiency and increase Australia’s attractiveness in the global race for talent, students and tourists.
 

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