Opportunities for student residency and migration are impacted as the backlog of partner visas reaches over 75,000. Find out how future visas may be impacted by legislative restrictions and policy changes.



Current Visa Backlog Challenges

Over 75,000 partner visa applications are currently pending, and the government has only allotted 41,000 spots for the 2024–2025 timeframe. The government cannot lawfully for this backlog to continue unchecked under current legislation, which raises questions regarding how this problem will be handled.

Legal Constraints on Partner Visa Caps

The government is not allowed to set a quota or restriction on partner visa distributions under the Migration Act. Demand-driven processing is required for these visas. Past events, however, have demonstrated that this idea can occasionally be challenging to implement in real-world situations.

Limitations on partner visa spots were put in place during a previous administration, which resulted in a backlog of more than 96,000 applications by June 2020, with less than 40,000 spots available. The backlog was only lowered to 56,000 by June 2022, despite efforts to address this issue.

Current Developments and Concerns

More than 65,000 new partner visa applications were received in 2023–2024. Despite their assurances to the contrary, it is evident that the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) is not rigorously controlling these visas on a demand-driven basis, even if they have somewhat raised the number of spots allotted for partner visas.

The DHA must decide whether to reallocate spots from other visa categories, such parent visas or the skilled migration stream, or to keep slowing partner visa processing in order to stay within the 41,000 allotment for the forthcoming 2024–25 year. Only the second alternative is legally available to them, but it would have a big impact on other parts of the migration program.

Impact on Students and Businesses

The 1.1 million students and former students who are presently living in Australia would be significantly impacted if visa allocations were to be moved away from the skilled migration stream, as this would decrease their chances of obtaining permanent residency. Reducing parent visa spots would draw criticism from other industries, while companies and other stakeholders would probably object to any decrease in skilled migration.

Political Ramifications

The administration will probably come under fire if it keeps delaying partner visa processing, possibly from politicians who have used same tactics in the past. The opposition’s current proposals call for greater cuts to the migration program, which might make matters worse and lead to more legal issues.

It is still unclear if the opposition and the administration will deal with these issues openly or if they will think about amending the legislation to lawfully control partner visa distributions, a topic of debate since the late 1980s.

Future Outlook

The government may have to look into legal revisions as the backlog keeps growing, or else it runs the risk of coming under more public and political criticism. Policymakers continue to face a difficult task in balancing the backlog of visas, ensuring the migration system is equitable, and promoting prospects for skilled and student migration.