The federal government's decision to raise Australia's permanent migration cap by 35,000 has been welcomed by migrant workers and visa applicants but concerns have been raised about visa backlogs and worker exploitation protections.
In an attempt to address economy-wide skills shortages, Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil said, the country would increase the cap to 195,000 this financial year.
"This could mean thousands more nurses settling in the country this year, thousands more engineers," she said at day two of the jobs and skills summit.
"For the first time in our history, Australia is not the destination of choice for many of our skilled migrants.
"Those best and brightest minds, who are on the move around the world, they are looking to live in countries like Canada, Germany and UK, and those countries are rolling out a red carpet to welcome them in."
The government also announced a review into Australia's immigration system.
Here's a snapshot of how the news has been received.
'Definitely good news'
Zhang Wenjun, 35, is an electrical engineer in the renewable energy industry in China who lodged his visa application in 2019.
"I think the increase in immigration quota is definitely good news, which shows that the new government understands the great importance of skilled immigrants," he told the ABC.
He said Australia had a high demand for renewable energy, and he had more than 10 years' experience in China's "very advanced" solar and wind power industries.
"An Australian company told me last year that they would hire me if I had a proper visa," he said.
Mr Zhang is hoping the new policy will mean the government will prioritise processing the visa backlog.
"The three-year waiting period is quite long," he said.
"We have never received any contact from the case officer, making us very frustrated and disappointed."
'Help us to stay and work'
Isak Siagian, from Indonesia, decided to switch to a student visa after finishing three years on the working holiday visa (WHV) program.
While he backed the skilled migrant cap increase, he did have some concerns.
"If the process is just going to be same, including collecting points, then it's just going to be hard to get," he said.
Under the Australian immigration point system, visa applicants are awarded certain points based on their age, English skills, Australian and overseas experience, and other criteria.
"It may also not as easy as it's said because we have to go through another skill assessment by the industry bodies," Mr Siagian said.
He also pointed out that lengthy visa processing delays for skilled migrants were worsening the skills crisis.
"So why doesn't the government consider us, who were already here under the WHV program, to make it easy getting a proper working visa," Mr Siagian asked.
"We already have those Australian skills so maybe the government can help us to stay and work instead of making us switch to other visas when it has expired."
'This is overdue'
Migration Institute of Australia national president Julie Williams told the ABC her organisation welcomed the changes.
She said moving from temporary to skilled permanent pathways would provide security for workers and stability for employers.
"This is overdue as various sectors and industries are crying out for skilled workers to boost business activities," she said
She was happy the government's Temporary Skilled Migration Income Threshold was also being looked at.
That will help "to limit the exploitation of migration workers by making certain they are being employed and paid comparable to an Australian employee", she said.
The Migrant Workers Centre also welcomed the proposed increase, but said it wanted to see an improved visa process and better protections for all migrants.
"All workers must feel confident to raise issues of workplace exploitation," Migrant Workers Centre head Matt Kunkel said in a statement.
"Whistleblower protections are essential to ensure migrants are not forced to choose between defending their workplace rights and their ability to remain in the country.
"Our migration system is more than just adjusting intake numbers. We must centre and support the people coming to our shores and provide the certainty to build their lives and be full partners in our communities."
'Waiting for their visas for ages'
Kirk Yan, a Melbourne-based migration agent, said the most important thing now was to focus on approving and issuing visas "so that more qualified excellent migrants can choose to stay in Australia and more overseas skilled migrants can come to Australia".
"The previous government set up a lot of short-sighted policies in treating potential new immigrants and overseas students, which resulted in a large number of temporary visas, overseas students and skilled talents choosing to leave Australia in the past few years," he said.
He said it was critical the government developed medium- and long-term solutions rather than temporary measures to deal with skills shortages.
Mr Yan echoed concerns about the backlog of cases, saying there needed to be enough staff to assess applications.
"Some newly invited visa applicants are granted visas sooner, but many in the talent pool, onshore and offshore, have been waiting for their visas for ages," he said.
"The government needs to make adequate arrangements to let them have reasonable expectations."
To address concerns about the time it takes for visas to be assessed and granted, the government will spend an extra $36.1 million.
Immigration Minister Andrew Giles said processing times had started improving already, and 500 extra staff would be hired over the next nine months to deal with the expected increase in applications.
Meanwhile, the Home Affairs Department has told the ABC that reducing the number of on-hand visa applications was a priority:
"The government acknowledges the importance of immigration and visitors in addressing current labour shortages and stimulating economic activity," the department said in a statement.
"We are committed to reducing on-hand visa applications to pre-COVID-19 levels, and have ramped up activity to accelerate processing times."
The department said its focus was on finalising applications lodged outside of Australia, particularly visas for temporary work, study and visiting Australia.
"This will enable more workers to enter Australia more quickly and contribute to the economy," it said.
The ABC has also learned that about 180 extra staff have been processing visas since May.
In addition, the government has redirected officers — who had worked on travel exemptions while Australia's borders were closed — to visa processing.
'There may be more backlogs'
Yvonne Ma, from China, has worked as a mental health carer in a Melbourne care home since April 2021.
She said increasing the cap was a "reasonable move" but she too was worried the policy might increase the time people waited for their visas to be approved.
"There are so many backlogs of visa assessments now," she said.
"I don't think it can be solved well by increasing the cap. If more people apply for visas there may be more backlogs."
She said she also knew nursing students who had their visas approved "very quickly", while some had been waiting for a long time with no progress.
"Although the cap increase is good, we still hope that the efficiency of visa assessment can be improved," she said.
