Australia’s international borders have been shut for almost two years due to COVID-19 but it will not be for much longer. In a joint announcement in conjunction with other ministries today, the prime minister announced that all visitors, including for tourism and business activity purposes, can enter Australia from 21 February 2022 provided they are full vaccinated.

Only as recently as December 2021 were visitors allowed to enter Australia en masse but only if they were travelling from and citizens of Japan, South Korea, or Singapore. But due primarily to the decline in hospitalisations, and perhaps with a view of the election in a few months, the government will reopen borders as close to pre-pandemic settings as possible.

This means Subclass 020 – Bridging visa B holders can also re-enter.

The travel exemption platform is going nowhere just yet as unvaccinated visa holders must obtain a travel exemption to enter and updated Commissioner Guidelines may clarify how tolerant the government is to the unvaccinated.

As Australia transitions to a new COVID-normal, this leaves the question of what will happen to the Subclass 408 – Temporary Activities visa under the Australian Government endorsed events stream, aka the COVID-19 visa. Speculation of its imminent demise may be premature. Australia’s unemployment rate is pushing 4 per cent and it will take many months, if not years to replace the lost workers shut out because of the border closure. This is even more so when Australia’s economy has performed better than was forecasted in February 2020.

Ask any tourism operator or CBD café or restaurant owner, though, and they will vouch that the economic rebound was not distributed evenly.