“Green card" lottery-style Pacific Engagement Visa commencing July 2023

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The Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs confirmed today that the previously announced permanent visa ballot system, inspired by a similar NZ model for Pacific workers and the green card US Diversity Visa Lottery will commence in July 2023 along with the introduction of a new Pacific Engagement Visa (PEV).

The PEV will initially allow up to 3,000 visas to be granted next program year to Pacific and Timor-Leste passport holders.

Interested parties can include their partners and dependent children as with most visa applications. The PEV will have specific requirements for the main registrant, including:

  • Being aged between 18 and 45 years,

  • Having a formal job offer in Australia, and

  • Meeting English language, character and health requirements.

Given the need to have a formal job offer in Australia, registrations will be stacked with applicants already in Australia and holding subclass 403 – Temporary Work (International Relations) visas under the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility stream.

Like the SkillSelect program, interested parties would need to submit their interest in a ballot lodged online with the Department of Home Affairs. Unlike the SkillSelect program, though, those chosen to apply for a PEV will be done so randomly. The SkillSelect system, while using a computer system to issue invitations to apply for visas is not a random process. SkillSelect is guided by the number of points declared in the submitted Expressions of Interest (EOI), or during pandemics, assisted by humans.

Because of the random nature of the program, new legislation was introduced to parliament yesterday to amend the Migration Act 1958 (Cth) and embed this system.

New laws will create a pre-application process where registered participants will be selected at random from a pool of registrations. There will be a registration open period which can be for an infinite period or a finite period and extended if necessary, and an infinite selection open period or a finite selection open period that can also be extended. A computer program will select ballots at random, however, a ballot can also be conducted without the use of a computer program.

The crux of the legislation provides that the Minister will set the requirements for any pre-application process through a legislative instrument, such as passport held, age, and English language requirements.

Interestingly, there can be more than one pre-application process running at the same time, meaning more than one ballot for more than one visa, and there are provisions for a visa pre-application process charge, payable at the time of registration. The explanatory memorandum states that a further Migration (Visa Pre-application Process) Charge Bill 2023 is being introduced to allow a charge of at most $100 indexed annually but which can also be zero. In contrast, submitting an Expression of Interest (EOI) with SkillSelect is free.

Does this mean we will see other lottery-style visas in the future with costs associated to participate?

The legislation, if passed, would certainly allow it.