The Federal Budget is important to Australia’s immigration program as it reveals the estimated revenue or costs of policy changes.

Most of what is detailed is already known, including:

• Raising the Temporary Skilled Migration Income Threshold (TSMIT) from $53,900 to $70,000 on 1 July 2023. This will decrease revenue generated for both temporary and permanent visas as there will be fewer nomination and visa applications.

• Creating a lottery-style Pacific Engagement Visa.

• Creating a pathway to a permanent visa for subclass 482 – Temporary Skill Shortage (TSS) visa holders in the Short-term stream, which will be facilitated by changing regulations to the subclass 186 – Employer Nomination Scheme visa.

• Granting an additional two years to subclass 485 – Temporary Graduate visas in Post-Study Work stream from 1 July 2023 subject to them obtaining an eligible qualification.

• Increasing the cap from 40 hours to 48 hours per fortnight for subclass 500 – Student visas where applicable. Those working in aged care will have unrestricted work rights until 31 December 2023.

There were two further material measures in Budget Paper No. 2 and also a slight tweak to the permanent migration planning levels.

482 visas in the Short-term stream allowed to renew onshore

The requirement for 482 visa holders in the Short-term stream to be outside Australia to apply for a further 482 visa if they have held at least two 482 visas in the Short‑term stream and their last 482 visa in that stream was applied for while in Australia, notwithstanding any international trade obligations, will be removed.

This means that the current exemption for those who were in Australia when international borders were shut, will effectively be extended to all.

This extra provision did not make any sense even when rolled out at the commencement of this visa and only added to costs to both visa applicants and their sponsors. Visa holders in the other streams, Medium-term stream and Labour Agreement stream, were never required to be overseas to renew their visas.

Increases to Visa Application Charges

Visa application charges (VACs) will be lifted across the board by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), a measure of inflation, which was 7 per cent according to the Reserve Bank of Australia as of March 2023. Many temporary visas will receive an additional increase of 15 per cent from 1 July 2023. These visas include the subclass 600 – Visitor visa, subclass 417 – Working holiday visa, subclass 462 – Work and holiday visa, subclass 407 – Training visa, subclass 408 – Temporary activity visa, and subclass 400 – Temporary work (short stay specialist) visas. The costs for these visas are cheap compared to say a 482 visa, however, the number of applications made, especially visitor visas, means the amount of extra revenue raised is substantial.

The two business skills visas, subclass 188 – Business Innovation and Investment (Provisional) visa and subclass 888 - Business Innovation and Investment (Permanent) visa, which were recently recommended to be abolished, will also see a further increase by a whopping 40 per cent. These visas are by far the most expensive visas with first instalments, and it will be the first time a base visa application charge will be in 5-figures – at least $10,000.

Permanent migration planning levels almost the same as 2022-23

Lastly, the 2023-24 migration planning levels (permanent and provisional visas to be granted) will remain roughly the same as the previous year, with the exception that business skills visas will be reduced by 62 per cent: down from 5,000 places to 1,900 places.