International students are becoming increasingly concerned about Australia’s immigration backlog. According to reports immigration officers are shifting from processing student visas to managing a rising number of asylum claims which might have a severe impact on student visa processing delays.
Key Points:
- Resource Reallocation: The Department of Home Affairs (DHA) is shifting resources away from student visa processing and towards refugee and defense visa cases. This internal modification has raised concerns about possible delays in student visa processing. The DHA has not issued a public statement regarding this shift.
- Rising Asylum Petitions: Former students are increasingly submitting asylum claims according to immigration expert Abul Rizvi. In Australia the number of temporary graduates rose from less than 89,000 in the middle of 2021 to over 216,000 by the middle of 2024. In 2022–2023, only over 32,000 of these graduates were given permanent residency, despite this rise.
- Challenges for Overseas Students: Despite a shrinking employment market and more challenging rules overseas students are finding ways to remain in Australia. The government has prohibited temporary graduates from seeking additional study visas without first leaving the country exacerbating the difficulties faced by these students.
- Record-High Asylum Applications: According to Rizvi asylum applications are at an all-time high with many unsuccessful applicants seeking review from the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. Many of these applications are from significant student groups such as Malaysians, Chinese, Vietnamese, Indians and Indonesians. Vietnamese students face extremely significant waits for student visa processing.
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Vietnam-Specific Visa Delays:
- Delays for Vietnamese Students: Renee Deschamps, Deputy Australian Ambassador to Vietnam, reported that 90% of Vietnamese students endure three to five-month processing delays. This delay is concerning given that there are already over 37,000 Vietnamese students in Australia, a 49% increase over the previous year. In response, Pham Hung Tam, the Vietnamese Ambassador to Australia, has called for speedier processing timelines.
- Low Acceptance Rates: In the last 10 months, just 12,600 Vietnamese students have been granted visas, with an acceptance rate of 78.7%, the lowest in 18 years.
Future Caps on International Students:
- Cap on Student Commencements: Beginning next year Australia will limit overseas student commencements and visa issuances. The federal government intends to limit new overseas student enrolment to 270,000 by 2025.
- University-Specific Allocations: The cap will provide about 145,000 spaces to public universities and 95,000 to vocational institutions. The University of Sydney will have 11,900 slots, Monash University 10,000, and smaller institutions such as Federation University would have only 1,100.
- Reduction from Preceding Levels: The new cap is around 7,000 fewer than pre-pandemic levels and 53,000 lower than the data from the preceding year.
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