Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs, Alex Hawke MP, today announced strong arrival figures for International Students and Working Holiday Makers, in recent weeks.
“Australia is open for business. We are welcoming back increasing numbers of International Students, Backpackers, and Skilled migrants,” Minister Hawke said.
“Visa application rates have surged in the last week, since the Government’s announcement of a special Visa Application Charge (VAC) refund window for people who travel and arrive in Australia over the coming weeks,” he said.
“We are building back healthy pipelines of Working Holiday Makers, and we are processing these visas very quickly. The Government is seeing a surge in demand from backpackers and we are ready to welcome them to our shores,” he said.
International Students
Australia is proud to have welcomed the arrival of almost 7,000 International Students in the last week alone.
From 24 to 30 January strong return of International Students was witnessed.
Since late November 2020 a total of 56,000 International Students have arrived in Australia.
Demand for Australian study visas has been particularly strong, in recent months, with more than 50,000 overseas student visa lodgements since late 2021.
Visa grants to International Students are flowing as a result of the Minister directing the Department to allocate additional resources to processing the visas of International Students.
Working Holiday Makers
There was a 17% increase in the arrival of Working Holiday Makers in the last week.
From 24 to 30 January the number of Working Holiday Maker visa (subclass 417 and 462) applications has surged – with 2,600 visa applications lodged by overseas backpackers.
A total of 28,000 Working Holiday Maker visas have been approved in the last few months – since the reopening of international borders to fully vaccinated skilled workers, International Students and Working Holiday Makers – in line with the National Plan to safely reopen Australia.
