Department of Home Affairs ‘actively seeking’ to address visa concerns raised by O’Connor MHR Rick Wilson

The Department of Home Affairs has addressed concerns raised by O’Connor MHR Rick Wilson about the lack of priority given to skilled regional visa application saying it’s “actively seeking to address this situation”. Last week Mr Wilson joined a number of his Federal Opposition colleagues by calling for the Commonwealth Government to “reverse its decision to impose a de facto regional processing penalty on skilled workers” needed to fill skill shortages in regional communities. The call was made following after Skilled - Regional Visa (subclass 887) was not included in a ministerial direction from Immigration Minister Andrew Giles to process applications relating to health care and teaching as a third order priortity. Because subclass 887 visas are not made in relation to a specific occupation they are considered alongside all other visa applications at priority five. Mr Wilson called on the Government to immediately prioritise processing regional workers within O’Connor. “Our community deserves better than being relegated to the slow lane of visa processing just because we live in rural and regional Australia,” he said. “It is just not good enough and I am calling it out. “My office is regularly contacted by people seeking updates on the progress of their 887 visas, and it must be disheartening for them to know they’ve been pushed to the back of the line.” A DHA spokeswoman said reducing the number of “on-hand” visa applications — applications pending approval —was a priority for the Government. “On-hand temporary and migration applications are now almost 40 per cent lower than in June 2022,” she said. “The Department finalised over four million temporary and migration applications which is a 409 percent increase from the same period in the previous year (just over 788,000 in 2021-22). “The subclass 887 visa is the second stage of a two stage visa – it is only available to people who already hold an eligible provisional visa who are already working and living in regional Australia. “While subclass 887 visa applicants already hold visas with work rights – either a provisional visa or a bridging visa that allows work, the Government is actively seeking to address this situation, to continue progress made on reducing visa backlogs.” Worker shortages have been such an ongoing issue in the Great Southern that the region’s local governments agreed last year to collectively fund a business case as part of an application for Designated Area Migration Agreement. A successful DAMA application would help alleviate the issue in the long-term for included industries and positions that have shown interest in being part of the agreement.