Latest Australian Immigration States News 2023-2024 | Updates General Skilled Migration Australia

Latest Australian Immigration States News 2023-2024 | Updates General Skilled Migration Australia
Migration Program planning levels
2023­-24 permanent Migration Program
On 9 May 2023, the Australian Government announced that the planning level for the 2023-24 permanent Migration Program will be set at 190,000 places.
The Government has designed the 2023-24 permanent Migration Program to address persistent and emerging skills shortages and to attract people with specialist skillsets that are difficult to find or develop in Australia.
While Australia is building the domestic pipeline of highly skilled workers, the permanent Migration Program will help:
build resilience
boost productivity
support our economy as it transitions to net-zero emissions.
The 2023-24 permanent Migration Program also recognises the strong contribution all migrants make to social cohesion. It focuses on strengthening family and community bonds in Australia. It also demonstrates the Government’s commitment to family reunification.
The permanent Migration Program will help address the challenges of an ageing population. Migration reduces the average age of the population and slows the rate of population ageing. This is because migrants are, on average, younger than the existing Australian population.
A well-targeted, skills focussed Migration Program supplements the cohort of working-age people. It helps boost participation rates and the size of the labour force.
The 2023-24 permanent Migration Program has the following composition:
Skill stream (137,100 places, approximately 72 per cent of the program) - This stream has been designed to improve the productive capacity of the economy and fill skill shortages in the labour market, including those in regional Australia.
Family stream (52,500 places, approximately 28 per cent of the program) - This stream is predominantly made up of Partner visas, enabling Australians to reunite with family members from overseas and provide them with pathways to citizenship. Of this stream:
40,500 Partner visas are estimated for 2023-24 for planning purposes, noting this category is demand driven and not subject to a ceiling
3000 Child visas are estimated for 2023-24 for planning purposes, noting this category is demand driven and not subject to a ceiling.
Special Eligibility stream (400 places) - This stream covers visas for those in special circumstances, including permanent residents returning to Australia after a period overseas.
2023-24 permanent Migration Program planning levels
The 2023-24 permanent Migration Program has been set at the pre-COVID planning level of 190,000.
This is a slight reduction of 5000 places compared with the 2022-23 permanent Migration Program planning level of 195,000 places.
Skilled Independent visa category
The 2023-24 permanent Migration Program has allocated 30,375 places for Skilled Independent visas. This is comparable to the 2022-23 program allocation of 32,100 places.
The smaller planning level for this category in 2023-24 reflects the closure of the New Zealand stream of the subclass 189 (Skilled - Independent) visa from 1 July 2023. This is due to a new direct pathway to citizenship for Special Category Visa holders who meet citizenship eligibility requirements.
Business Innovation and Investment Program (BIIP) visa category
The Government has reduced the planning level for the BIIP from 5000 visas in 2022-23 to 1900 visas for the 2023-24 permanent Migration Program.
Reducing the planning level for BIIP will ensure the 2023-24 permanent Migration Program has a greater focus on addressing immediate workforce shortages. It will continue to provide places to those business and investor migrants who can best contribute to Australia’s economic growth. It will also provide places to entrepreneur migrants whose innovations can increase the productivity of Australian businesses.
Global Talent visa category
The 2023-24 permanent Migration Program has maintained 5000 places for the Global Talent Visa Program.
Retaining the planning level ensures that while the permanent Migration Program focuses on addressing persistent skill shortages, we maintain our status as a competitive and preferred destination to internationally mobile exceptional talent.
Family stream
The Government has maintained the size of the family stream. Family migration is an important element of Australia’s migration system. It allows Australian citizens and permanent residents to reunite with their family members and contribute to stronger social cohesion outcomes. The Australian Government recognises that immigrant parents can make valuable social contributions to their families and local communities.
The Partner visa category is the largest within the family stream. From 2022-23, the Partner program moved to a demand driven model which:
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