‘I’m not asking for special treatment’: the would-be migrants waiting to start their new lives in Australia

Source: The Guardian Australia · 2026-11-06T14:00:46.000Z · Politics

Reducing ‘net overseas migration’ has become a national preoccupation. What does it mean for the people waiting to come in? Sign up for a weekly email featuring our best reads Each year, tens of thousands of people put their hand up to start a new life in Australia. Partners of Australians, family members of citizens and skilled workers lodge visa applications and pay thousands of dollars in the hope of being granted the right to live in the country. Now they have found themselves at the centre of the country’s heated debate over migration. As part of the push to drive down net overseas migration (Nom) numbers, in July the home affairs minister, Tony Burke, made a bureaucratic tweak to the Australian visa system. He directed his department to process applications for certain visas lodged from within Australia over those lodged overseas. In the short term this helps to reduce net overseas migration (Nom), because granting a visa to an applicant already in Australia doesn’t add to Nom. Continue reading...

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