On September 17, Australian Home Minister Tony Burke announced that his country will limit visa conversion, tighten regulations for overseas students, workers combining vacations and overstayers.
Official data shows that the net number of immigrants to Australia has decreased from a record 538,000 people in 2022 to 292,100 people from March 2025 to March this year.
Mr. Burke said this level is 47% lower than the post-COVID-19 peak. According to him, policy adjustments will help Australia achieve its goal of reducing to 225,000 immigrants next year to reduce infrastructure pressure.
We need to cool down the immigration rate so that the housing market has time to recover and catch up with demand," Mr. Burke emphasized.
Currently, international students are the largest immigrant group in Australia, with 753,000 people, mainly from China and India.
According to the new roadmap, relatives accompanying international students will face more barriers, and international students will be tightened the transition back and forth between courses only for the purpose of extending their stay.
For work visas combined with vacations, the government will apply a random draw for those who want to extend them to the second or third year, and negotiate with the UK to resolve the record backlog of dossiers.
Australia also restored its policy requiring visa-expired people to leave the country within two weeks if they do not want to be detained and deported, adding 100 inspectors and 250 seats at immigrant detention centers.
Conversely, Canberra will prioritize visa appraisal for skilled workers in the construction industry to accelerate the pace of housing construction.
