Sydney: In a bid to curb report migration, the Australian authorities has doubled visa charges for worldwide college students, growing them by a whopping 125%.
Worldwide visa charges have elevated from A$710 to A$1,600, efficient July 1 (right now). In the meantime, customer visa holders and college students on short-term postgraduate visas are prohibited from making use of for a examine visa within the nation.
“The adjustments coming into impact right now will assist restore integrity to our worldwide schooling system, and create a fairer, smaller and extra responsive immigration system for Australia,” Dwelling Affairs Minister Clare O’Neill stated in a press release.
Official knowledge launched in March confirmed that web migration rose by 60% to a report excessive of 548,800 folks within the 12 months ending September 30, 2023.
The charge improve makes making use of for a pupil visa to Australia far more costly than making use of in competing international locations equivalent to america and Canada, the place the price is round US$185 and Canadian$150 ($110) respectively.
The federal government stated it was additionally working to shut loopholes in visa guidelines that allowed international college students to repeatedly prolong their keep in Australia, after the variety of college students on a second or subsequent pupil visa rose by greater than 30% to greater than 150,000 in 2022-23.
The most recent transfer follows a sequence of measures since late final 12 months to tighten pupil visa guidelines because the lifting of Covid-19 restrictions in 2022 has seen annual immigration rise to report ranges.
English language necessities had been tightened in March, whereas the quantity of financial savings worldwide college students have to acquire a visa was raised in Could to A$29,710 (US$19,823) from A$24,505, the second improve in about seven months.
Universities Australia chief government Luke Sheehy stated continued political stress exerted by the federal government on the sector would jeopardize the nation’s place of energy.
“This isn’t good for our economic system or our universities, each of which rely closely on worldwide pupil charges,” Sheehy stated in an e mail response.
Worldwide schooling is one in all Australia’s largest export industries and was price A$36.4 billion to the economic system within the 2022-23 monetary 12 months.
