Australia is Planning to Launch Mandatory Provisional Visas: A pathway to Permanent Residency

The visa holders coming to Australia will have to reside in the country for a specific period under the mandatory provisional visas prior to seeking a permanent residency. The possibilities of this plan are discussed by the Australian Immigration Department in a recently published Visa Transformation Discussion Paper.

The most essential question, which is under consideration by the paper, is as follows.

“Should a prospective migrant spend a period of time in Australia before becoming eligible for permanent residence? What factors should be considered?”

The following paragraph relates to the discussion paper published on Monday.

“The number of persons in Australia applying for permanent residence has grown substantially over the last two decades. In 2015-16, around half of all permanent visas were granted to people already in Australia on a temporary visa.  This means that temporary residence is increasingly becoming the first step to living in Australia permanently,”

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The arguments placed in the favor of mandatory provisional visas include “National Interest” as well as the need to facilitate eligible and best candidates (Skilled or Students) to seek permanent residence. There are numerous permanent visa categories where visa holders need not to spend particular period in Australia before requesting for the granted of permanent residence.

The discussion paper makes this a valid point, as such policies are inconsistent with the “like-minded countries like the US, Netherlands and UK. These countries follow strict assessment procedure and do ask for the requirement of a certain period of stay to seek permanent residence. Although the introduction of this kind of probationary period will ensure more savings in the budget, however, there is a certain degree of skepticism that it would cause a division in the society.

The Social Services Department shared some thoughts in a note prepared previous year while discussing this move with the DIBP boss Michael Pezzullo.

“The proposed reforms could undermine Australia’s social cohesion and potentially increase the risk factors that may lead to violent extremism by creating a two-tier society where migrants are treated substantially differently to Australian citizens.”

The Visa Transformation Discussion Paper is there to revamp Australian visa system. The visa system of the country is termed as “an artifact of a bygone era” and considered “ill-suited for the future”. Therefore, some sort of extensive alterations are proposed, which include severing the existing count of visa categories from 99 to at least 10. In addition, the visa system needs to be flexible enough so that Australian government may swiftly react to the global as well as local trends.