Australia’s Labor government announced new immigration regulations targeting backpackers, families of international students, and visa overstayers, aiming to reduce visa overstaying.
Enforcement includes converting a former Melbourne quarantine facility into a detention center and hiring 100 additional immigration compliance officers to ensure foreign nationals without valid visas leave Australia.
Ministerial directions will prioritize visa applications for skilled workers in healthcare, construction, education, law enforcement, defense, resources, agriculture, aquaculture, and fishing.
Most international students will no longer be allowed to bring dependants or family members. Last year, Australia issued more than 337,000 international student visas, including about 45,000 to dependants.
Visitor
visas will have a new “no further stay” condition, restricting onshore visa extensions and preventing visa hopping. Penalties for migration agents involved in visa fraud will increase.
Backpacker visa rules will introduce a ballot system for second and third-year applications, requiring regional work commitments. This change responds to backpacker numbers exceeding pre-pandemic levels and concerns from the agriculture sector about workforce shortages.
Working holiday visa processing offshore will be stabilized at three months; onshore applications typically take five days. UK working holidaymakers, numbering nearly 80,000—more than double the pre-pandemic peak of 35,000—are exempt from caps and regional work requirements under
the Australia-UK free trade agreement.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics reported net overseas migration fell from 299,000 in December 2025 to 292,000 in the year to March 2026. The government aims to reduce net overseas migration to 245,000 in 2026-27 and 225,000 in 2027-28.
The announcement drew mixed reactions. Business Chamber of Australia CEO Bran Black welcomed the emphasis on skilled workers but expressed concerns over processing delays. The Asylum Seeker Resource Centre criticized unclear asylum seeker time restrictions, noting ongoing political vulnerability. Political opponents described the changes as regressive, recalling previous conservative-era policies.
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke spoke
at the National Press Club about the reforms. He said, “The government supports immigration but is opposed to anyone rorting the immigration system.” Burke added, “Almost everyone who comes to Australia is a good guest in our country. These reforms are to ensure that our migration system can be better targeted to the current needs of Australia.” He described the detention facility: “This is not the sort of operation that some people have seen on TV happening in other countries.” On visa practices, he criticized inconsistency, stating, “Once they get here, and if they apply onshore, the process has been
that they stay, and they’re [put] on a bridging visa,” calling it “a double standard that really has no logic attached to it.”
