Expatriation to Australia: border updates

Is the country currently accessible to newcomers?

It is to some but not many.

The current caps on overseas arrivals into Australia are about 5,825 passengers per week.

The PM has recently said that the priority is to get Australian citizens back home and with strict flight caps and mandatory 14-day quarantine on arrival, resources are stretched to the limit.

That will delay any ability to be bringing international students, and other visa applicants to Australia soon because we must use every available <i>quarantine</i> place to get Australians home.

“This is a question of priorities and our priorities must be to look after Australian citizens and residents first”.

There are more than 35,000 Australians still stranded overseas.

Examples of Visa Grant Numbers:
subclass 300 PMV
591 granted in Jan to Mar 2020 (ave 197 per month)
8 granted in Apr to Jun 2020 (ave 3 per month), during COVID.

subclass 309 Partner Visa
1,406 subclass 309s were granted in July 2019.
220 were granted in July 2020 during COVID.

Do you have some visibility about the future of borders in your country of expatriation, in the longer or shorter term?

Western Australia opened its internal borders, to other States in Australia, on Saturday, (after being closed for 222 days) but closed some of them again on Sunday, following the spread of COVID due to an international arrival spreading the virus in South Australia.

I doubt if anyone can be sure of what might happen next, or when.

What about leaving the territory as an expat resident? Will you be able to easily reach Australia if you leave it temporarily?

We need a travel exemption to leave, and then another to return.

No guarantee is given that we will be able to return if we leave.  There are about 35,000 Australians overseas in the queue to come back already.  If we leave we may just get tacked on the end of that lot.

We can't even leave our state and be guaranteed to be allowed back, let alone leave the country.