A clogged visa system only rewards the unscrupulous

A growing number of people in Australia are stuck in immigration limbo, writes Doctor Abul Rizvi.

Australia’s visa system is more clogged than ever before. The blockage accelerated about a decade ago and has gotten worse since then. A clogged visa system rewards the unscrupulous who take advantage of slower processing times and pressure on visa processing officers, which can lead to missed cases of fraud and abuse.

A clogged visa system is a function of poor (and sometimes illegal) immigration policy, poor visa design, and inadequate visa processing resources. This also reflects the lack of a long-term migration plan.

bridging visas

The best indicator of a clogged visa system is the number of people receiving bridging visas. These are generally visas issued to land visa applicants whose applications cannot be processed until their permanent visa expires. When bridging visas were first introduced in 1994, it was thought that there would never be more than a few thousand people on these visas.

The more than 400,000 people currently on bridging visas scoff at the notion (see Table 1). Just over 10 years ago there were just over 71,000 bridging visa holders. The reign of the former Minister of Internal Affairs Peter Dutton and Secretary Mike Pezzullo triggered a spectacular increase in the stock of bridging visa holders. Neither of them had any knowledge of how to run an efficient visa system.

Although the New Labor Government briefly attempted to address the bridging visa backlog in 2023, this was short-lived as there was no overarching strategy to continue reducing the backlog. Minor fixes will not fix the clogged system that covers almost all permanent and temporary visa types.

refugees

The gridlock began with the largest labor trafficking scam exploiting the asylum system we have ever seen in Australia. Chart 2 highlights the extraordinary increase in asylum applications from Malaysian and Chinese nationals between 2015-16. Most surprising was that Dutton and Pezzullo did not respond effectively to this scam. their record migration integrity It really sucks.

This increase in asylum applications has gradually led to appeals to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal and the Administrative Review Tribunal (AAT/Tribunal).ART) (see Table 3).

The Labor Government reduced the primary backlog and stabilized ART by pouring more money into asylum; Moreover, despite some restoration of the funding for immigration integration cut by Dutton/Pezzulo, the number of unsuccessful asylum seekers who do not leave the country continues to increase. By the end of September 2025, a staggering 101,081 asylum seekers in Australia were rejected at first stage, 60,023 of whom were also rejected on ART. The total number of asylum seekers in Australia by the end of October 2025 was 128,274.

But this is just the beginning of how clogged the asylum seeker visa system is.

Partner Visas

A lesser known Dutton/Pezzullo scandal was their illegal restriction on the number of partner visa places that by law had to be processed based on demand. The dynamic duo has created an extraordinary backlog of joint visa applications (see Table 4). Former Immigration Minister Hawke cleared this backlog to avoid criticism from the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) audit of joint visa operations, the new Labor Government copied the illegal restrictions put in place by Dutton/Pezzullo (despite clear knowledge that they were illegal).

The limited number of places for partner visas in 2025-26 will see the backlog of applications rise to a staggering 120,000 by mid-2026. The simplest way to clear this backlog is to allocate enough space and sufficient compute resources in the Migration Program. But even if the law requires it, the politics of it are terrible.

COVID – Trigger or opportunity

While border closures due to Covid-19 provided an ideal opportunity to overcome the clogged visa system, the Coalition Government has actually taken steps to worsen the situation. He made policy changes that triggered the massive boom in student, working holidays and COVID visas that gave us net immigration of over 500,000 in 2022-23.

Combined with the strong labor market and the effects of Labour’s slow response to economic growth, the visa system has become even more clogged. Despite Labor’s pledge to reduce the number of temporary residents of Australia, this number has reached a staggering 2.9 million in September 2025, with record or near-record figures:

Bridging visa holders – more than 400,000
New Zealand citizens – more than 700,000
Students – more than 634,000
Temporary graduates – almost 240,000
Qualified temporary participants – more than 233,000
Working holidaymakers – more than 217,000

A significant number of these temporary entrants, other than New Zealand citizens who now have direct access to Australian citizenship, will apply for permanent residence. This will put even more pressure on the limited number of permanent residences available. They permanently become part of the temporary.

The reality is that these temporary residents, especially students who have invested heavily in permanent residence, are not leaving at the rate envisaged by the Treasury. A good example of this is the resistance to the Government’s clumsy efforts to ensure the separation of students applying for further education in Australia. These rejected students are increasingly interested in ART with a high success rate (see Table 5).

After 18 months of tightening student visa policy, the Government has reversed the situation for overseas students applying to attend state universities. We saw a large increase in offshore student visa applications in September 2025 compared to September 2024. This was the first month of 2025 when offshore student visa applications were higher than the previous month. If this continues into October 2025, it will be clear confirmation that student visa policy has been reversed.

The decision to make this repatriation does not appear to have taken into account its impact on net migration or the pressures on the permanent Migration Programme. This reflects the fact that the Government does not have a long-term migration plan or a single minister responsible for delivering it. Current Minister of Immigration Tony Burke seems determined to avoid developing such a plan.

Delays in developing a plan to manage these pressures mean that the gridlock of the system will worsen. Not only does this reward the unscrupulous, it also leaves a growing number of people in Australia stuck in immigration limbo. The Australian public seems unimpressed by this absence. plan.

Doctor Abul Rizvi Independent Australian columnist and a former Deputy Secretary of the Immigration Service. You can follow Abul on Twitter @RizviAbul.

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