Processing on-hand visa applications is a government priority. We are working to reduce the time it takes to finalise visa applications. We are increasing the number of staff processing applications, and we will continue to bring more staff on board to perform this critical work.
We are prioritising the processing of visas lodged by people outside of Australia, including temporary skilled, student and visitor visas. This is to make sure more people can travel to Australia to fill the critical skill shortages across the country.
Actions taken to improve processing times
We have focused resources on visa processing. This includes recruiting new staff.
We have reallocated staff to focus on offshore skilled, student and visitor visas so that more people can travel to Australia.
We are reviewing our processes. Wherever we can we aim to streamline the processing of applications without compromising program integrity.
When will things improve?
We expect that processing times will improve in the coming months.
Visa processing times are published on our website as new data is available.
We have a large number of older cases on-hand as well as increasing numbers of new applications. We are working through these as quickly as possible.
Processing times are currently impacted by those older applications, but this will improve once we have worked through them.
Median processing times for key programs
The information below shows the median visa processing times for key visa categories. This is the most accurate way to show the amount of time it is taking most visa applications to be finalised.
Visa processing times vary between different visas within these categories, and in some cases it may take longer for those visas to be finalised.
Processing Times* by client location - 50 percent (median)
| | August 2022 |
|---|
| Visa Program | Visa Category | In Australia | Outside Australia |
|---|
| Permanent | Skilled (Permanent) Partner (First Stage) | 5 Months 9 Months | 5 Months 14 Months |
| Temporary | Skilled (Temporary) Student Visitor Working Holiday Maker | 3 Months
5 Months
4 Months
45 Days
| 46 Days 44 Days 3 Days Less than 1 Day |
* Processing times are aggregate calculations for the category, ie: a number of different subclasses sit under each category.
How to view processing times
If you have made a visa application you can check processing times information using our visa
processing times guide.
Information on visa processing times for visas is updated regularly as new data is available.
Processing times are available for most visas.
Information is not available for:
- visas that are closed to new entrants
- family visas that are capped and queued
- visas that have too few decisions in the month to provide a reliable indicator of processing time.
To help ensure applications are processed as quickly as possible, submit your application with all necessary supporting documents. The checklists provided on
ImmiAccount will help in making sure you include all required documents in your application.
