Australia has decided to temporarily waive the visa application fees for international students and backpackers.
The move from Prime Minister Scott Morrison is considered a step to address workforce shortages across Australia.
Morrison has revealed the $630 student visa application fee will be waived for eight weeks from Wednesday. Working backpackers will get the visa application fees waiver for the next 12 weeks.
The announcement was made at a time when critical industries struggle to retain staff through the latest COVID-19 outbreak, which has forced tens of thousands of workers to isolate themselves after exposure to the virus.
Waiving those visa application fees is a “thank you” to international students and backpackers “for coming back and continuing to choose Australia,” Morrison said.
“But we also want them to come here and be able to be filling some of these critical workforce shortages, particularly those who are working and being trained in healthcare, aged care, those types of sectors. That will be incredibly helpful,” he said.
Morrison hoped changes to the visa application fees of an estimated 175,000 students and working holidaymakers would make a “big difference” to the current workforce situation.
Australia has been witnessing massive workforce shortages, particularly in the health and aged care sectors. There are widespread concerns that more than half of all residential aged care centres in Australia will have COVID-19 outbreaks by the end of the week. Victoria has also announced a ‘Code Brown’ COVID emergency as more than 4,000 healthcare staff have been sent on leave due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Last week, Australia updated temporary visa rules, allowing visa holders to work more hours than normal conditions.
New South Wales and Victoria now allow fully vaccinated overseas arrivals to enter without quarantining; Queensland still imposes a 14-day mandatory quarantine period.
