BABY COME BACK: Aussie borders set to re-open from Dec 1

200,000 visas are up for grabs and F me that's some GREAT news

Let’s face it, 2021 has been an absolute ?shit show? of a year for the majority of us.

COVID, the #qween of ruining plans, reared her ugly head AGAIN and saw another year of us essentially being cut off from each other...and y'know, the rest of the world.

However, in some positive news, our international borders are set to relax a li’l from December 1, as we welcome a bunch of (fully vaxxed) people back onto our shores.

Y’know what this means? Aside from getting to crack open our advent calendars in less than a week, we also get to reconnect and reunite with our nearest and dearest...which is the sweetest pre-Christmas gift of all :’)

So...who's welcome in?

Fully vaccinated international students and eligible visa holders from around the world, as well as tourists from Japan and South Korea will be welcomed back to Australia from December 1. 

This group includes people on a:

• Working Holiday Visa (417)
• Work and Holiday Visa (462)
• Student Visa (500)

What’s the catch?

First of all, you’ve gotta be fully vaccinated (like, duh), and your vaccine has to be approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (also important).

You also have to undertake a pre-departure COVID-19 test (soz) and obtain your foreign vaccination certificate.

Travellers to Australia should also complete an Australia Travel Declaration (ATD) at least 72 hours before departure...just sayin’.

So you want visa?

Bruh, fair enough.

You can apply now for either a Working Holiday visa (417) or Work and Holiday visa (462), so long as you’re from one of these eligible countries (aka you're a passport holder FROM one of these countries):

• Belgium
• Canada
• Republic of Cyprus
• Denmark
• Estonia
• Finland
• France
• Germany
• Hong Kong
• Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China (including British National Overseas passport holders)
• Republic of Ireland
• Italy
• Japan
• Republic of Korea
• Malta
• Netherlands
• Norway
• Sweden
• Taiwan (other than an official or diplomatic passport)
• The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

For the 462 Work and Holiday Visa, passport holders from these countries are also welcome to apply:

• Argentina
• Austria
• Chile
• China, People’s Republic of
• Czech Republic
• Ecuador
• Greece
• Hungary
• Indonesia
• Israel
• Luxembourg
• Malaysia
• Peru
• Poland
• Portugal
• San Marino
• Singapore
• Slovak Republic
• Slovenia
• Spain
• Thailand
• Turkey
• Uruguay
• United States of America
• Vietnam

Okay cool. But how long until I get my visa?

Yeah...about that.

Due to the backlog of Visas throughout COVID, the Visa processing time is a littleeeeeeee longer than normal.

Immigration’s indicator of times are as follows:

Working Holiday visa (417)

• 75% of applications in 85 days
• 90% of applications in 4 months

Work and Holiday visa (462)

• 75% of applications in 90 days
• 90% of applications in 4 months

How many visa places are available?

Around 200,000 places were announced by ScoMo and Co. and these are dispersed between skilled migrants, students and refugees... but MORE could be on the cards.

HOWEVER, there’s a little bit of maths involved.

Currently available are 79,600 places in the skilled visa category, 13,750 in the humanitarian program, yet NO CAP on the number of student visas that can be granted...so that's, like, a lot of students? (I'd give you an actual number but, well, just refer to the 'no cap' comment).

Working holiday visas are also eligible, to give our poor ol’ tourism industry a fkn BOOST.

"These changes are crucially important to Australia as we go through our reopening phase.

We are working on a figure of 200,000, it may well be more than that but we will be actively looking to bring as many people into Australia as soon as we possibly can."

Home Affairs Minister - Karen Andrews

This also means our uni’s will see a surge in vaccinated international students with a valid visa no longer needing an exemption to travel to Australia...meaning 2022 fresher parties are gonna be fresh (after they complete the quarantine arrangements of the state/territory they are travelling to).

In jurisdictions with quarantine-free travel, international students also won’t count towards passenger caps, so that’s cool.

All in all, everything’s coming up Milhouse.