Ending ‘visa hopping’ 澳洲再出新规限制“跳签”

A key commitment in the Migration Strategy, released last year, was to restrict ‘visa hopping’ - ending the loopholes that allow students and other temporary visa holders to continuously extend their stay in Australia, in some cases indefinitely.

As noted in the Migration Strategy, the numbers of international students staying in Australia on a second, or subsequent student visa has grown by over 30 per cent to more than 150,000 in 2022–23.

Peter McDonald, a renowned Australian demographer, recently said that severely curtailing visa hopping by accepting fewer visa applications from people already in the country would better manage population growth than cuts to the permanent migration intake.

The Government has already taken action to address this, by using no further stay conditions on visitor visas and through the Genuine Student requirement implemented in March which has stopped thousands of students from hopping from student visa to student visa unless there is credible course progression. This complements more than a dozen other policies already implemented that are helping restore integrity in the international student system, such as ending unrestricted work rights and the former Government’s COVID visa.

On 1 July, the Albanese Government is taking this a step further.

Firstly, Visitor Visa holders will not be able to apply for Student Visas onshore. The visitor to student pathway has become increasingly prevalent, with over 36,000 applications since 1 July 2023 to the end of May 2024.

This measure closes a pathway that has been used to attempt to subvert the Government’s strengthened offshore student visa integrity measures.

Secondly, Temporary Graduate Visa holders will not be able to apply for Student Visas onshore. In their recent Graduates in Limbo report, the Grattan Institute found that 32 per cent of Temporary Graduate Visa holders are returning to study when their visa expires in order to prolong their stay in Australia.

This change makes it clear that graduates should be finding skilled jobs and becoming permanent residents, or departing the country when they are more likely to become ‘permanently temporary’.

These changes support a range of other changes that are being implemented for Temporary Graduate visa holders on 1 July. These include significantly shorter post-study work rights, reduced age limits from 50 to 35 years of age, and increased English language requirements which were implemented in March.

Together, these changes will continue to reduce net overseas migration, with the Government on-track to halve net overseas migration by next financial year.

澳洲政府又出新规了，这次受影响的是跳签（visa hopping）。

澳洲政府早在去年发布的《移民战略》中，就有一项关键承诺是限制“跳签” — 弥补允许学生和其他临时签证持有者不断延长在澳大利亚逗留时间的漏洞。因此已经采取了一些行为来应对这一问题，比如：不再对访客签证附加任何停留条件；通过 3 月份实施的真正学生要求（the Genuine Student requirement），阻止了数千名学生在课程进展不佳的情况下从一个学生签证跳到另一个学生签证；其他还有诸如终止不受限制的工作权利和前政府的 COVID 签证。

 7 月 1 日，针对限制“跳签”行为阿尔巴尼斯政府将采取进一步措施。首先，限制访客签证持有者。访客签证持有人将无法在境内申请学生签证。自2023年7月1日至2024年5月底，访客转学生的路径变得越来越普遍，有超过36,000份申请。其次，限制临时毕业生签证。临时毕业生签证持有人将无法在境内申请学生签证。Grattan Institute在最近的《毕业生困境》报告中发现，32% 的临时毕业生签证持有人在签证到期后会重续学业，以延长在澳大利亚的逗留时间。

 这些政策调整也与7月1日起实施的针对毕业生签证的新变化相呼应，包括：显著减少的毕业后工作权利，年龄限制从50岁降至35岁，以及自3月起实施的更高的英语语言要求。总体来看，这些变化将继续减少净海外移民，有望在下一个财政年度将净海外移民减少一半。

这些变化明确表明了政府的新态度：毕业生应寻找技术性工作并成为永久居民或当极可能成为“永久性临时”状态时要离开澳洲。