Australia’s parent visa queue has grown to 157,000 applications, exposing the scale of pressure across parts of the country’s migration system and leaving many families facing waits that stretch well beyond a decade.
New Department of Home Affairs figures show the number of parent visa applications on hand has risen by about 52,000 over the past six years. With the annual intake capped at 8,500 places, the queue continues to grow as new applications outpace the number of visas granted.
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke acknowledged the challenge this week, saying, “There are no easy solutions.”
The figures highlight one of the most persistent bottlenecks in Australia’s migration programme. Parent visas remain subject to a fixed annual allocation, meaning applicants cannot be granted a visa until a place becomes available, regardless of how long they have already waited.
Families seeking a Contributory Parent Visa, which requires a much higher upfront payment, currently face a median wait of about 15 years. Those applying through the lower-cost non-contributory stream face waits of around 33 years.
For many Indian-Australian families, the delays affect decisions about caring for ageing parents, raising children with the support of grandparents and planning long-term family life in Australia.
Assistant Minister for Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs Julian Hill has urged families to consider alternatives rather than relying solely on permanent parent visas. “Not every person who seeks to bring their parents on a permanent visa is ever going to be able to do that,” Mr Hill said, pointing to longer-stay temporary parent visa options that allow families to spend extended periods together.
The future structure of the programme remains under consideration. An expert panel commissioned under former Home Affairs minister Clare O’Neil recommended replacing the current queue with a ballot system similar to those used in New Zealand and Canada, although the government has yet to announce whether it will adopt that proposal.
While parent visas are constrained by annual limits, partner visas operate under a different system. Eligible couples can apply at any time, but lengthy processing times have created delays of their own.
Department of Home Affairs data show the temporary partner visa stage, covering Subclasses 820 and 309, now takes a median of about 17 months to process. When combined with the permanent stage, most applicants wait between three and four years from lodgement to permanent residency.
The department reduced partner visa applications on hand by 15 per cent by December 2025, suggesting processing has improved. Even so, waiting times continue to vary depending on the quality of evidence submitted, the complexity of individual cases and whether applicants are asked to provide additional information.
Partner visa processing also came under scrutiny during a 2025 review by the Australian National Audit Office, which examined whether the programme was meeting legislative requirements and ministerial priorities.
Student visas have moved in the opposite direction.
After the department introduced automated processing for lower-risk applications in March this year, median processing times fell to about 19 days by May, down from 74 days before the changes. More than 90 per cent of higher education student visa applications from low-risk providers are now processed within one month.
The improvement reflects a policy decision to keep Australia’s international education sector operating with faster and more predictable visa processing.
Employer-sponsored skilled migration has also recorded relatively quick processing in some categories following the introduction of the Skills in Demand visa.
Applications under the Specialist Skills stream are among the fastest in the migration programme, with a quarter finalised within 10 days and 90 per cent completed within 40 days. The Essential Skills stream has a median processing time of about 70 days.
Permanent employer-sponsored visas take longer. The Direct Entry stream of the Subclass 186 visa finalises 90 per cent of applications within seven months, while the Temporary Residence Transition stream reaches the same point in about eight months.
The department has reported that employer-sponsored applications awaiting a decision have more than tripled compared with pre-pandemic levels.
Processing times for permanent skilled visas remain mixed. Half of Skilled Independent Subclass 189 applications are completed within five to six months, with 90 per cent finalised within a year. Skilled Nominated Subclass 190 applications take longer, reaching a median of 14 months and 90 per cent completion within 18 months.
Regional skilled visas show even greater variation. Half of state-sponsored Subclass 491 applications are processed within four months, although more complex cases can extend to almost two years. The family-sponsored version of the visa is slower again.
Across all visa categories, the Department of Home Affairs was managing about 425,000 applications awaiting a decision by the middle of 2025, roughly 125,000 more than before the pandemic.
The impact is felt differently across the migration programme. Family visa applicants continue to face the longest waits, while skilled migration processing varies according to occupation, employer sponsorship, state nomination and government processing priorities.
For Australia’s Indian community, now the country’s largest overseas-born population at about 971,000 people, those waiting periods affect family reunification, partner migration and the path from temporary to permanent residency.
Mr Burke’s assessment that “There are no easy solutions” reflects the challenge facing the migration programme. The figures also show the backlog has continued to build over many years, leaving thousands of families waiting far longer than they once expected.
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