Australian Budget Paper Cut Blow to PR Prospects: Permanent Resident Granted after 01 January 2022 Forced to Wait 4 Years for Benefits

As an Australian migrant, one of your biggest dreams might be to become an Australian Permanent Residency Visa holder. Many reasons might urge you to get permanent residency, such as a fantastic education system, better healthcare systems and strong job opportunities.

However, looking at the significant cost-cutting measure included in the Australian federal budget announced on Tuesday, a major blow to Australian Permanent residence is that migrants who will be granted Australian Permanent Residency Visa after 01 January 2022 have to wait for four years for benefits.

Previous Waiting Period for Australia Benefits

Previously, the waiting period to receive welfare payments depended on the migrant’s situation and visa type. The permanent migrants could also access the Family Tax Benefit B immediately, and some visa classes exempted from the waiting period. Additionally, several payments, including the care payment, dad and partner pay, parental leave pay and Family Tax Benefit A, only had a two-year waiting period for migrants.

However, the new measure would bring most of the subsidies and visa classes, including Australian permanent residency visas, in line with the current four-year waiting period to access JobSeeker, Austudy and youth allowance payments.

Read more: 10 Reasons to Migrate to Australia Permanently

Australian Permanent Resident would need to wait for the benefits

A departmental fact sheet showed the measure would apply to migrants granted an Australian permanent residency visa or a relevant temporary visa on 01 January 2022. In addition, the new measure will affect 13,200 future migrants and 45,000 families who arrive in Australia after 01 January 2022 and force them to wait for years for the carer payments and allowances.

Read more: Australian Immigration Program Important Updates for 2021-22 Program Year

Will the cost-cut measure impact you?

It won’t be easy to see whether the measure will impact the Australian permanent residency visa holders and other visa holders. We would still need to see further details, such as to whom the measure applies to and what payments the measure will apply to.

However, if you have been granted an Australian permanent residency visa before 01 January 2022, you might not be impacted by the measure.

In addition, the Committee for Economic Development also recommended the waiting period to newly arrived residents be reduced to six months in order to give skilled migrants a better chance of finding employment.

If you wish to check your eligibility for an Australian permanent residency visa, please contact us via email at  [email protected] or via phone on 1300 827 159.

ONE derland Consulting is here to help you!

We understand that applying for an Australian Permanent Residency visa to Australia is certainly very complicated. It is even more challenging during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our visa specialists at ONEderland Consulting will help you assess your visa options. We have a 98% success rate and one of the most highly recommended migration agents in Australia. Read our 4.9* score customer reviews.

We are complex visa specialists. As registered Australian migration agents with the Migration Agents Registration Authority (MARA), we are regulated in our professional practice and bound by the profession’s Code of Conduct issued by the Migration Agents Registration Authority.

Take the first step and get in touch with us. Our team members are professional, honest and speak various languages such as Mandarin/ Chinese, Bahasa Indonesia, Arabic, Japanese, Polish, German and Russian. Contact us through email at [email protected] or via phone at 1300 827 159. Alternatively, you may book your consultation online, and it is 100% refundable if you become our client.