Australian 2020 – 21 Migration Program Report

The total permanent Migration Program outcome for 2020–21 was 160,052 places.

The breakdown for each of the streams within the Migration Program was as follows:

79,620 places were delivered in the Skill stream;
77,372 places were delivered in the Family stream; and
54 places were delivered in the Special Eligibility stream.
3,006 places were delivered in the Child stream.

For the 2020-21 program year, the Migration Program outcome departed from a two-thirds/one-third split between the Skill and Family streams seen over recent history and moved towards a fifty-fifty split between the streams.

Overall Migration Program lodgements dropped by 9.3 per cent from 174,170 in 2019-20 to 157,989 in 2020-21.

COVID-19 had a major influence on the delivery of the Migration Program in 2020-21. The global impact of COVID-19 saw disruptions to supporting services such as English Language testing, biometrics and health and character checking. The Department took COVID-19 disruptions into account in processing throughout the year, for example in providing extended time periods for applicants to complete requirements where appropriate. The Department focused on finalising grant ready application where possible and in line with priority processing directions. This approach has meant that refusal rates were lower than seen in previous years.

For the Skill stream:

The Employer Sponsored category had an outcome of 23,503 places. Employer Sponsored visas comprised 29.5 per cent of the Skill stream outcome in 2020–21;
The Skilled Independent category had an outcome of 7,213 places (9 per cent);
The Regional category had an outcome of 13,585 places (17 per cent of Skill outcome). Of this, 10,675 places were delivered in Skilled Work Regional and 2,910 places in Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional;
The State/Territory Nominated category had an outcome of 14,268 places (17.9 per cent);
The Business Innovation and Investment Program (BIIP) had an outcome of 11,198 places (14 per cent);
The Global Talent category had an outcome of 9,584 places (12 per cent); and
The Distinguished Talent category had an outcome of 269 places (0.3 per cent).

Applicants were delivered places in the following priority growth sectors:

Digitech (34%)
Health Industries (23%)
Energy (17%)
Financial Services and FinTech (12%)
Resources (7%)
Defence, Advanced Manufacturing and Space (6%)
Agri-food and AgTech (0.9%)
Infrastructure and Tourism (0.4%)
Education (0.3%)
Circular Economy (0.1%)

For the Family stream:

The Partner category had an outcome of 72,376 places. It comprised 93.5 per cent of the 2020-21 Family stream outcome;
The outcome of the Contributory Parent and Non-Contributory Parent categories were 3,600 places and 900 places, respectively, a total of 4500 places; and
The outcome of the Other Family category was 496 places.

Source countries

The largest source citizenship countries of migrants in 2020-21 were: